No, but it seems to be worse now, from what I’ve read. I haven’t been inside since September 12, 1992, so I can’t write from recent personal experience.
Joe’s Army and Navy Store, to the west of the Ridgewood Theater, on the same (north) side of Myrtle Avenye ? Yes, I think it’s still there, albeit maybe under a different name.
Thanks, Bway. Both the Ridgewood and Madison Theaters lie along Madison Street, albeit on opposite sides of both Madison Street and Myrtle Avenue. If you check it, you will find that the RKO Bushwick lies along Madison Street as well.
I did NOT go into the Liberty Dept. Store that the Madison has become, today. I was last in there on Wednesday July 24, 2002 to buy T-shirts, for my dad, which I ended up wearing instead.
Thanks, Bway. It looks like three buildings in one : the smallest part, which fronts on Myrtle Avenue, and contains the marquee and outer lobby, is still a good-sized building, about as big as the adjacent buildings that front on Myrtle Avenue, and a story taller (?). The largest part, with the angled silver-white roof, is the inner lobby and cinemas themselves, and the second largest part, at the southern corner of Cypress Avenue and Madison Street, has the water tower and backup equipment : ventilation, heating, water supply, and air conditioning.
I was just in one of the adjacent buildings about an hour ago, 11 a.m. Tuesday April 4 2006, buying pants : Carl’s Army and Navy Store, two doors to the east of the Ridgewood Theater. The two people who waited on me said the Ridgewood is non-busy on weekdays, but very busy on weekends and holidays, especially when the kids are off from school. The pretty young lady who works in Carl’s said the Ridgewood is dirty inside : the floor is sticky, and should be cleaned up.
My wife was in Carl’s just about seven years ago, buying me pants, and was waited on by that young lady, and, as a result, said it should be re-named Carlita’s, because the young lady was the only person she saw at work inside.
Thanks for posting the link to that clip, Warren. Film Forum in lower Manhattan used to have live piano accompaniment to silent films during certain screenings.
Our sensibility has changed so much since 1917 that we, or at least I, now have to watch a commentary to understand what was so scary about “Caligari” when it first came out : Cesare, the sleepwalker, slowly but surely sneaking up on a sleeping victim, totally unaware of him, and hence, totally vulnerable TO him. Hence, the danger and the horror of it. It’s similar to the shower scene in “Psycho” that way.
Instead of “Cinemart”, “CinArt”, which sounds like “sin art” ?
I know what you mean, Warren, about the name “Cinemart”. Kinda sounds like “Mini Mart” to me.
Silent horrors with “live” piano accompaniment:
Like the scene in the film “Schindler’s List” in which the Nazi soldier is playing Mozart on the piano while the ghetto Jews are being shot up by other Nazi soldiers, and Krystallnacht is happening all around.
Thank you, KathyO ! I’m glad you enjoy my reminiscing. mrbillyc, you are most welcome. RobertR, I agree with you.
KathyO, I believe the correct spelling may be “old Kirschbaum gang”. I’m glad that you, too, remember Father Kelly from St. Brigid. What was, to you, “the old Robert Hall” at Irving and DeKalb Avenues, was, to my Uncle John, “the new Robert Hall” when he returned from WW II overseas service in Africa in the Signal Corps. He needed some civilian clothes and he got them there. About thirteen or fourteen years before, when it was the Imperial Theater, he saw the Lugosi “Dracula” there, and got scared when he returned home to 412 Harman Street, found himself locked out, and waited on the front stoop, watching it get darker and darker outside !
KathyO, I seem to recall both “Hard Days Night” and “Help” playing at the Ridgewood Theater. It’s interesting that the movie provoked the same screaming girls reaction as the Beatles' live appearances, so that, thanks to all the neighborhood movie theaters, those who could not see the Beatles live, could also hear thousands of girls screaming their heads off, drowning out the Beatles' music.
KathyO, I hope I am one of the nostalgic writers on this site that you enjoy !
I seem to recall walking around the inside of the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill on or about Saturday July 12 2002. Perhaps now the flea markets are only on Sundays.
mrbillyc and Lost Memory, you are so right. I, too, remember the eateries that mrbillyc has mentioned.
South Amboy NJ : From about February 1967 I remember a Honeymooners skit that Gleason and company did on The Great One’s variety show from Miami Beach :
Norton : Hey, Ralph, I hear that Jackie Gleason’s from our Brooklyn neighborhood right here !
Kramden : Norton, don’t you know anything ? Jackie Gleason’s not in Brooklyn ! He’s in the “sun and fun” capital of the world !
To get a good idea of the size of the building, go to the northwest corner of Jamaica Avenue and Merrick Blvd. and look north along the side of the building on Merrick to see how big it is !
I think you meant to write that the building is alive with all our memories, instead of “alove”, but it is also most certainly “a love with all our memories” as well !
Yes, Bway, I noticed that we posted at exactly the same time!
I join you in your hope that the Ridgewood Theater will continue to thrive.
KenRoe, please take the time to read as much of this lengthy Ridgewood Theater page as you can, because it is a “wailing wall” and message board of sorts for many of us present and former Ridgewood-ites, and, as such, amply proves that a theater is more than just brick, plaster, paint, screen and ticket booth : it is people, and their collective memories and experiences !
Bway, your car thefts read quite gruesome. Like a Stephen King or Clive Barker horror story : “Blood Car” ! Like King’s novel, “Christine”. Ironically, I remember going with my dad and the younger of my two uncles to shop for a new car for my uncle and his family, at this inexpensive dealership near Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Pkwy.
Speaking of the Ridgewood library : I was there Friday November 10 1989, and a black man named Mr. Wilson who had just started working there, also just found out that his car, parked across the street at P.S. 93, had just been broken into. Welcome to Ridgewood !
I have always felt that having a car in NYC was more of a liability than it was an asset.
I, too, have gotten used to suburban quiet and space. No graffiti, no boom boxes, no car alarms. Moving back into NYC would require some re-adjustment, though I still work in NYC.
Thanks for the additional photo, KenRoe. It makes me, too, want to return to the Ridgewood Theater and see a movie there once again.
I wonder how the Ridgewood Theater can look so great and yet be open so little compared to its busier, earlier days.
I know what you mean about car theft and break-ins. My father’s sister and parents suffered from it in Cypress Hills and Woodhaven in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. My wife suffered from it in Flushing, Queens, and midtown Manhattan, 1990-92, despite taking out the radio from the dashboard and putting a “No Radio” sign behind the windshield.
I’m still a city kid at heart, also. You can take me out of Ridgewood, but you can’t take Ridgewood out of me !
“A few months after that photo was taken, my stay in Ridgewood came to an end.”
Where did you move to ?
Now that you mention it, I have a distinct memory that the houses on the southeast side of Linden Street between St. Nicholas and Cypress Avenues were three family, three-story houses, with three-window curved bay fronts. I last caught a glimpse of those houses when I visited Father James Kelly at St. Brigid’s rectory on Friday July 30, 2004, eight days after he had been mugged there.
From music coming from the Seuffert home to a priest being mugged in his own home : what a change for the worse in forty years !
KathyO, I do not know if Robert Osolinik had an older sister who graduated St. Brigid in 1966 and then attended Christ The King High School. Perhaps AprilW or DABOC might know.
AprilW, even I, with my memory, can’t help you with your question about the vertical Ridgewood Theater sign. Kind of reminds me of “The Hot L Baltimore”, though. Wonderful “Barney Miller” and “Night Court” black humor which I somehow never enjoyed.
KathyO, the “Brooklyn” side : many members of my mother’s family lived at 412 Harman Street between Wyckoff and Irving Avenues from 1929 until my aunt sold it in 1987.
The younger of my two uncles lived with his family at 219 St. Nicholas Avenue, the north corner of St. Nicholas and Greene Avenues, until they moved to Bethpage, L.I. in June 1972.
Thank you, Lost Memory, for your photo of Linden Street. Such views of Ridgewood are embedded in my genetic makeup : in my DNA and RNA.
Yes, I think Sal’s was called Four Barbers. I remember the sayings on the plate glass windows :
“LAUGH AND THE WORLD LAUGHS WITH YOU. CRY, AND YOU CRY ALONE !”
And Bonafide Opticians next door, then Corato Pizza as one headed towards Myrtle Avenue and the RKO Madison.
Yes, postal zone Ridgewood Bklyn NY 11227 and the part of 11237 in Queens became Ridgewood Flushing NY 11385 in January 1980. My comment was mostly for the benefit of Ken Roe, who had the Ridgewood identified as being in Brooklyn on his photo site.
No, but it seems to be worse now, from what I’ve read. I haven’t been inside since September 12, 1992, so I can’t write from recent personal experience.
Joe’s Army and Navy Store, to the west of the Ridgewood Theater, on the same (north) side of Myrtle Avenye ? Yes, I think it’s still there, albeit maybe under a different name.
Thanks, Bway. Both the Ridgewood and Madison Theaters lie along Madison Street, albeit on opposite sides of both Madison Street and Myrtle Avenue. If you check it, you will find that the RKO Bushwick lies along Madison Street as well.
I did NOT go into the Liberty Dept. Store that the Madison has become, today. I was last in there on Wednesday July 24, 2002 to buy T-shirts, for my dad, which I ended up wearing instead.
Thanks, Bway. It looks like three buildings in one : the smallest part, which fronts on Myrtle Avenue, and contains the marquee and outer lobby, is still a good-sized building, about as big as the adjacent buildings that front on Myrtle Avenue, and a story taller (?). The largest part, with the angled silver-white roof, is the inner lobby and cinemas themselves, and the second largest part, at the southern corner of Cypress Avenue and Madison Street, has the water tower and backup equipment : ventilation, heating, water supply, and air conditioning.
I was just in one of the adjacent buildings about an hour ago, 11 a.m. Tuesday April 4 2006, buying pants : Carl’s Army and Navy Store, two doors to the east of the Ridgewood Theater. The two people who waited on me said the Ridgewood is non-busy on weekdays, but very busy on weekends and holidays, especially when the kids are off from school. The pretty young lady who works in Carl’s said the Ridgewood is dirty inside : the floor is sticky, and should be cleaned up.
My wife was in Carl’s just about seven years ago, buying me pants, and was waited on by that young lady, and, as a result, said it should be re-named Carlita’s, because the young lady was the only person she saw at work inside.
Thanks, Warren, for the shot … from when the Trylon was still standing in the NY World’s Fair !
Thanks for posting the link to that clip, Warren. Film Forum in lower Manhattan used to have live piano accompaniment to silent films during certain screenings.
Our sensibility has changed so much since 1917 that we, or at least I, now have to watch a commentary to understand what was so scary about “Caligari” when it first came out : Cesare, the sleepwalker, slowly but surely sneaking up on a sleeping victim, totally unaware of him, and hence, totally vulnerable TO him. Hence, the danger and the horror of it. It’s similar to the shower scene in “Psycho” that way.
Instead of “Cinemart”, “CinArt”, which sounds like “sin art” ?
I know what you mean, Warren, about the name “Cinemart”. Kinda sounds like “Mini Mart” to me.
Silent horrors with “live” piano accompaniment:
Like the scene in the film “Schindler’s List” in which the Nazi soldier is playing Mozart on the piano while the ghetto Jews are being shot up by other Nazi soldiers, and Krystallnacht is happening all around.
Ghost A Go Go, eh ? Thanks, RobertR !
Lost Memory, I completely agree with you !
Welcome, eddiboo ! Thanks for your e-mail address !
Come join the fun on the Ridgewood Theater page (# 4021) !
Yes, Bway, we posted simultaneously again !
If that’s not proof of fan devotion to the Ridgewood Theater, then I don’t know what is !
Great ideas and memories, Bway ! Keep ‘em coming !
Lost Memory, I agree with you.
SteveD, thanks for posting your latest comment !
Thank you so much, KenRoe, for taking such an interest in, and documenting so well, a theater that is so much a part of our lives !
Bway, you said one of my magic words …. THE TWILIGHT ZONE !!!!
I am a HUGE fan !
Thank you, KathyO ! I’m glad you enjoy my reminiscing. mrbillyc, you are most welcome. RobertR, I agree with you.
KathyO, I believe the correct spelling may be “old Kirschbaum gang”. I’m glad that you, too, remember Father Kelly from St. Brigid. What was, to you, “the old Robert Hall” at Irving and DeKalb Avenues, was, to my Uncle John, “the new Robert Hall” when he returned from WW II overseas service in Africa in the Signal Corps. He needed some civilian clothes and he got them there. About thirteen or fourteen years before, when it was the Imperial Theater, he saw the Lugosi “Dracula” there, and got scared when he returned home to 412 Harman Street, found himself locked out, and waited on the front stoop, watching it get darker and darker outside !
Right on, Lost Memory !
KathyO, I seem to recall both “Hard Days Night” and “Help” playing at the Ridgewood Theater. It’s interesting that the movie provoked the same screaming girls reaction as the Beatles' live appearances, so that, thanks to all the neighborhood movie theaters, those who could not see the Beatles live, could also hear thousands of girls screaming their heads off, drowning out the Beatles' music.
KathyO, I hope I am one of the nostalgic writers on this site that you enjoy !
Right on, Bway !
I seem to recall walking around the inside of the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill on or about Saturday July 12 2002. Perhaps now the flea markets are only on Sundays.
mrbillyc and Lost Memory, you are so right. I, too, remember the eateries that mrbillyc has mentioned.
South Amboy NJ : From about February 1967 I remember a Honeymooners skit that Gleason and company did on The Great One’s variety show from Miami Beach :
Norton : Hey, Ralph, I hear that Jackie Gleason’s from our Brooklyn neighborhood right here !
Kramden : Norton, don’t you know anything ? Jackie Gleason’s not in Brooklyn ! He’s in the “sun and fun” capital of the world !
Norton : What’s he doin' in Perth Amboy ?
To get a good idea of the size of the building, go to the northwest corner of Jamaica Avenue and Merrick Blvd. and look north along the side of the building on Merrick to see how big it is !
Yes ! Thanks for saying so, Bway.
I think you meant to write that the building is alive with all our memories, instead of “alove”, but it is also most certainly “a love with all our memories” as well !
Yes, Bway, I noticed that we posted at exactly the same time!
I join you in your hope that the Ridgewood Theater will continue to thrive.
KenRoe, please take the time to read as much of this lengthy Ridgewood Theater page as you can, because it is a “wailing wall” and message board of sorts for many of us present and former Ridgewood-ites, and, as such, amply proves that a theater is more than just brick, plaster, paint, screen and ticket booth : it is people, and their collective memories and experiences !
Bway, your car thefts read quite gruesome. Like a Stephen King or Clive Barker horror story : “Blood Car” ! Like King’s novel, “Christine”. Ironically, I remember going with my dad and the younger of my two uncles to shop for a new car for my uncle and his family, at this inexpensive dealership near Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Pkwy.
Speaking of the Ridgewood library : I was there Friday November 10 1989, and a black man named Mr. Wilson who had just started working there, also just found out that his car, parked across the street at P.S. 93, had just been broken into. Welcome to Ridgewood !
I have always felt that having a car in NYC was more of a liability than it was an asset.
I, too, have gotten used to suburban quiet and space. No graffiti, no boom boxes, no car alarms. Moving back into NYC would require some re-adjustment, though I still work in NYC.
Thanks for the additional photo, KenRoe. It makes me, too, want to return to the Ridgewood Theater and see a movie there once again.
I wonder how the Ridgewood Theater can look so great and yet be open so little compared to its busier, earlier days.
I know what you mean about car theft and break-ins. My father’s sister and parents suffered from it in Cypress Hills and Woodhaven in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. My wife suffered from it in Flushing, Queens, and midtown Manhattan, 1990-92, despite taking out the radio from the dashboard and putting a “No Radio” sign behind the windshield.
I’m still a city kid at heart, also. You can take me out of Ridgewood, but you can’t take Ridgewood out of me !
“A few months after that photo was taken, my stay in Ridgewood came to an end.”
Where did you move to ?
Now that you mention it, I have a distinct memory that the houses on the southeast side of Linden Street between St. Nicholas and Cypress Avenues were three family, three-story houses, with three-window curved bay fronts. I last caught a glimpse of those houses when I visited Father James Kelly at St. Brigid’s rectory on Friday July 30, 2004, eight days after he had been mugged there.
From music coming from the Seuffert home to a priest being mugged in his own home : what a change for the worse in forty years !
KathyO, I do not know if Robert Osolinik had an older sister who graduated St. Brigid in 1966 and then attended Christ The King High School. Perhaps AprilW or DABOC might know.
AprilW, even I, with my memory, can’t help you with your question about the vertical Ridgewood Theater sign. Kind of reminds me of “The Hot L Baltimore”, though. Wonderful “Barney Miller” and “Night Court” black humor which I somehow never enjoyed.
KathyO, the “Brooklyn” side : many members of my mother’s family lived at 412 Harman Street between Wyckoff and Irving Avenues from 1929 until my aunt sold it in 1987.
The younger of my two uncles lived with his family at 219 St. Nicholas Avenue, the north corner of St. Nicholas and Greene Avenues, until they moved to Bethpage, L.I. in June 1972.
Thank you, Lost Memory, for your photo of Linden Street. Such views of Ridgewood are embedded in my genetic makeup : in my DNA and RNA.
Yes, I think Sal’s was called Four Barbers. I remember the sayings on the plate glass windows :
“LAUGH AND THE WORLD LAUGHS WITH YOU. CRY, AND YOU CRY ALONE !”
And Bonafide Opticians next door, then Corato Pizza as one headed towards Myrtle Avenue and the RKO Madison.
Yes, postal zone Ridgewood Bklyn NY 11227 and the part of 11237 in Queens became Ridgewood Flushing NY 11385 in January 1980. My comment was mostly for the benefit of Ken Roe, who had the Ridgewood identified as being in Brooklyn on his photo site.