It’s possible. If it had been January 1948 instead of January 1978, Sasquatch probably would have appeared live on the stage of the RKO Madison Theater, along with a film about “Sasquatch” being shown.
Lost Memory, Ridgewood Bill a bucket of sludge ? How about a real-life “Toxic Avenger” ?
RobertR, the only “twinning” of the Ridgewood I was aware of was in mid-June 1980, when it was showing the film “Friday The 13th” in its balcony, and a boxing match on closed-circuit TV on the orchestra level.
mikemovies, I think that other crank case was either “Ridgewood Bill”, who thought he was God, or Fast Eddy, a troll who liked to brag about having had sex with the corpse of Mae West in the balcony of the RKO Madison Theater, after it had closed.
That’s good, BklynJim, I’m glad I mentioned both Chaney Jr. films.
More power to you, BklynJim, on “Dark Days”. In November 1981 I went with a date to a play called “Care Of Penn Station”, about bag ladies living in the tunnels under Penn Station. The seats the characters sat on were tied bundles of discarded newspapers. I saw it at the Troupe Theater, an off-off-off Bway venue near 39th St. and 11th Avenue. Good show ! They also did “The Picture Of Dorian Gray”, and “Meat Room”, a psychological thriller set in a butcher shop.
The Belvedere is now a church, the United Church Of Christ, or something similar. I last walked past it Saturday, July 1st, 2006. In summer 1998, the theme of its Vacation Bible School for kids was “To Eternity … And Beyond !”, based on Buzz Light Year’s “To infinity … and beyond !” from the Disney Pixar “Toy Story” movies.
The Belvedere is located on the south side of Myrtle Avenue, in Glendale, just west of Cypress Hills Street.
“Anyway, I think that ad is from January 1978. A few of us think that the RKO Madison closed around that time, maybe February would be a closer date.”
No. I remember that, on the last Saturday in February 1978, the RKO Madison Theater had been closed for about a month, was already a derelict ruin, with that sign on the front, that I have mentioned before, saying :
THIS IS HOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STARTS TO DECAY !
IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, CALL : (phone # for neighborhod action group)
Yes, Lost Memory, that’s exactly what Suzie Plaster Caster did. Bricks with a “P” ! (External) plumbing of a sort, though some will be mortar-fied at the thought of it !
REMINDER : The “cranky fella” does NOT run or own this site. Let him get on your case; you will have a “crank-case”, maybe start your own show on PBS : “This Old Crank Case”, if you can stand the “cruel and unusual PUN-ishment”.
I wouldn’t want the Ridgewood page cleaned of all the off-topic stuff. Also, in the process of reading and weeding through it, Bryan might become fascinated by the off-topic ramblings and musings of us Ridgewoodites, and, instead of getting rid of it, might want to memorialize it as an amazing “cyber-wailing wall” by-product of the Ridgewood Theater page ! Sort of like a spy “going native”, and becoming part of the culture he or she was assigned to spy on.
Have you ever wondered WHY it was the Ridgewood Theater page, and not that of some other theater (the Curran Theater in San Francisco comes to mind) that became so huge, and attracted all that off-topic discussion ?
To help answer this question, perhaps we need, or should have, a bar graph comparing the sizes of the 20 or 50 or so largest Cinema Treasures site pages.
EdSolero, thanks for the info on Barney Miller. What did your uncle think about “Night Court” ?
Yes. It’s like what has been said about churches : the church is not, first and foremost, a building. The building is where the church meets. The church is really a faith community of people.
“I mean, I’d hardly argue that the Cinema City 5 in Fresh Meadows or B.S. Moss' Movieworld in Douglaston should be considered a treasure!”
The important thing is, I think, is that they both show movies. In fifty years, they may be as much “cinema treasures” to the people who are then posting on this site, who saw movies there as kids, as the Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theaters are to us now.
“The site has become an invaluable source of information.”
Bway, I agree, and it is information that is not readily available elsewhere. I have re-established face-to-face contact with one old friend, and have made a new one, who, like the old friend, went back decades into my family history, as a direct result of this site, and of this Ridgewood Theater page.
The size of this page, and the in-depth nature of many of the comments, is a direct testimony to the size and endurance of the cyber-community of Ridgewood Theater patrons, both past and present.
Yes, like it or not, the mega-plexes ARE, for better or worse, where most people see movies nowadays, and should be discussed here, as well as the older movie houses that so many of us are so openly nostalgic about. Some of the mega-plexes may only be “concrete bunkers at the end of the shopping mall”, as Jay Leno once so aptly put it, but, because they are in the shopping mall, they are an important part of today’s communities, especially those of teenagers and younger people.
I was pleasantly surprised when I visited the Atlas Park Shopping Mall in Glendale, Queens, along with its 8-plex cinema, this past July 15th. I felt like I was in a brand-new shopping mall in the college town of Davis, California. The cinema, rather than a concrete bunker, was on the second floor level, reached by stairs, escalator, and elevators, and had (to me) aesthetically pleasing inner and outer lobbies, the former having a pleasing elliptical shape, reminiscent of the elliptical lobby of the original balcony of the Ridgewood Theater.
Precisely because of how valuable the information on this site is, I don’t think ANY theater should be deleted from it.
Thanks for the John Agar story, BklynJim. It was great how he came alive when you talked to him, but sad how he sank back into depression and dejection after you were done talking with him.
I’m reminded of what I noticed right away when my dad had to begin living in a nursing home in May 1997 : all the time that most of the residents there spend staring into space and DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING !
As with John Agar at that convention, what a waste of good memories, the wisdom that comes with age, and experience !
“BTW, in your honor last night, I watched the ubiquitous Whit Bissell AND John Agar in "Creature From the Black Lagoon” (‘54) and “Attack of the Puppet People” ('58), respectively. I ask you, good sir: What would all CT’s architectural triumphs and losers, all these grand palaces and “itch” dives, all these proverbial “Orchids and Onions” be without all the wonderful, scary, funny, sad, colorful, dark, amazing films to be viewed in? I suspect that they’d be extremely hollow and haunted…"
Thanks, BklynJim ! I AM honored, believe me ! I last saw “Creature” in Sept. 2000, but haven’t seen “Puppet People” since I first saw it on ABC’s “The Big Show”, sometime from fall 1963 to spring 1965.
You’ve seen John Agar in “Brain From Planet Arous” ?
Your rhetorical question, “What would theaters be without movies ?” reminds me of a similar question in “Famous Monsters Of Filmland”, “If theaters didn’t show movies, would people still go there to eat popcorn and drink Coke ?”
How about Whit Bissell as newspaper columnist Otis Elwell in CBS Playhouse 90’s “The Comedian”, original air date February 1957, written by Rod Serling, his third Emmy ?
Last night watched Ned Glass and Stanley Adams (Oh no ! Not them again !!!) in similar VHS of kinescope of the original “Requiem For A Heavyweight”. Not to mention Maxie “Slapsie” Rosenbloom !
What would theaters be without movies ? I recommend the Clive Barker short story, “Son Of Celluloid”, from “The Books Of Blood” (1987)for further exploration of this question.
Thanks, EdSolero !
Good and interesting response, BklynJim. Thanks.
It’s possible. If it had been January 1948 instead of January 1978, Sasquatch probably would have appeared live on the stage of the RKO Madison Theater, along with a film about “Sasquatch” being shown.
I did not see the boxing match, and so cannot comment on the state of the orchestra level on Tuesday, June 17, 1980 : whether or not it was undivided.
Lost Memory, Ridgewood Bill a bucket of sludge ? How about a real-life “Toxic Avenger” ?
RobertR, the only “twinning” of the Ridgewood I was aware of was in mid-June 1980, when it was showing the film “Friday The 13th” in its balcony, and a boxing match on closed-circuit TV on the orchestra level.
mikemovies, I think that other crank case was either “Ridgewood Bill”, who thought he was God, or Fast Eddy, a troll who liked to brag about having had sex with the corpse of Mae West in the balcony of the RKO Madison Theater, after it had closed.
That’s good, BklynJim, I’m glad I mentioned both Chaney Jr. films.
More power to you, BklynJim, on “Dark Days”. In November 1981 I went with a date to a play called “Care Of Penn Station”, about bag ladies living in the tunnels under Penn Station. The seats the characters sat on were tied bundles of discarded newspapers. I saw it at the Troupe Theater, an off-off-off Bway venue near 39th St. and 11th Avenue. Good show ! They also did “The Picture Of Dorian Gray”, and “Meat Room”, a psychological thriller set in a butcher shop.
I don’t know if it’s Holy Rollers, or what kind of church it is, BklynJim. I’ve never been inside the Belvedere since it’s been a church.
Thanks for the Squeamy Ellis and Joe Marcelli correction. I mistook LA for SF because of the steep hill.
Did I mention the similarity of Chaney Jr.’s roles in “The Indestructible Man” and “The Electric Man” ?
If you need a Ridgewood Bilge transfusion to tone down your SoCal tan, let me know. The stuff runs in my veins.
“Hollywood’s a nice place to live … if you’re a grapefruit !"
– Rod Serling, 1959
The Belvedere is now a church, the United Church Of Christ, or something similar. I last walked past it Saturday, July 1st, 2006. In summer 1998, the theme of its Vacation Bible School for kids was “To Eternity … And Beyond !”, based on Buzz Light Year’s “To infinity … and beyond !” from the Disney Pixar “Toy Story” movies.
The Belvedere is located on the south side of Myrtle Avenue, in Glendale, just west of Cypress Hills Street.
Yes, and also in “I Was a Teenage Frankenstein”, perhaps his best line ever :
“Speak ! You have a civil tongue in your head ! I know ! I sewed it there !”
Correction : I saw Whit Bissell in “Airport” the evening of Sunday August 6th.
“PK, can’t ascertain if you got lucky over the weekend or if you’re low on meds…”
Neither ! I saw Whit Bissell in “The Manchurian Candidate” !
And you thought I’d gotten Plaster of Paris up my urethra, courtesy of Suzie Plaster Caster ! No such f … er, luck !
Is The Popcorn Palace related to PeeWee’s Playhouse ?
“Anyway, I think that ad is from January 1978. A few of us think that the RKO Madison closed around that time, maybe February would be a closer date.”
No. I remember that, on the last Saturday in February 1978, the RKO Madison Theater had been closed for about a month, was already a derelict ruin, with that sign on the front, that I have mentioned before, saying :
THIS IS HOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STARTS TO DECAY !
IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, CALL : (phone # for neighborhod action group)
EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED !
Yes, Lost Memory, that’s exactly what Suzie Plaster Caster did. Bricks with a “P” ! (External) plumbing of a sort, though some will be mortar-fied at the thought of it !
REMINDER : The “cranky fella” does NOT run or own this site. Let him get on your case; you will have a “crank-case”, maybe start your own show on PBS : “This Old Crank Case”, if you can stand the “cruel and unusual PUN-ishment”.
Lost, what about the groupie, Suzie Plaster Caster ?
Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper ? I remember him well. He was “Leade Of The Pack”.
Remember Sandy Becker’s routine, “Leader Of The Laundromat” ?
“Greetings, all you most eloquent and prosaic Ridgewood Rascals…”
Oh, is that what we are ? I like the name, a worthy successor to NY’s own “Young Rascals” :
“How can I be sure, on a site that’s constantly changing ?”
I thought Phil Silvers was Sergeant Bilko.
“And I do like your "Ridgewood Theatre II” (the voyage home) concept. Who out there would ever know? Or care? Classic!"
I would, and I said so, above.
“a box of band aids and a can of WD40”
If that, or duct tape, doesn’t work, put a little Windex on it !
What about Al Lewis as Schnauzer ?
“Call it, Ridgewood Theater II, the voyage home!”
Good one, Lost ! Are you a Star Trek fan ?
“They” ?
“We love ‘they’ !"
"And we want you to love ‘they’ too !”
“We Love You”, Jagger-Richards, August 1967.
Flip side of “Dandelion”, the first Stones tune I dug, around Labor Day 1967.
I wouldn’t want the Ridgewood page cleaned of all the off-topic stuff. Also, in the process of reading and weeding through it, Bryan might become fascinated by the off-topic ramblings and musings of us Ridgewoodites, and, instead of getting rid of it, might want to memorialize it as an amazing “cyber-wailing wall” by-product of the Ridgewood Theater page ! Sort of like a spy “going native”, and becoming part of the culture he or she was assigned to spy on.
Have you ever wondered WHY it was the Ridgewood Theater page, and not that of some other theater (the Curran Theater in San Francisco comes to mind) that became so huge, and attracted all that off-topic discussion ?
To help answer this question, perhaps we need, or should have, a bar graph comparing the sizes of the 20 or 50 or so largest Cinema Treasures site pages.
EdSolero, thanks for the info on Barney Miller. What did your uncle think about “Night Court” ?
Sorry I forgot about “Basic Instinct II”.
For the Curran Theater in San Francisco, contact Detective Nick Curran, SFPD.
That is, of course, if Catherine Tramell hasn’t ice-picked him to death yet out of “Basic Instinct”. LOL.
It’s beginning to seem like we need a separate page to accomodate our discussion of current and potential over-posting problems on this site.
Yes. It’s like what has been said about churches : the church is not, first and foremost, a building. The building is where the church meets. The church is really a faith community of people.
Thank you, EdSolero. I agree with you completely.
“I mean, I’d hardly argue that the Cinema City 5 in Fresh Meadows or B.S. Moss' Movieworld in Douglaston should be considered a treasure!”
The important thing is, I think, is that they both show movies. In fifty years, they may be as much “cinema treasures” to the people who are then posting on this site, who saw movies there as kids, as the Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theaters are to us now.
“The site has become an invaluable source of information.”
Bway, I agree, and it is information that is not readily available elsewhere. I have re-established face-to-face contact with one old friend, and have made a new one, who, like the old friend, went back decades into my family history, as a direct result of this site, and of this Ridgewood Theater page.
The size of this page, and the in-depth nature of many of the comments, is a direct testimony to the size and endurance of the cyber-community of Ridgewood Theater patrons, both past and present.
Yes, like it or not, the mega-plexes ARE, for better or worse, where most people see movies nowadays, and should be discussed here, as well as the older movie houses that so many of us are so openly nostalgic about. Some of the mega-plexes may only be “concrete bunkers at the end of the shopping mall”, as Jay Leno once so aptly put it, but, because they are in the shopping mall, they are an important part of today’s communities, especially those of teenagers and younger people.
I was pleasantly surprised when I visited the Atlas Park Shopping Mall in Glendale, Queens, along with its 8-plex cinema, this past July 15th. I felt like I was in a brand-new shopping mall in the college town of Davis, California. The cinema, rather than a concrete bunker, was on the second floor level, reached by stairs, escalator, and elevators, and had (to me) aesthetically pleasing inner and outer lobbies, the former having a pleasing elliptical shape, reminiscent of the elliptical lobby of the original balcony of the Ridgewood Theater.
Precisely because of how valuable the information on this site is, I don’t think ANY theater should be deleted from it.
Thanks, Ken. I rode by Loew’s Gates on the B-52 bus this past Saturday, July 15th.
Thanks for the John Agar story, BklynJim. It was great how he came alive when you talked to him, but sad how he sank back into depression and dejection after you were done talking with him.
I’m reminded of what I noticed right away when my dad had to begin living in a nursing home in May 1997 : all the time that most of the residents there spend staring into space and DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING !
As with John Agar at that convention, what a waste of good memories, the wisdom that comes with age, and experience !
“BTW, in your honor last night, I watched the ubiquitous Whit Bissell AND John Agar in "Creature From the Black Lagoon” (‘54) and “Attack of the Puppet People” ('58), respectively. I ask you, good sir: What would all CT’s architectural triumphs and losers, all these grand palaces and “itch” dives, all these proverbial “Orchids and Onions” be without all the wonderful, scary, funny, sad, colorful, dark, amazing films to be viewed in? I suspect that they’d be extremely hollow and haunted…"
Thanks, BklynJim ! I AM honored, believe me ! I last saw “Creature” in Sept. 2000, but haven’t seen “Puppet People” since I first saw it on ABC’s “The Big Show”, sometime from fall 1963 to spring 1965.
You’ve seen John Agar in “Brain From Planet Arous” ?
Your rhetorical question, “What would theaters be without movies ?” reminds me of a similar question in “Famous Monsters Of Filmland”, “If theaters didn’t show movies, would people still go there to eat popcorn and drink Coke ?”
How about Whit Bissell as newspaper columnist Otis Elwell in CBS Playhouse 90’s “The Comedian”, original air date February 1957, written by Rod Serling, his third Emmy ?
Last night watched Ned Glass and Stanley Adams (Oh no ! Not them again !!!) in similar VHS of kinescope of the original “Requiem For A Heavyweight”. Not to mention Maxie “Slapsie” Rosenbloom !
What would theaters be without movies ? I recommend the Clive Barker short story, “Son Of Celluloid”, from “The Books Of Blood” (1987)for further exploration of this question.