It sure is BNO. $25 Million to renovate this beautiful palace to it’s formor glory and to screw people who wanted to make a go of the place is bad. The report said that Gentile was still using the liquor license that belongs toGabriel Boter. If something would have happened Botter would have been responcible for it. I wonder if gentile had some problems having it put in his or his corporations name.
Ok this is the 3rd time I am posting this and I have been logged on the other 2 times
Looks like Joe Gentile is not a very liked man in the Bronx. The following link is a news report from Nov 2 2008 from channel 9 news reporter Brenda Flanagan.
718-563 2222 is a phone number for the theatre i found on the ripoff report site. It is a working number and I spoke to a guy who said he was the sales manager and that they are in the process of booking shows for the spring and summer. For whatever reason though the web site is not functioning.
When I saw the restored interior of the Paradise I was taken a back because it looks almost identicle to the former Loews 46th st in Brooklyn. The big difference is that the Paradise is restored and the 46th st is still a friggin furniture store.
And for some of you who posted links on here most of them are no longer working.
Luis maybe the owner of the Ritz put all that money in to it and is now sitting back and taking it off as a tax write off. Since it is not making a profit the owner takes it off as a loss. I knew of a guy that owned a vacant lot and in the summer months used it as a parking lot. He charged $10 flat rate to park. He did not have a NYC DCA license to run it so he wasn’t reporting any income and at the end of the year wrote off as a loss. Sometimes that is what owners do to deflect taxes off other properties they own that make a profit.
Maybe things will get back to normal now that inaugaral week is over and the last of the crowds left this past weekend. I am liking it already. Not even a week in office and the opposing party is crying because they don’t have the power to stop progress and the veto power is no longer theirs.
So maybe now I can get in to the district soon and see if they have any pics of the old theatre.
Luis i am going to quote you here.
“The movie going public requires seating, sight lines and screen sizes that most older theaters were unable to compete with.”
Some of and most of the older theatres had great sight lines. As far as screen sizes who are you kidding? I love watching a movie on a 25X60 foot screen. Some of these new so called multiplex movie houses have screens so small you can buy a flat screen HD TV bigger then that. As far as seats go many of the older palaces have upgraded to more comfortable seats even if it means a smaller seating capacity. When I think back to 1977 seeing Star Wars,then later on seeing Hunt for Red October and Days of Thunder at the 1440 seat Loews Astor Plaza. The sight lines were great the seats comfy and the sound system was state of the art. I tried looking it up on CT and it was not listed but a google search found that it is now the Nokia and basicaly no longer a movie theatre but a concert venue. It was still one of the best places to see a moveie.
John I know that the blackout was devistating. Bushwick and Bed-Sty gained notariety(sp)whith the looting that went on. I remember watching Ch 7 new the next day. I was living in Coney Island back then.Six people got stuck in the Astro Tower for hours. Park maintainance was unable to lower it before they were able to find a generator large enough to power up the ride to bring it down. Soon after that Astroland bought 2 generators large enough to provide power to the park in case of another blackout. Later on when Con-Ed raised the electric rates they started to use the gens full time. Back then it turned out cheaper. Speaking of which. Astroland as we knew it is now gone. All the rides are for sale. Thanks in part to Community Board 11 and Norman Kaufman who runs the CI Chamber of Commerce. It was also CB 10 in Bensonhurst that didn’t do to much to prevent the Loews Oriental from closing.
I wonder if they have any on the walls at Bens. Next time I go up that way I may stop in but right now with all the hoopla of Inaugaration week they have been a little busy.
Some of the theatres also had banners saying “Cooled by Refrigeration” I remember when i worked at the Academy of Music and walked through many of the non-pupblic places seeing a huge motor that was used to turn a HUGE and I mean HUGE ventilator fan. The belt was about 18 inches wide and about 20-25 feet long. When it was running there was such a suction that it was hard to open the entry door. It was cold in there and it was so powerful that you could feel it asit flowed in the the domed ceiling. Even back then it must have cost a fortune to heat and cool such palaces.
I had to go back and look at that picture. If you look closley you will also see someone on a scafolding rig and it looks like he is working on the neons on the blade. I also tried enlarging the picture to see what movies were up on the marguee but even at 300% it was to hard to make out before it became all distorted but it does look like it was taken in a warm season.
Wow Ross thanks for the link. To bad there were no intereor shots. The person who built the Minnehaha was way ahead of his time for the size considering how small some of the roomes in multiplexes are.
Bens has been in the news recently when President Obama anf the DC Mayor had lunch there before inaugaration day. Bens also operates a stand at the Nationals Baseball park in DC
So your the one who did all that. The one time i was able to sneak in to the Madison some 30 years ago i was in the foyer up in the balcony looking torwards the stage when I though I saw something I thought was a statue. Little did I know it was a real live breathing doberman. I managed to get in to a bathroom on that floor. Luckily for me there was a window in there. However there there was a steel security screen that I had to unscrew to open it then I had to scrape paint that was keeping the window it self from opening. When I did get the window open it was six feet above the marguee. I worked my way out and lowered my self down and jumped the last 3 feet. It was late at night and not many people around. I finally got someone who was going in to the dinner across the street to call the fire dept. They came in about 5 min and set up a ladder for me to climb down
See what you did? If you had not been messing around with that wall I wouild not have had to run from the watch dogs. It’s all your fault and now you owe me big time. LOL
ERD from previous posts in here it was my understanding that the orchestra section was walled off and that area was not used as well as the stage that was said to have been left in tact. Next time I come up to NYC I will have to set aside some time to take a trip back in time. I did notice however the fire exit doors leading down from the balcony has been bricked over. I saw that much from Google Maps street level view.
Thanks LTS. That was really some great pictures. What I am a little puzzeld about is that others who said they managed to see the main auditorium said that the theatre looked as it was. They never said anything about furnature bing stored or displayed
lol No problem. However the shows that I worked on that was taped at th4 46th street the TV cameras had the ABC logo on them. I was working for the sound company that was hired to do 4 shows.
Hey Mpol I don’t know if a bank and a theatre can hold a community together. I seem to recall that when the Midwood closed a bank went in there. I just went to the Midwood site and it is now an eye surgery center.
The big joke about the Midway was when it became the dicount theatre is that the seats may have been cheap but the snack mar was not. They chaged the same at the Midwood as any othere movie house. Who ever owned it at the time had a good idea but the other thing was that the place was never kept clean. It was a pig sty and stunk too.
It sure is BNO. $25 Million to renovate this beautiful palace to it’s formor glory and to screw people who wanted to make a go of the place is bad. The report said that Gentile was still using the liquor license that belongs toGabriel Boter. If something would have happened Botter would have been responcible for it. I wonder if gentile had some problems having it put in his or his corporations name.
Ok this is the 3rd time I am posting this and I have been logged on the other 2 times
Looks like Joe Gentile is not a very liked man in the Bronx. The following link is a news report from Nov 2 2008 from channel 9 news reporter Brenda Flanagan.
View link
718-563 2222 is a phone number for the theatre i found on the ripoff report site. It is a working number and I spoke to a guy who said he was the sales manager and that they are in the process of booking shows for the spring and summer. For whatever reason though the web site is not functioning.
When I saw the restored interior of the Paradise I was taken a back because it looks almost identicle to the former Loews 46th st in Brooklyn. The big difference is that the Paradise is restored and the 46th st is still a friggin furniture store.
And for some of you who posted links on here most of them are no longer working.
Luis maybe the owner of the Ritz put all that money in to it and is now sitting back and taking it off as a tax write off. Since it is not making a profit the owner takes it off as a loss. I knew of a guy that owned a vacant lot and in the summer months used it as a parking lot. He charged $10 flat rate to park. He did not have a NYC DCA license to run it so he wasn’t reporting any income and at the end of the year wrote off as a loss. Sometimes that is what owners do to deflect taxes off other properties they own that make a profit.
Maybe things will get back to normal now that inaugaral week is over and the last of the crowds left this past weekend. I am liking it already. Not even a week in office and the opposing party is crying because they don’t have the power to stop progress and the veto power is no longer theirs.
So maybe now I can get in to the district soon and see if they have any pics of the old theatre.
Luis i am going to quote you here.
“The movie going public requires seating, sight lines and screen sizes that most older theaters were unable to compete with.”
Some of and most of the older theatres had great sight lines. As far as screen sizes who are you kidding? I love watching a movie on a 25X60 foot screen. Some of these new so called multiplex movie houses have screens so small you can buy a flat screen HD TV bigger then that. As far as seats go many of the older palaces have upgraded to more comfortable seats even if it means a smaller seating capacity. When I think back to 1977 seeing Star Wars,then later on seeing Hunt for Red October and Days of Thunder at the 1440 seat Loews Astor Plaza. The sight lines were great the seats comfy and the sound system was state of the art. I tried looking it up on CT and it was not listed but a google search found that it is now the Nokia and basicaly no longer a movie theatre but a concert venue. It was still one of the best places to see a moveie.
You mean Mayor Fenty and Marion Barry have to pay?
What would be even nicer is having Ch 7 4 2 5 11 & 9 cover it.
Well I doubt I will be trying their chille out since it is made with meat and I am a vegitarian.
John I know that the blackout was devistating. Bushwick and Bed-Sty gained notariety(sp)whith the looting that went on. I remember watching Ch 7 new the next day. I was living in Coney Island back then.Six people got stuck in the Astro Tower for hours. Park maintainance was unable to lower it before they were able to find a generator large enough to power up the ride to bring it down. Soon after that Astroland bought 2 generators large enough to provide power to the park in case of another blackout. Later on when Con-Ed raised the electric rates they started to use the gens full time. Back then it turned out cheaper. Speaking of which. Astroland as we knew it is now gone. All the rides are for sale. Thanks in part to Community Board 11 and Norman Kaufman who runs the CI Chamber of Commerce. It was also CB 10 in Bensonhurst that didn’t do to much to prevent the Loews Oriental from closing.
I wonder if they have any on the walls at Bens. Next time I go up that way I may stop in but right now with all the hoopla of Inaugaration week they have been a little busy.
Some of the theatres also had banners saying “Cooled by Refrigeration” I remember when i worked at the Academy of Music and walked through many of the non-pupblic places seeing a huge motor that was used to turn a HUGE and I mean HUGE ventilator fan. The belt was about 18 inches wide and about 20-25 feet long. When it was running there was such a suction that it was hard to open the entry door. It was cold in there and it was so powerful that you could feel it asit flowed in the the domed ceiling. Even back then it must have cost a fortune to heat and cool such palaces.
LOL Lost. I know your intentions were good but I was talking about interior pictures of the Minnehaha when it was still a theatre.
I had to go back and look at that picture. If you look closley you will also see someone on a scafolding rig and it looks like he is working on the neons on the blade. I also tried enlarging the picture to see what movies were up on the marguee but even at 300% it was to hard to make out before it became all distorted but it does look like it was taken in a warm season.
Wow Ross thanks for the link. To bad there were no intereor shots. The person who built the Minnehaha was way ahead of his time for the size considering how small some of the roomes in multiplexes are.
Bens has been in the news recently when President Obama anf the DC Mayor had lunch there before inaugaration day. Bens also operates a stand at the Nationals Baseball park in DC
Thanks Lost. I had no idea that it was a theatre before it became Bens. Obama and the DC Mayor Fenty had lunch there prior to the inaugaration day.
So your the one who did all that. The one time i was able to sneak in to the Madison some 30 years ago i was in the foyer up in the balcony looking torwards the stage when I though I saw something I thought was a statue. Little did I know it was a real live breathing doberman. I managed to get in to a bathroom on that floor. Luckily for me there was a window in there. However there there was a steel security screen that I had to unscrew to open it then I had to scrape paint that was keeping the window it self from opening. When I did get the window open it was six feet above the marguee. I worked my way out and lowered my self down and jumped the last 3 feet. It was late at night and not many people around. I finally got someone who was going in to the dinner across the street to call the fire dept. They came in about 5 min and set up a ladder for me to climb down
See what you did? If you had not been messing around with that wall I wouild not have had to run from the watch dogs. It’s all your fault and now you owe me big time. LOL
ERD from previous posts in here it was my understanding that the orchestra section was walled off and that area was not used as well as the stage that was said to have been left in tact. Next time I come up to NYC I will have to set aside some time to take a trip back in time. I did notice however the fire exit doors leading down from the balcony has been bricked over. I saw that much from Google Maps street level view.
Thanks LTS. That was really some great pictures. What I am a little puzzeld about is that others who said they managed to see the main auditorium said that the theatre looked as it was. They never said anything about furnature bing stored or displayed
lol No problem. However the shows that I worked on that was taped at th4 46th street the TV cameras had the ABC logo on them. I was working for the sound company that was hired to do 4 shows.
LOL but if I was in L.I. I could take the LIRR to the city where as there is no direct public transit to Baltimore.
Yes Peter I saw the unbleeped version of it. LOL
Hey Mpol I don’t know if a bank and a theatre can hold a community together. I seem to recall that when the Midwood closed a bank went in there. I just went to the Midwood site and it is now an eye surgery center.
The big joke about the Midway was when it became the dicount theatre is that the seats may have been cheap but the snack mar was not. They chaged the same at the Midwood as any othere movie house. Who ever owned it at the time had a good idea but the other thing was that the place was never kept clean. It was a pig sty and stunk too.
I am closer to DC then Balt. Plus Baltimore is a pain in the butt to get to.