Thanks for posting your RKO Madison movie memories, lostmemory. I lived in Ridgewood from 1955 to 1991 and finally sold my Ridgewood home in 1999. I’m glad to read that those William Castle-directed gimmick movies were shown at the RKO Madison. “The Tingler” was in “spine-tingling Percepto.” “House On Haunted Hill” was in “bone-chilling Emergo”. I saw them both at the Fall 1988 Gimmick-O-Rama at Film Forum in lower Manhattan (then 57 Watts St., now 209 W. Houston, near Varick, #5957 on this site). “Mr. Sardonicus” had a “punishment poll.” The Castle film I saw at the Madison in summer 1965 was “I Saw What You Did”. My dad (born 1919) saw “House Of Wax” in 3-D in its original 1951 release at the Ridgewood Theater. I saw it at Film Forum. It’s good quality, color, Polaroid 3-D, not the one red lens, one blue lens, b & w, 3-D.
I saw “The Green Berets” at the RKO Madison in early August 1968.
The first film I remember seeing at the Madison was “Reptilicus” in 1961. The last film I saw there was “Lipstick” in June or July 1976. The last two films I remember playing at the Madison were “The Exorcist” and “The Yakuza” in August 1976.
Arnold, is there any connection between the Russian Jewish communities of Rego Park, and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, including the Gastronom Moscow boardwalk outdoor cafe there ? Or am I not up to date ?
The top of the marquee of the Rugby Theater is visible above the upper left corner of the front of the “Utica” streetcar in the following image. The “R” and the top of the “U” (two short vertical dashes) are visible above the roof of the streetcar :
The view is also at the intersection of Ralph and Gates Avenues, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, but looks north on Ralph Avenue rather than east on Gates Avenue. The old theater above and to the left of the trolley car in the center of the picture is the Empire, which used to stand at the intersection of Broadway, and Ralph and Lexington Avenues. In this image, Loew’s Gates would be out of view to the right.
Thank you, cjdv ! Do you know of an open air theater that was once at Myrtle and Seneca Avenues in Ridgewood, or adjacent to the Colonial Theater, 1746 Broadway, at Rockaway Avenue, in Bushwick, Brooklyn ?
You’re welcome, Bway. I will ask my dad about the open air movie at Myrtle and Seneca. I know he remembers an open air theater near the Colonial at Broadway and Rockaway Avenue, because he mentions it to me almost every week.
Bway, check the Cinema Tour alphabetical list of theaters you sent me the link to on April 22, 2004 for Brooklyn and Queens. It lists a “Mozart Theater” on Myrtle Avenue, in Brooklyn, # 24130, as closed. It also listed at least one theater on Seneca Avenue in Ridgewood, possibly two. One was mentioned in a fairly recent “Our Neighborhood” Times Newsweekly, I think, at Seneca and Greene Avenues.
Warren, the only anti-German name change I am aware of in the Bushwick-Ridgewood area is the change of Hamburg Avenue to Wilson Avenue during World War I. Hamburg Savings Bank, however, was very proud of its name, and kept it.
I think the trees were planted on residential streets in Ridgewood in spring 1983 as part of the Myrtle Avenue rehab and revitalization and sidewalk rebuilding.
I was in Ridgewood from about 11 a.m. to about 12:15 p.m. this past Friday, July 30th. I stopped by St. Brigid’s rectory around noon and greeted Father Kelly, and conveyed my and my family’s condolences for his mugging on Thursday July 22, along with our wishes for his complete recovery and continued safety. He had no specific memory of me personally, but he thanked me for stopping by.
DABOC, “Ridgewoodite” is OK, but may lend itself to jokes like this :
If someone from Brooklyn is a Brooklynite, does that mean some from Paris is a Parisite ?
Thanks for the posting on the book. Bway, thanks for endorsing it here.
Bway, I got a look at the rebuilding and renovation of Myrtle-Wyckoff-Gates (L and M lines). It was odd walking past what used to be the public toilets on the mezzanine of the Myrtle Avenue station on the L line, and seeing bright daylight shining in through the holes that were part of the excavation.
Thank you for posting here, and for complimenting my memory. It’s good to be in contact again after a 35-year silence. I’m not sure we even spoke to one another in eighth grade graduation practice, other than to make sure we were marching properly.
I passed by the Ridgewood Theater earlier today. It’s now a five-plex, and is showing the new “Manchurian Candidate” and “The Village” and three other current films. There is another page on this site all about the Ridgewood Theater as it is now. I think “Monica” created it.
Please take the time to read this entire page, however long it may be. I and other Ridgewood natives have posted many comments on it, with much detailed information and recollections that I think you will find interesting. It is like a “wailing wall” of Ridgewood natives, and a mini-reunion of St. Brigid, St. Matthias, and Saint Francis Prep graduates.
You may have read or heard what happened to Father Kelly, the current pastor of St. Brigid, eight days ago on Thursday July 22nd. I stopped by St. Brigid today around noon and spoke with him for about ten minutes, and conveyed my and my family’s best wishes for his recovery, continued safety, and condolences for his mugging.
Please post here again and tell me what and how you are doing now.
Why is Loews Astor Plaza going bye bye ? The first film I saw there was “All The President’s Men” in April 1976, then “2010 : Odyssey Two” in December 1984 (my best experience : I felt like I was on the spaceship !)then it had gone way downhill by the time I saw Francis Ford Coppola’s “Dracula” there in December 1992. I haven’t seen a film there since !
Self-correction : The last film I saw at the Meserole was the original Disney “101 Dalmatians” in re-release, on Saturday July 26th 1975, with my friend and fellow SFP class of 1973 classmate, Joe Kuceluk.
ErwinM, I remember Schaller and Weber very well. There used to be one in my home neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens. I remember the German-speaking housewives asking repeatedly for “ein schtick” (one piece) of this and that. My parents shopped there frequently.
I’m sad to read that those four German places are now gone from Yorkville.
Thanks, Bway. This site seems much more “off topic” friendly than nycsubway.org. I wonder how long and off-topic this page has to get
(it’s become a miniature “Da Brooklyn-Queens Stoop”) before the management takes action !
Too bad Maasbach’s is gone. I went by there many times, but never ate there. What a shame, considering how rare German restuarants are in Queens now. Zum Stammtisch and Von Westernhagen are still there at
Myrtle and Cooper, ditto Niederstein’s at Metro and 69th, but the Triangle Hofbrau of Richmond Hill, Sammett’s at Onderdonk and Linden in Ridgewood, and Westphal’s at Atlantic and 111th in Richmond Hill are all gone now. Luchow’s is gone from East 14th Street in Manhattan many years now. What’s left in Yorkville (East 86th Street) ?
I know the P.S.68 playground at St. Felix and Seneca Avenues, with exit onto Forest Avenue just east of the LIRR overpass, very well. Corato’s Pizza on Woodbine between St. Nicholas and Myrtle, right near the RKO Madison Theater, was my family’s favorite pizzeria when we lived in Ridgewood. Next door, Bonafide Opticians was our optician of choice. I got Italian heroes to go from Corato’s as recently as fall 1983.
Hello, mike hoyts, I’m back. I had a great weekend, and hope you did too. DABOC, how was your visit to Ridgewood last weekend ? Sorry, I don’t remember a Jack McCue who played basketball at either SFP or SFC.
It’s been suggested elsewhere by “Bway” that the V G Nichols Furniture Store on the northwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and Madison Street, formerly Selinger’s, and, before that, Triangle, was once a movie theater. I don’t think so, because I recall reading in the “Our Neighborhood” column of the “Times Newsweekly” that it was a furniture store back in the 1920’s, when the RKO Madison opened, and a decade after the Ridgewood opened in 1913.
Bob D.(Dittus): Good to meet you after all these years, albeit through the Cinema Treasures site. I am still waiting for a private e-mail reply from your older brother Rich, my friend and SFP Class of 1973 classmate, from his Ave Maria University e-mail address. I was on a cursillo with Rich at St. Paul’s, January 16-19 1975, as noted above, and I still remember Rich in tears of joy from the “palanca” that you wrote to him.
Thanks for your comments on Greenpoint and Williamsburg. I am from Bushwick and Ridgewood, but Greenpoint and Williamsburg are “stamping grounds” of mine, because my mother’s family lived in Greenpoint, at about 256 Kingsland Avenue, near St. Stanislaus Kostka church, which is at Humboldt St. and Driggs Avenue, before moving to 412 Harman Street in Wyckoff Heights (lower Ridgewood), because I attended the Prep on North 6th Street in Williamsburg, and because I hung out with Joe Kuceluk and friends, including your older brother Rich, for years after graduating the Prep in June 1973.
My mother’s mother’s second husband pronounced Grand St. and Graham Avenue, both stops on the L line, the same way : “Grem !” It’s a family joke of many years.
I agree, with its current population of young professionals, artists, new bohemians and neo-hippies, how could “The Point” and “The Burg” remain much longer without a cinema ? It’s been suggested elsewhere on this site that perhaps Film Forum, the avant-garde cinema at W. Houston and Varick, should move to occupy the former RKO Commodore.
I have never seen a film at the Commodore, but I have been to the Oasis, (once), to the Arion many times, to the Chopin once, to the Meserole, twice, to the Elmwood and Cinemart many times, and once to the Drake. Interesting that you describe the bus ride to the Arion as “short”. I suppose it is, if that Q-53 Metropolitan Avenue bus really books, and doesn’t get bogged down in traffic, stops, and lights.
“Bway” and I have a great interest in former Bushwick theaters such as the Casino/DeKalb, Loew’s Gates, RKO Bushwick, Empire, Colonial, Decatur, Alhambra, Broadway, and Monroe. “Bway” has some great recent images of some of these former theaters which he would probably be happy and proud to direct you to.
Once again, Bob, good to meet you (albeit indirectly, and better late than never), please keep posting here, as I will be doing, and save me an aisle seat !
Thanks for posting your comment. Interesting that the Meserole’s big screen is now being used to show Eckerd’s promo pictures, and that it is still recognizable as a theater on the inside.
Are you, by any chance, Bob Dunas, of Leonard Street, Greenpoint, Saint Francis Prep class of 1973 ? If so, please see my April 14, 2004 comment, two comments above yours.
See also the Ridgewood Theater page on this site : there’s an SFP mini-reunion going on there !
Peter K. – Dobbs Ferry, NY
Formerly of Ridgewood, Queens, NY
Glad you liked that el image through that link I provided. By the way, nycsubway.org is a great site, if you like subways and el trains. In the page for the RKO Madison Theater, I have posted links to other images on nycsubway.org, that show its western wall, visible from the Wyckoff Avenue el station. As the years have gone by, the original name “RKO MADISON THEATER” painted on that wall in block letters has gotten fainter, while the graffiti has gotten bolder.
Wherever possible, on Cinema Treasures, I have posted links to images from nycsubway.org that show the theater on that page.
I lived at 1668 Cornelia Street from 1955 to 1991. I meant the Bank Restaurant that I think is still on Seneca between Catalpa and Myrtle. I was last in there the week after 9/11/01, and it had been newly renovated.
Thanks for the compliment on my memory. Others have said the same.
I am 48 years old, and will turn 49 in mid-November this year. Thanks for your private e-mail address. I may use it.
Thanks for posting your RKO Madison movie memories, lostmemory. I lived in Ridgewood from 1955 to 1991 and finally sold my Ridgewood home in 1999. I’m glad to read that those William Castle-directed gimmick movies were shown at the RKO Madison. “The Tingler” was in “spine-tingling Percepto.” “House On Haunted Hill” was in “bone-chilling Emergo”. I saw them both at the Fall 1988 Gimmick-O-Rama at Film Forum in lower Manhattan (then 57 Watts St., now 209 W. Houston, near Varick, #5957 on this site). “Mr. Sardonicus” had a “punishment poll.” The Castle film I saw at the Madison in summer 1965 was “I Saw What You Did”. My dad (born 1919) saw “House Of Wax” in 3-D in its original 1951 release at the Ridgewood Theater. I saw it at Film Forum. It’s good quality, color, Polaroid 3-D, not the one red lens, one blue lens, b & w, 3-D.
I saw “The Green Berets” at the RKO Madison in early August 1968.
The first film I remember seeing at the Madison was “Reptilicus” in 1961. The last film I saw there was “Lipstick” in June or July 1976. The last two films I remember playing at the Madison were “The Exorcist” and “The Yakuza” in August 1976.
Arnold, is there any connection between the Russian Jewish communities of Rego Park, and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, including the Gastronom Moscow boardwalk outdoor cafe there ? Or am I not up to date ?
Warren, once again, thanks for all the details and background !
The Prospect Theatre can be seen in the following image :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31213
I think the film titles on the marquee date the photo at 1948, but check, if you wish, at :
www.imdb.com/
The top of the marquee of the Rugby Theater is visible above the upper left corner of the front of the “Utica” streetcar in the following image. The “R” and the top of the “U” (two short vertical dashes) are visible above the roof of the streetcar :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31061
Warren, thanks for the details !
Here’s a link to a “companion” image to the 1943 image of Loew’s Gates from Ralph Avenue that J.F. Lundy posted a link to, six comments above :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31100
The view is also at the intersection of Ralph and Gates Avenues, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, but looks north on Ralph Avenue rather than east on Gates Avenue. The old theater above and to the left of the trolley car in the center of the picture is the Empire, which used to stand at the intersection of Broadway, and Ralph and Lexington Avenues. In this image, Loew’s Gates would be out of view to the right.
Thank you, cjdv. That’s about when my dad remembers the airdome being in place next to the Colonial Theater.
Thank you, cjdv ! Do you know of an open air theater that was once at Myrtle and Seneca Avenues in Ridgewood, or adjacent to the Colonial Theater, 1746 Broadway, at Rockaway Avenue, in Bushwick, Brooklyn ?
That’s the one mentioned in the fairly recent “Our Neighborhood” column article in the Times Newsweekly.
You’re welcome, Bway. I will ask my dad about the open air movie at Myrtle and Seneca. I know he remembers an open air theater near the Colonial at Broadway and Rockaway Avenue, because he mentions it to me almost every week.
Bway, check the Cinema Tour alphabetical list of theaters you sent me the link to on April 22, 2004 for Brooklyn and Queens. It lists a “Mozart Theater” on Myrtle Avenue, in Brooklyn, # 24130, as closed. It also listed at least one theater on Seneca Avenue in Ridgewood, possibly two. One was mentioned in a fairly recent “Our Neighborhood” Times Newsweekly, I think, at Seneca and Greene Avenues.
Warren, the only anti-German name change I am aware of in the Bushwick-Ridgewood area is the change of Hamburg Avenue to Wilson Avenue during World War I. Hamburg Savings Bank, however, was very proud of its name, and kept it.
I think the trees were planted on residential streets in Ridgewood in spring 1983 as part of the Myrtle Avenue rehab and revitalization and sidewalk rebuilding.
I was in Ridgewood from about 11 a.m. to about 12:15 p.m. this past Friday, July 30th. I stopped by St. Brigid’s rectory around noon and greeted Father Kelly, and conveyed my and my family’s condolences for his mugging on Thursday July 22, along with our wishes for his complete recovery and continued safety. He had no specific memory of me personally, but he thanked me for stopping by.
DABOC, “Ridgewoodite” is OK, but may lend itself to jokes like this :
If someone from Brooklyn is a Brooklynite, does that mean some from Paris is a Parisite ?
Thanks for the posting on the book. Bway, thanks for endorsing it here.
Bway, I got a look at the rebuilding and renovation of Myrtle-Wyckoff-Gates (L and M lines). It was odd walking past what used to be the public toilets on the mezzanine of the Myrtle Avenue station on the L line, and seeing bright daylight shining in through the holes that were part of the excavation.
Dawn N.(ahoney) :
Thank you for posting here, and for complimenting my memory. It’s good to be in contact again after a 35-year silence. I’m not sure we even spoke to one another in eighth grade graduation practice, other than to make sure we were marching properly.
I passed by the Ridgewood Theater earlier today. It’s now a five-plex, and is showing the new “Manchurian Candidate” and “The Village” and three other current films. There is another page on this site all about the Ridgewood Theater as it is now. I think “Monica” created it.
Please take the time to read this entire page, however long it may be. I and other Ridgewood natives have posted many comments on it, with much detailed information and recollections that I think you will find interesting. It is like a “wailing wall” of Ridgewood natives, and a mini-reunion of St. Brigid, St. Matthias, and Saint Francis Prep graduates.
You may have read or heard what happened to Father Kelly, the current pastor of St. Brigid, eight days ago on Thursday July 22nd. I stopped by St. Brigid today around noon and spoke with him for about ten minutes, and conveyed my and my family’s best wishes for his recovery, continued safety, and condolences for his mugging.
Please post here again and tell me what and how you are doing now.
Peter Koch
Mike Hoyts :
Why is Loews Astor Plaza going bye bye ? The first film I saw there was “All The President’s Men” in April 1976, then “2010 : Odyssey Two” in December 1984 (my best experience : I felt like I was on the spaceship !)then it had gone way downhill by the time I saw Francis Ford Coppola’s “Dracula” there in December 1992. I haven’t seen a film there since !
Thank you, Robbie !
Self-correction : The last film I saw at the Meserole was the original Disney “101 Dalmatians” in re-release, on Saturday July 26th 1975, with my friend and fellow SFP class of 1973 classmate, Joe Kuceluk.
ErwinM, I remember Schaller and Weber very well. There used to be one in my home neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens. I remember the German-speaking housewives asking repeatedly for “ein schtick” (one piece) of this and that. My parents shopped there frequently.
I’m sad to read that those four German places are now gone from Yorkville.
Thanks, Bway. This site seems much more “off topic” friendly than nycsubway.org. I wonder how long and off-topic this page has to get
(it’s become a miniature “Da Brooklyn-Queens Stoop”) before the management takes action !
Too bad Maasbach’s is gone. I went by there many times, but never ate there. What a shame, considering how rare German restuarants are in Queens now. Zum Stammtisch and Von Westernhagen are still there at
Myrtle and Cooper, ditto Niederstein’s at Metro and 69th, but the Triangle Hofbrau of Richmond Hill, Sammett’s at Onderdonk and Linden in Ridgewood, and Westphal’s at Atlantic and 111th in Richmond Hill are all gone now. Luchow’s is gone from East 14th Street in Manhattan many years now. What’s left in Yorkville (East 86th Street) ?
Rich D :
I think Woodbine Street is closed, but the other 2 locations are still open.
Rich D :
I know the P.S.68 playground at St. Felix and Seneca Avenues, with exit onto Forest Avenue just east of the LIRR overpass, very well. Corato’s Pizza on Woodbine between St. Nicholas and Myrtle, right near the RKO Madison Theater, was my family’s favorite pizzeria when we lived in Ridgewood. Next door, Bonafide Opticians was our optician of choice. I got Italian heroes to go from Corato’s as recently as fall 1983.
I’ll be back in Ridgewood this Friday.
Peter K.
Hello, mike hoyts, I’m back. I had a great weekend, and hope you did too. DABOC, how was your visit to Ridgewood last weekend ? Sorry, I don’t remember a Jack McCue who played basketball at either SFP or SFC.
It’s been suggested elsewhere by “Bway” that the V G Nichols Furniture Store on the northwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and Madison Street, formerly Selinger’s, and, before that, Triangle, was once a movie theater. I don’t think so, because I recall reading in the “Our Neighborhood” column of the “Times Newsweekly” that it was a furniture store back in the 1920’s, when the RKO Madison opened, and a decade after the Ridgewood opened in 1913.
Bob D.(Dittus): Good to meet you after all these years, albeit through the Cinema Treasures site. I am still waiting for a private e-mail reply from your older brother Rich, my friend and SFP Class of 1973 classmate, from his Ave Maria University e-mail address. I was on a cursillo with Rich at St. Paul’s, January 16-19 1975, as noted above, and I still remember Rich in tears of joy from the “palanca” that you wrote to him.
Thanks for your comments on Greenpoint and Williamsburg. I am from Bushwick and Ridgewood, but Greenpoint and Williamsburg are “stamping grounds” of mine, because my mother’s family lived in Greenpoint, at about 256 Kingsland Avenue, near St. Stanislaus Kostka church, which is at Humboldt St. and Driggs Avenue, before moving to 412 Harman Street in Wyckoff Heights (lower Ridgewood), because I attended the Prep on North 6th Street in Williamsburg, and because I hung out with Joe Kuceluk and friends, including your older brother Rich, for years after graduating the Prep in June 1973.
My mother’s mother’s second husband pronounced Grand St. and Graham Avenue, both stops on the L line, the same way : “Grem !” It’s a family joke of many years.
I agree, with its current population of young professionals, artists, new bohemians and neo-hippies, how could “The Point” and “The Burg” remain much longer without a cinema ? It’s been suggested elsewhere on this site that perhaps Film Forum, the avant-garde cinema at W. Houston and Varick, should move to occupy the former RKO Commodore.
I have never seen a film at the Commodore, but I have been to the Oasis, (once), to the Arion many times, to the Chopin once, to the Meserole, twice, to the Elmwood and Cinemart many times, and once to the Drake. Interesting that you describe the bus ride to the Arion as “short”. I suppose it is, if that Q-53 Metropolitan Avenue bus really books, and doesn’t get bogged down in traffic, stops, and lights.
“Bway” and I have a great interest in former Bushwick theaters such as the Casino/DeKalb, Loew’s Gates, RKO Bushwick, Empire, Colonial, Decatur, Alhambra, Broadway, and Monroe. “Bway” has some great recent images of some of these former theaters which he would probably be happy and proud to direct you to.
Once again, Bob, good to meet you (albeit indirectly, and better late than never), please keep posting here, as I will be doing, and save me an aisle seat !
Peter K.
Bob D. :
Thanks for posting your comment. Interesting that the Meserole’s big screen is now being used to show Eckerd’s promo pictures, and that it is still recognizable as a theater on the inside.
Are you, by any chance, Bob Dunas, of Leonard Street, Greenpoint, Saint Francis Prep class of 1973 ? If so, please see my April 14, 2004 comment, two comments above yours.
See also the Ridgewood Theater page on this site : there’s an SFP mini-reunion going on there !
Peter K. – Dobbs Ferry, NY
Formerly of Ridgewood, Queens, NY
Mock :
Glad you liked that el image through that link I provided. By the way, nycsubway.org is a great site, if you like subways and el trains. In the page for the RKO Madison Theater, I have posted links to other images on nycsubway.org, that show its western wall, visible from the Wyckoff Avenue el station. As the years have gone by, the original name “RKO MADISON THEATER” painted on that wall in block letters has gotten fainter, while the graffiti has gotten bolder.
Wherever possible, on Cinema Treasures, I have posted links to images from nycsubway.org that show the theater on that page.
I lived at 1668 Cornelia Street from 1955 to 1991. I meant the Bank Restaurant that I think is still on Seneca between Catalpa and Myrtle. I was last in there the week after 9/11/01, and it had been newly renovated.
Thanks for the compliment on my memory. Others have said the same.
I am 48 years old, and will turn 49 in mid-November this year. Thanks for your private e-mail address. I may use it.
Where is the New Coliseum Theatre, mike hoyts ?
So I’m a “rock man”, am I ? “Peter” means “rock”; the New Testament says so.