Oasis Theatre
63-57 Fresh Pond Road,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
63-57 Fresh Pond Road,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 169 comments
Warren, yes, you can post images directly into your posts, however, it may not be a good idea, as the pages will take longer and longer to load if too many photos are added to the message section, so I never did it. I discovered that the USB codes for images worked on Cinematreasures in the preview, but never did it for the above reason. That’s why it’s perhaps better to just link as most have been doing, but I don’t know other people’s opinion on this.
I was there at the instigation and invitation of a friend from the Ridgewood YMCA, a few years older than me, who was a bit immature for his age, although he DID have the climactic few minutes of the 1935 James Whale film “The Bride Of Frankenstein” on an 8 mm home movie reel.
I think I may have seen Officer Joe in January 1969 at Our Lady Of Hope auditorium in Middle Village, Eliot Avenue and about 74th Street, just west of the Connecting Line RR tracks. I think he was trying to lead us kids in some inane Three Stooges nonsense song, which went something like, “Bee Ay Boo, Bee Ay Bippie Eye Boo Eye Yay”, like pig Latin on LSD on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. I was thirteen then and it was much too babyish for me.
Lost Memory, I remember “Officer” Joe Bolton very well, and his cautions to us kids not to attemot Three Stooges type stunts in real life, lest we severely injure ourselves.
I’ve always thought it ironic that we boomers went from that as kids to that teenage boy who tragically hanged himself and died in emulation of ‘70’s rock star Alice Cooper.
Not that any theatre conversion of this type is ever flattering, but it sure makes for an ugly CVS building.
stevel, I didn’t forget anything. I only meant to represent the first two bars of the opening four notes of the theme.
I would write it in musical notation if I could.
Maspeth, near Fresh Pond RD ..you forget the end of the song, it goess like this…….DA NA NAAAAAAAA NAAA DA
NA
NA
NAH
Good for you, stevel ! Exactly where will you be moving back to ?
Bway, I usually write the Twilight Zone theme like this :
ning NING ning ning, ning NING ning ning ….
actually i will be moving back into the area this summer.
Thanks, Bway. I LOVE the Twilight Zone ! LOL indeed !
In Joisey or the the Twilight Zone….dudu dudu dudu dudu.
Thanks, Bway.
No, LostMemory, the Oasis was no mirage, unless all of us here (and perhaps many more that are not)on Cinema Treasures are having the same delusion ! What could explain such a mass hallucination ?
That was probably at the beginning of the crack epidemic. That has subsided since the 70s and 80s.
I think that Karl Ehmer ad, the standing pig in the butcher hat and apron, is still painted on the building near where the Oasis Theater used to be, on the east side of Fresh Pond Road, facing north.
One could see it as one walked south on the east side of Fresh Pond Road, from Metropolitan Avenue.
It was once defaced with graffiti, reading :
EAT MY MEAT ! I’LL PORK YA !
which I think is gone now.
stevel, thanks for the mention of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. I’m glad I’m not the only one who remembers them. I was twenty-two when I saw the ad for their August 12 1978 concert at the Forest Park music grove and bandshell.
I have no idea what the drug scene is Maspeth is like now.
Richard Hell and the Voidoids played at the Oasis. i remember seeing the sign for the show and being around 12 years old i thought the name was strange/memorable.i dont recall any other shows there. i was still heavily into Kiss at the time.I remember seeing Food for the Gods, Grizzly Addems< the Apple Dumpling Gang,Return of the Pink Panther,Black Sunday/bw the Gambler, Ben, Death Race 2000(or was the at the Arion on metropolitan ave?)Hindenburg.I also remember a coin store right next door when i went through my coin collecting phase i usede to love that store.Maspeth was a nice town but there was ALOT of drugs going on.Everyone got high at a very young age.its not like that today (i hope)
to cinema treasures i think you should definitely list the oasis in Ridgewood rather than Glendale …i lived afew blocks away 1940 thru 1960 and ridgewood extended all the way to metropolitan aven…and glendale was at least half mile away thank you
well do iremeber the oasis on fresh pond rd and menahan street i lived on woodbine st only 5 blocks away….from 1940 to 1954 i saw some great double bills there ir remember Fredric March in One foot in heaven and jimmy durante in Youre in trhe army now…in 1944 i believe….a great movie house with wonderful soundsystem "
Utopia?
Hi Everyone! Thank you for bringing back such memories of The Oasis :) I was there a couple of times. I did look through all of the pics that were posted here but does anybody have any of the interior from when it was a roller rink? I would love to see them. Thanks!!
Ammie
Thanks Robert. And by the way, to further confuse the whole “Ridgewood-Glendale” debate about this theater, they called it “Maspeth” in the article!!!
Here is a story about a 1953 robbery at the Oasis.
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The Burtons on a 1967 neighborhood run. The second feature had Faye Dunaway before she became a star in it.
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Haha. The Oasis is even close to Brooklyn! Again, obviously there must have been some sort of economic advantage in advertising so many of these Queens Theaters (such as the Madison, Ridgewood, Oasis – all in Queens) as “Brooklyn”.
Although granted, we still have the old “Brooklyn zip code”, even though in Queens) for Glendale and Ridgewood up until the early 80’s. This was discussed in mass in the Ridgewood Theater section. That could also be the reason.
Look at the Brooklyn theatres for this 1964 re-release of “The Longest Day”,16 theatres.
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Trouble is, postal zone 11385 contains both Ridgewood and Glendale, without a boundary between them. DOES Ridgewood have any sort of “official” boundary, whether a Congressional district, or some function of state, city or county government ?
Or is there just the “unoffical” Ridgewood boundary shown in the map included in the New York Times article, “If you’re thinking of living in Ridgewood …” ?
Otherwise, one can debate neighborhood boundaries, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, like medieval schoolmen trying to figure out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but I, for one, have better and more important things to do.
I will admit it sometimes makes for good humor, though, like the 30-year running routine between me and my best friend, “Hey Pete, where’s South Brooklyn ?”
There seems to have been a lot of protest by Ridgewood residents recently about the “lumping” of Ridgewood with Bushwick, and Brooklyn, rather than Glendale, Maspeth, and Middle Village, and Queens, in terms of public services, like home care for the elderly, despite the recent gentrification of Bushwick.