Lost Memory, it may help to identify the highest house or lot number on the portion of Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn, at its eastern end at Elderts Lane at the Bklyn-Queens border. Then, going from Elderts Lane to 75th Street, you can see the jump between the original lot numbering and the Queens lot numbering.
104th Street as Oxford Avenue makes more sense to me than Wyckoff Avenue, and can be found on the older subway maps (same as 111th Street = Greenwood Avenue) though who knows exactly where the Wyckoff farm(s) was/were ?
All those Richmond Hill streets that are now numbered, used to be named. The last time I was in the Triangle Hofbrau Restaurant in Richmond Hill, Friday November 11, 1994, a friend who was dining there with me showed me a map of Richmond Hill on the wall, done as an aerial perspective, which showed all the original names of the now-numbered streets. I do not know what has happened to that map, or if it showed a Liberty Square.
Perhaps Dennis Doyle of the Richmond Hill Historical Society could help. I used to have the link; perhaps Bway could still furnish it to you.
Lost Memory, you could always enter the old address for it, with a note explaining that it IS the old address, and that you’re not sure what the new address would be. The old address was, after all, the correct address of the theater when it existed.
If you assume Lefferts Avenue began (had its north end) at Kew Gardens Road as Lefferts Boulevard currently does, you can work south from there by blocks to the approximate location of the old address 304 Lefferts Avenue.
Also, perhaps Bway or others can guide you to links for some older Queens maps that pre-date the current address and lot numbering system.
Or is a combination of films and closed-circuit TV productions, like boxing and other sports matches, more the Ridgewood Theater’s “speed”, given its current clientele ?
Perhaps we first need to ask, “What live venues are currently thriving (making a monetary profit) ?”, then, with that answer in our back pocket, so to speak, then ask the question, “What is the likelihood of the Ridgewood Theater becoming, and then remaining, such a live venue ?”
For example, is it likely for Broadway caliber plays and musicals to be repeatedly performed at the Ridgewood, with packed and near-packed audiences ?
“As for your story in Ridgewood, that revelation is enough to make anyone gag when finding that out! Nothing could be worse than ‘that” surprise!"
Bway, that’s exactly what happened in the 1992 or 1993 film, “The Crying Game”, when the male lead found out that the singer, Dill, whom he’d been attracted to, was a man, not a woman !
He found out while undressing Dill, and finding, not a mound of Venus, but a penis, literally, in his face ! He actually DID gag !
Thanks, Bway, I knew you would remember it, and I thought the name Eltingh was associated with it !
I also remember a [Ridgewood] Times – Newsweekly article about a stripper named Julian Eltinge, who supposedly once performed at the Rathskeller, which was once at the northeast corner of Myrtle and Palmetto, next to Koletty’s ice cream parlor, and that Eltinge was actually a man disguised as a woman !
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 ?
I like the idea of additional cinemas being added to the Ridgewood, right up to the roof, however poor a condition those upper floors may be in, with their top-tank toilets that belong in a musuem.
I’m reminded of a Manhattan multiplex I attended with my son last year. Our cinema was on the top floor, the fourth, I think, and my son enjoyed the escalators we had to take to get to the cinema, almost as much as he enjoyed the movie we saw ! So perhaps something similar could be done with the Ridgewood, perhaps with a central atrium and skylight, like that old theater on 42nd Street near 8th Avenue that was proposed to be made into an atrium twelve-plex. Bway, I think you know which theater I mean.
Bway, I know what you mean. When I was single and lived in Ridgewood, I started going to the Elmwood, Trylon, and all the theaters near Queens Blvd. and Continental Avenue, because I wanted to stretch my legs with a good four-mile walk, get out of Ridgewood and see something different. But those who live in Ridgewood and are not so energetic and only want to see a movie may still go to the Ridgewood Theater instead.
It will be interesting to see what happens to the Ridgewood, if and when that Atlas Multiplex Cinema opens.
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.
Good point, Bway, about the interior of the Madison vs. the interior of the Ridgewood, namely, that the Madison burned, and was gutted.
As for posting images of the Ridgewood’s interior, how about starting with the fine photos that Ken Roe of the UK has taken, a link to which is, I think, somewhere on this page ?
ALthe Filmguy, I don’t think the proposed Atlas Terminals Multiplex at 80th and Cooper in Glendale stands to put the Ridgewood out of business, because so many people are within walking distance of the Ridgewood. If the Ridgewood was in a reasonably safe and decent condition, and was showing current films of popular interest and appeal, why would anyone within walking distance of the Ridgewood Theater go to 80th and Cooper in Glendale instead, to see a movie ?
KathyO, I remember a re-release of “Gone With The Wind” at the Ridgewood Theater late in 1972 or early in 1973. A high school friend of mine, in his naivete, thought it had been just released that year, rather than 1939, because he was so taken with the beauty of it.
Frank Burgio graduated SFP with me in June 1973. I also attended St. Brigid with him and knew him well. He thought he was my friend, but he wasn’t. He also thought he was a clown, but he just came across to me as a bully and a wise-ass.
In St. Brigid, Class 8-1, he also thought he was tough, but Sal Marcicca (sp ?), Class 8-3, broke his finger for him, sometime before New Year’s Day, 1969, if my cousin Joseph, who was also in class 8-3 then, is to be believed. I see no reason why he would have lied about it.
Bway, it would be ironic indeed if one of the last films to have been shown at the Oasis was that 1979 or 1980 burning classic of modern cinema, “Roller Boogie” (It’s love on wheels !), starring none other than …. Linda Blair !
Lost Memory, it may help to identify the highest house or lot number on the portion of Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn, at its eastern end at Elderts Lane at the Bklyn-Queens border. Then, going from Elderts Lane to 75th Street, you can see the jump between the original lot numbering and the Queens lot numbering.
104th Street as Oxford Avenue makes more sense to me than Wyckoff Avenue, and can be found on the older subway maps (same as 111th Street = Greenwood Avenue) though who knows exactly where the Wyckoff farm(s) was/were ?
All those Richmond Hill streets that are now numbered, used to be named. The last time I was in the Triangle Hofbrau Restaurant in Richmond Hill, Friday November 11, 1994, a friend who was dining there with me showed me a map of Richmond Hill on the wall, done as an aerial perspective, which showed all the original names of the now-numbered streets. I do not know what has happened to that map, or if it showed a Liberty Square.
Perhaps Dennis Doyle of the Richmond Hill Historical Society could help. I used to have the link; perhaps Bway could still furnish it to you.
Sometimes the google thing doesn’t give the correct location, even IF the correct address has been entered !
Good work, Lost Memory !
Lost Memory, you could always enter the old address for it, with a note explaining that it IS the old address, and that you’re not sure what the new address would be. The old address was, after all, the correct address of the theater when it existed.
Could Liberty Square have once been the intersection of Lefferts Avenue and Liberty Avenue ?
If you assume Lefferts Avenue began (had its north end) at Kew Gardens Road as Lefferts Boulevard currently does, you can work south from there by blocks to the approximate location of the old address 304 Lefferts Avenue.
Also, perhaps Bway or others can guide you to links for some older Queens maps that pre-date the current address and lot numbering system.
Perhaps Bway could be of some help to you.
Or is a combination of films and closed-circuit TV productions, like boxing and other sports matches, more the Ridgewood Theater’s “speed”, given its current clientele ?
Perhaps we first need to ask, “What live venues are currently thriving (making a monetary profit) ?”, then, with that answer in our back pocket, so to speak, then ask the question, “What is the likelihood of the Ridgewood Theater becoming, and then remaining, such a live venue ?”
For example, is it likely for Broadway caliber plays and musicals to be repeatedly performed at the Ridgewood, with packed and near-packed audiences ?
Thanks for the definition of “grind” house, Warren.
Thanks for the clarification, Warren. “Grind” house, eh ? But not “bump and grind” and “take it all off” ? OK.
“As for your story in Ridgewood, that revelation is enough to make anyone gag when finding that out! Nothing could be worse than ‘that” surprise!"
Bway, that’s exactly what happened in the 1992 or 1993 film, “The Crying Game”, when the male lead found out that the singer, Dill, whom he’d been attracted to, was a man, not a woman !
He found out while undressing Dill, and finding, not a mound of Venus, but a penis, literally, in his face ! He actually DID gag !
Thanks, Bway. I LOVE the Twilight Zone ! LOL indeed !
Thanks, Bway, I knew you would remember it, and I thought the name Eltingh was associated with it !
I also remember a [Ridgewood] Times – Newsweekly article about a stripper named Julian Eltinge, who supposedly once performed at the Rathskeller, which was once at the northeast corner of Myrtle and Palmetto, next to Koletty’s ice cream parlor, and that Eltinge was actually a man disguised as a woman !
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 ?
I like the idea of additional cinemas being added to the Ridgewood, right up to the roof, however poor a condition those upper floors may be in, with their top-tank toilets that belong in a musuem.
I’m reminded of a Manhattan multiplex I attended with my son last year. Our cinema was on the top floor, the fourth, I think, and my son enjoyed the escalators we had to take to get to the cinema, almost as much as he enjoyed the movie we saw ! So perhaps something similar could be done with the Ridgewood, perhaps with a central atrium and skylight, like that old theater on 42nd Street near 8th Avenue that was proposed to be made into an atrium twelve-plex. Bway, I think you know which theater I mean.
Ironically, Bway, 80th and Cooper was the midpoint of many of my walks between Forest Hills theaters and my Ridgewood home.
Still, there were exceptions, like the Sunday night in December 1985 when I saw TWO movies in a row at the Ridgewood : “Rocky IV” and “Enemy Mine” !
Bway, I know what you mean. When I was single and lived in Ridgewood, I started going to the Elmwood, Trylon, and all the theaters near Queens Blvd. and Continental Avenue, because I wanted to stretch my legs with a good four-mile walk, get out of Ridgewood and see something different. But those who live in Ridgewood and are not so energetic and only want to see a movie may still go to the Ridgewood Theater instead.
It will be interesting to see what happens to the Ridgewood, if and when that Atlas Multiplex Cinema opens.
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.
Good point, Bway, about the interior of the Madison vs. the interior of the Ridgewood, namely, that the Madison burned, and was gutted.
As for posting images of the Ridgewood’s interior, how about starting with the fine photos that Ken Roe of the UK has taken, a link to which is, I think, somewhere on this page ?
ALthe Filmguy, I don’t think the proposed Atlas Terminals Multiplex at 80th and Cooper in Glendale stands to put the Ridgewood out of business, because so many people are within walking distance of the Ridgewood. If the Ridgewood was in a reasonably safe and decent condition, and was showing current films of popular interest and appeal, why would anyone within walking distance of the Ridgewood Theater go to 80th and Cooper in Glendale instead, to see a movie ?
Yes, RobertR, as I have commented previously, I think the Ridgewood is the only cinema within a four or five mile radius of itself.
“Also, I am looking for someone who knows how to write in to apply for 501 © status…..
HELP!!!!!!!"
Try LostMemory, Warren or NativeForestHiller.
I’d help you if I could, but I can’t.
AL, my lips are as sealed as those of a Jivaro shrunken head-hunter : sewn together !
KathyO, I remember a re-release of “Gone With The Wind” at the Ridgewood Theater late in 1972 or early in 1973. A high school friend of mine, in his naivete, thought it had been just released that year, rather than 1939, because he was so taken with the beauty of it.
Frank Burgio graduated SFP with me in June 1973. I also attended St. Brigid with him and knew him well. He thought he was my friend, but he wasn’t. He also thought he was a clown, but he just came across to me as a bully and a wise-ass.
In St. Brigid, Class 8-1, he also thought he was tough, but Sal Marcicca (sp ?), Class 8-3, broke his finger for him, sometime before New Year’s Day, 1969, if my cousin Joseph, who was also in class 8-3 then, is to be believed. I see no reason why he would have lied about it.
Bway, it would be ironic indeed if one of the last films to have been shown at the Oasis was that 1979 or 1980 burning classic of modern cinema, “Roller Boogie” (It’s love on wheels !), starring none other than …. Linda Blair !