Passed by the site the other day — a big hole in the ground. What a waste to tear this down for a tin and glass mall that lasted less than 30 years. Good grief.
You can’t really make a decent “widescreen” presentation out of something filmed in “academy standard.” You lose the top and bottom of the original image, and it’s blown up so much it looks fuzzy and grainy, even probably in 70mm. When they did it to Gone With the Wind once, it was a disaster. I wonder if Jolie fared any better.
Text of email I received yesterday from Greg Boardman, owner of the Art Theater across the street from this house:
Some of you may have heard that we are looking into other locations for our art theatre. This is true.
Our lease expires at our present location in the Art building, December 30, 2009. I heard from someone who spoke to the owner, that his belief was that when the community learned that it would be losing its art theatre, a buyer would come forth. The owner informed me that he was no longer offering the Art for rent. He is asking $1,143,888.50 for the building!
But the community, hopefully, will NOT be losing its art theatre. Boardman’s Theatres is working to be in a new location, with little interruption, before December 30, 2009. There are several possibilities.
I am working with the owners of the Rialto Theatre, directly across from our current location on Church St., to explore that possibility with them.
I recently met with city officials in both Champaign and Urbana. Everyone is very enthusiastic and supportive. There seems to be genuine support for Boardman’s Theatres and the types of films we bring to the community. If the financial support is there as well, it may be possible to expand beyond a single screen with a new-build in another location.
Boardman’s Theatres is working to continue to provide the finest film experience and more…in a new location(s).
I will be attending Showest next week as part of my effort to research and plan for our move.
As things develop, I will keep you all informed. It’s going to be an exciting year! I appreciate your continued support.
Thank you!
Text of email I received yesterday from Greg Boardman:
Some of you may have heard that we are looking into other locations for our art theatre. This is true.
Our lease expires at our present location in the Art building, December 30, 2009. I heard from someone who spoke to the owner, that his belief was that when the community learned that it would be losing its art theatre, a buyer would come forth. The owner informed me that he was no longer offering the Art for rent. He is asking $1,143,888.50 for the building!
But the community, hopefully, will NOT be losing its art theatre. Boardman’s Theatres is working to be in a new location, with little interruption, before December 30, 2009. There are several possibilities.
I am working with the owners of the Rialto Theatre, directly across from our current location on Church St., to explore that possibility with them. I recently met with city officials in both Champaign and Urbana. Everyone is very enthusiastic and supportive. There seems to be genuine support for Boardman’s Theatres and the types of films we bring to the community. If the financial support is there as well, it may be possible to expand beyond a single screen with a new-build in another location.
Boardman’s Theatres is working to continue to provide the finest film experience and more…in a new location(s).
I will be attending Showest next week as part of my effort to research and plan for our move.
As things develop, I will keep you all informed. It’s going to be an exciting year! I appreciate your continued support.
Thank you!
The Ridgewood Theatre the oldest continuously operating movie house in the nation until it closed a year ago will get an encore, its new owner said yesterday at a hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Opened as a vaudeville theater in 1916 and surviving every trend in moviemaking history, the limestone theater on Myrtle Avenue in Queens will reopen in July with a three-screen cinema on the upper level and a mix of shops on the first floor.
Mario Saggese, a co-owner of the Ridgewood, insisted that the only way the neighborhood theater could be financially viable is with the addition of a retail complex.
“It would be a financial hardship to have to operate it without that retail,” Saggese said after a hearing on a proposal to landmark the exterior of the building.
The landmarks commission is considering historic designation for the theater’s limestone facade. Saggese said he and co-owner Anthony Motalbano wouldn’t oppose the designation as long as it’s only for the building’s exterior.
After numerous renovations, including the conversion of the 2,500-seat theater into a five-screen multiplex decades ago, Saggese said there’s not much left of the historic interior to save anyway.
“But if we do pull down sheet rock and find a statue or other ornaments still there, we will definitely preserve them,” Saggese said.
The Ridgewood was one of more than 300 theaters across the nation designed by renowned architect Thomas Lamb.
Just a handful remain, including the Ziegfeld in Midtown.
A vote on the theater’s landmark status will be set for later this spring, said landmarks spokeswoman Lisi de Bourbon.
Yes, I have memorized many theater numbers, but you have to first open the email to see the number. And sometimes that’s an awful lot of emails (though apparently not a lot lately!)
I also wish the email subject line would name the theater, or at least its number, so I don’t have to open each email to see which theater it’s about. It gets very time-consuming, especially if there are multiple posts about the same theater.
This report was posted on another site (not by me!) and has been slightly edited (by me) for content becoming CT.
“I used to go to the old Earle Theater in north Baltimore. I’d always go commando, short shorts and a T. When things got interesting I’d get undressed, except for boat shoes as the floor was really cruddy in that theater. Wandering around…you could always get into a group scene. Lots of hot blue-collar guys whose pickup trucks filled the small parking lot. Sadly, the Earle is no longer an adult theater.”
Being in NYC and its immediate suburbs gives me a choice of many theaters. And since I go about once a week, how and where I spend my money is important to me.
I try to go to places with frequent moviegoer rewards. Thus, AMC is my favorite because they have good theaters with big screens, bright pictures and clear sound, but mainly because they have a lot of rewards going on — free popcorn and drinks, candy specials, reduced admission prices, etc. They have put a lot of thought into their club and I appreciate it.
Next is Regal, which has some crummy locations (the Lynbrook!) but also has some nice ones, like the 42nd Street location. They have a good rewards program, too, but not as thorough as AMC.
After that I like Clearview Cinemas, which of course runs the Ziegfeld, but also does a lovely job at the Chelsea. (When I was still with Cablevision I often used its rewards program, with free movie Tuesdays and good reductions on other days.) Now I use Clearview’s rewards programs, but it seems to take a while to earn anything. I give them a B for trying, but it seems haphazard.
If a movie isn’t playing at one of those chains, I hesitate to spend $10. or more ($12.50 at the IFC Center and Angelika! Holy cow!) without earning any rewards or customer appreciation. I am lucky that I am able to get a steady diet of art films at my local Malverne Cinema or at the Cobble Hill Cinemas in Brooklyn, which both have reduced admissions and discount days; I feel that I’m not missing anything urgent by skipping New York’s “art” circuit, and this includes the precious BAM Rose!
Excerpt from NY Times review of “I Walked with a Zombie” (1943)
“Horror” pictures are enjoying a peculiar popularity the country over at the moment, according to box-office statistics, so it seems reasonable to assume that RKO has a safe bet in “I Walked With a Zombie,” which opened yesterday to a packed house at the Rialto and, at one point, drew a horrified scream from a woman patron. It’s just like the days of old when “The Bat” and “The Gorilla” were scaring audiences out of their wits, and “Frankenstein’s Monster” was making the night hideous for children and the more impressionable oldsters.
The Century Green Acres Cinema (now a fiveplex run by National Amusements, same management as Sunrise Multiplex) is less than a mile east on Sunrise. Is that the one you mean?
Sure looks like it. (I just got a little dizzy with thoughts of a mis-spent youth…)
Passed by the site the other day — a big hole in the ground. What a waste to tear this down for a tin and glass mall that lasted less than 30 years. Good grief.
I forgot to mention, beautiful ad. Thanks for the post, RobertR.
You can’t really make a decent “widescreen” presentation out of something filmed in “academy standard.” You lose the top and bottom of the original image, and it’s blown up so much it looks fuzzy and grainy, even probably in 70mm. When they did it to Gone With the Wind once, it was a disaster. I wonder if Jolie fared any better.
Bryan Krefft posted this picture on the Palace page, but I noticed the Embassy is also in the shot. View link
Well done.
Just stopping by to say hi so that I can get back on the notification list. Sheesh!
Text of email I received yesterday from Greg Boardman, owner of the Art Theater across the street from this house:
Some of you may have heard that we are looking into other locations for our art theatre. This is true.
Our lease expires at our present location in the Art building, December 30, 2009. I heard from someone who spoke to the owner, that his belief was that when the community learned that it would be losing its art theatre, a buyer would come forth. The owner informed me that he was no longer offering the Art for rent. He is asking $1,143,888.50 for the building!
But the community, hopefully, will NOT be losing its art theatre. Boardman’s Theatres is working to be in a new location, with little interruption, before December 30, 2009. There are several possibilities.
I am working with the owners of the Rialto Theatre, directly across from our current location on Church St., to explore that possibility with them.
I recently met with city officials in both Champaign and Urbana. Everyone is very enthusiastic and supportive. There seems to be genuine support for Boardman’s Theatres and the types of films we bring to the community. If the financial support is there as well, it may be possible to expand beyond a single screen with a new-build in another location.
Boardman’s Theatres is working to continue to provide the finest film experience and more…in a new location(s).
I will be attending Showest next week as part of my effort to research and plan for our move.
As things develop, I will keep you all informed. It’s going to be an exciting year! I appreciate your continued support.
Thank you!
Text of email I received yesterday from Greg Boardman:
Some of you may have heard that we are looking into other locations for our art theatre. This is true.
Our lease expires at our present location in the Art building, December 30, 2009. I heard from someone who spoke to the owner, that his belief was that when the community learned that it would be losing its art theatre, a buyer would come forth. The owner informed me that he was no longer offering the Art for rent. He is asking $1,143,888.50 for the building!
But the community, hopefully, will NOT be losing its art theatre. Boardman’s Theatres is working to be in a new location, with little interruption, before December 30, 2009. There are several possibilities.
I am working with the owners of the Rialto Theatre, directly across from our current location on Church St., to explore that possibility with them. I recently met with city officials in both Champaign and Urbana. Everyone is very enthusiastic and supportive. There seems to be genuine support for Boardman’s Theatres and the types of films we bring to the community. If the financial support is there as well, it may be possible to expand beyond a single screen with a new-build in another location.
Boardman’s Theatres is working to continue to provide the finest film experience and more…in a new location(s).
I will be attending Showest next week as part of my effort to research and plan for our move.
As things develop, I will keep you all informed. It’s going to be an exciting year! I appreciate your continued support.
Thank you!
From today’s New York Post:
ACT 2 FOR OLD-TIME THEATER
RIDGEWOOD TO REOPEN
The Ridgewood Theatre the oldest continuously operating movie house in the nation until it closed a year ago will get an encore, its new owner said yesterday at a hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Opened as a vaudeville theater in 1916 and surviving every trend in moviemaking history, the limestone theater on Myrtle Avenue in Queens will reopen in July with a three-screen cinema on the upper level and a mix of shops on the first floor.
Mario Saggese, a co-owner of the Ridgewood, insisted that the only way the neighborhood theater could be financially viable is with the addition of a retail complex.
“It would be a financial hardship to have to operate it without that retail,” Saggese said after a hearing on a proposal to landmark the exterior of the building.
The landmarks commission is considering historic designation for the theater’s limestone facade. Saggese said he and co-owner Anthony Motalbano wouldn’t oppose the designation as long as it’s only for the building’s exterior.
After numerous renovations, including the conversion of the 2,500-seat theater into a five-screen multiplex decades ago, Saggese said there’s not much left of the historic interior to save anyway.
“But if we do pull down sheet rock and find a statue or other ornaments still there, we will definitely preserve them,” Saggese said.
The Ridgewood was one of more than 300 theaters across the nation designed by renowned architect Thomas Lamb.
Just a handful remain, including the Ziegfeld in Midtown.
A vote on the theater’s landmark status will be set for later this spring, said landmarks spokeswoman Lisi de Bourbon.
Link: View link
Yes, I have memorized many theater numbers, but you have to first open the email to see the number. And sometimes that’s an awful lot of emails (though apparently not a lot lately!)
Good ad. Wish it was larger.
I also wish the email subject line would name the theater, or at least its number, so I don’t have to open each email to see which theater it’s about. It gets very time-consuming, especially if there are multiple posts about the same theater.
Please. Enough already. Discuss this off-site. (Check profiles for email contacts.) Thanks.
Really!
I believe it’s up and running as a church, with most of its glory intact. Not demolished.
This report was posted on another site (not by me!) and has been slightly edited (by me) for content becoming CT.
“I used to go to the old Earle Theater in north Baltimore. I’d always go commando, short shorts and a T. When things got interesting I’d get undressed, except for boat shoes as the floor was really cruddy in that theater. Wandering around…you could always get into a group scene. Lots of hot blue-collar guys whose pickup trucks filled the small parking lot. Sadly, the Earle is no longer an adult theater.”
Being in NYC and its immediate suburbs gives me a choice of many theaters. And since I go about once a week, how and where I spend my money is important to me.
I try to go to places with frequent moviegoer rewards. Thus, AMC is my favorite because they have good theaters with big screens, bright pictures and clear sound, but mainly because they have a lot of rewards going on — free popcorn and drinks, candy specials, reduced admission prices, etc. They have put a lot of thought into their club and I appreciate it.
Next is Regal, which has some crummy locations (the Lynbrook!) but also has some nice ones, like the 42nd Street location. They have a good rewards program, too, but not as thorough as AMC.
After that I like Clearview Cinemas, which of course runs the Ziegfeld, but also does a lovely job at the Chelsea. (When I was still with Cablevision I often used its rewards program, with free movie Tuesdays and good reductions on other days.) Now I use Clearview’s rewards programs, but it seems to take a while to earn anything. I give them a B for trying, but it seems haphazard.
If a movie isn’t playing at one of those chains, I hesitate to spend $10. or more ($12.50 at the IFC Center and Angelika! Holy cow!) without earning any rewards or customer appreciation. I am lucky that I am able to get a steady diet of art films at my local Malverne Cinema or at the Cobble Hill Cinemas in Brooklyn, which both have reduced admissions and discount days; I feel that I’m not missing anything urgent by skipping New York’s “art” circuit, and this includes the precious BAM Rose!
Lost Memory, could you post it bigger?
Excerpt from NY Times review of “I Walked with a Zombie” (1943)
“Horror” pictures are enjoying a peculiar popularity the country over at the moment, according to box-office statistics, so it seems reasonable to assume that RKO has a safe bet in “I Walked With a Zombie,” which opened yesterday to a packed house at the Rialto and, at one point, drew a horrified scream from a woman patron. It’s just like the days of old when “The Bat” and “The Gorilla” were scaring audiences out of their wits, and “Frankenstein’s Monster” was making the night hideous for children and the more impressionable oldsters.
The RKO Rockville Centre Twin is about five miles down the road — closed now.
The Century (now AMC) Fantasy is also about five miles down, just a few doors off Sunrise, but you can see the big verticle sign.
The Century Green Acres Cinema (now a fiveplex run by National Amusements, same management as Sunrise Multiplex) is less than a mile east on Sunrise. Is that the one you mean?
Before they landmark it I wish they would raise the roof and install a proper balcony. 1100 seats just isn’t enough, in my opinion.
Shhh…the Phantom lives down there.
From the opening remarks: “The building was used spasmodically for a couple of years for live events…”
Were the walls shaking? Maybe it’s a good thing they tore it own…
Unless, of course, they were only shaking sporadically.