Comments from PKoch

Showing 1,526 - 1,550 of 1,678 comments

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Mar 10, 2006 at 8:41 am

The Parthenon was a bowling alley, Parthenon Lanes, perhaps as soon as the fall of 1960, but definitely by the fall of 1961. I remember going in there with my mom after lunch at Koletty’s on school days.

Thanks for the answer of my house being a Stier house.

Yes, mrbillyc, there are about half a dozen six family homes on the same side of Cornelia Street, the northwest side, opposite my old house, as the former Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust bank.

I think the RKO Madison showed its last film around Halloween 1977. By late February 1978 it was a derelict hulk with a sign in front which read :

THIS IS HOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STARTS TO DECAY !
IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, CALL (212) …..

Yes, I have seen that Christina Wilkinson website on Ridgewood. I submitted comments and corrections to her on 1 August 2005 that she has yet to incorporate.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Mar 10, 2006 at 8:40 am

The Parthenon was a bowling alley, Parthenon Lanes, perhaps as soon as the fall of 1960, but definitely by the fall of 1961. I remember going in there with my mom after lunch at Koletty’s on school days.

Thanks for the answer of my house being a Stier house.

Yes, mrbillyc, there are about half a dozen six family homes on the same side of Cornelia Street, the northwest side, opposite my old house, as the former Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust bank.

I think the RKO Madison showed its last film around Halloween 1977. By late February 1978 it was a derelict hulk with a sign in front which read :

THIS IS HOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STARTS TO DECAY !
IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, CALL (212) …..

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Mar 10, 2006 at 4:26 am

I grew up in and lived at 1668 Cornelia Street, between Wyckoff and Cypress Avenues. It is a two-family orange brick house with brownstone stoop and brown sandstone trim, and pressed metal cornice.
Five rooms on the first floor, six on the second. The curved front has two windows on each floor facing Cornelia Street.

Given the above, can you tell me who designed and built my house ? I’ve always wanted to know. Thank you.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Mar 10, 2006 at 4:20 am

Thank you, mrbillyc, Lost Memory and Bway, for all this valuable information. I stand corrected.

Mrbillyc, there is now no six family brick house on Jefferson Ave. near Cypress Ave. that I know of. There are only two and three story, three and four family wood frame houses on the southeast side of Jefferson Avenue between the Fleur De Lis on the southern corner of Cypress and Jefferson Avenues, and its parking lot at mid-block. On the northwest side of Jefferson Avenue between Wyckoff and Cypress Avenues are the Bushwick High Annex, the garages of the houses that front on the southeast side of Cornelia Street, between Wyckoff and Cypress Avenues (my old home block), the back of Congregation Agudas Israel synagogue, 1616 Cornelia Street, one or two small homes that front there, and a larger building on the northern corner of Wyckoff and Jefferson Avenues.

So I conclude that the six family brick house on Jefferson Ave. near Cypress Ave. was demolished to make way for the Fleur De Lis catering hall.

Bway, thanks for reminding me that it was the extension of the Myrtle Avenue el to Metropolitan Avenue, first at grade, then as an elevated structure, that was responsible for the booming expansion of Ridgewood in 1905-1915.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Mar 9, 2006 at 9:48 am

Thank you, all. The opening date of the Ridgewood Theater being Dec. 23, 1916 makes more sense than 1913 because, so far as I know, Ridgewood only began booming and thriving as a residential area after WW I ended in 1918.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Mar 9, 2006 at 6:49 am

Oh, forget it, Lost Memory, but thanks anyway ! We can’t all look as good as Theodore Bikel or Leo Fuchs !

Best wishes for your search for the Ridgewood Theater’s opening date.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Mar 9, 2006 at 6:30 am

Thanks, Lost Memory ! I didn’t know I was Elvis.

I can’t speak elvish, as in “The Lord Of Those Things” trilogy.

Can I hire you as my publicist ? Will you work at scale ?

PKoch
PKoch commented about Loew's Valencia Theatre on Mar 9, 2006 at 6:18 am

Thanks, Peter Apruzzese. I was thinking Lafayette St. near where I work in lower Manhattan. I’m glad Suffern has a decent revival cinema as well.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Loew's Valencia Theatre on Mar 9, 2006 at 5:53 am

By “in their face”, I meant, in person, not trying to imply anything negative.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Loew's Valencia Theatre on Mar 9, 2006 at 5:52 am

So, the bottom line is, the Film Forum folks wouldn’t ley you turn the “frame” knob on the projector and correct the problem ? If so, I can imagine how frustrating that would be. I know you were trying to help them improve the quality of their presentation.

I’m sorry to read that Film Forum has apparently decreased in quality in moving from Watts St. to West Houston.

Where’s the Lafayette ? I think my next venture into avant-garde cinema will be to the Sunshine on East Houston in a few weeks to see “Stoned”, the British 2005 Brian Jones bio pic.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Loew's Valencia Theatre on Mar 9, 2006 at 5:35 am

Bob Furmanek, was this Film Forum on Watts St. or where it is now on West Houston ? I didn’t know you’d been in their face about this.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Loew's Valencia Theatre on Mar 9, 2006 at 5:14 am

Bob Furmanek, I suggest you e-mail your complaint directly to Film Forum.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Kew Gardens Cinemas on Mar 6, 2006 at 6:10 am

pmulins, there’s also the El Greco Diner on Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, just south of the Belt Parkway.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Mar 3, 2006 at 3:59 am

Warren, and everybody else who cares, there was also a closed-circuit fight broadcast at the Ridgewood on Tuesday, June 17, 1980, when I went there to see the film “Friday The 13th”. The fight was showing on the main level and the film was up in the balcony. I hadn’t been up to the balcony of the Ridgewood (with its beautiful elliptical lobby, which had an ornate, raised-relief ceiling) for about fifteen years.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Kew Gardens Cinemas on Feb 27, 2006 at 11:38 am

The more I read about this theater, the more I want to go there !

PKoch
PKoch commented about Casino Theatre on Feb 27, 2006 at 11:25 am

Dorothy From Oz, thank you for your story of “Deep Coat” !

The Starr was a small neighborhood theater in Bushwick, on Starr Street, just a few blocks southeast of Flushing Avenue. There should be a separate page for it.

If the Star was on or near Fulton Street, much more of a main drag than Starr Street, in or near downtown Bklyn, then it was much larger than the Starr Theater.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Empire Theatre on Feb 27, 2006 at 11:21 am

Thank you, BCNett, for this info !

PKoch
PKoch commented about RKO Bushwick Theatre on Feb 23, 2006 at 10:02 am

Which one ? RKO Bushwick or RKo Madison ?

PKoch
PKoch commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Feb 23, 2006 at 9:15 am

Bob Furmanek, thanks for the factoid about Jerry Lewis !

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Feb 14, 2006 at 4:59 am

East Coast Rocker, I usually succeed without trying too hard. Now that we know Bway and I are nothing odd in NYC, back to the Ridgewood Theater …

PKoch
PKoch commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Feb 14, 2006 at 4:25 am

Yes, East Coast Rocker, CT is a great place to make and rap with e-pals. Yes, thread drift can sometimes be a good thing. BTW, Ridgewood is almost totally in Queens, although, like Bushwick, it sits on the Brooklyn-Queens border.

The July 13 1977 blackout devastated Bushwick, but the National Guard was stationed on Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood so none of the stores there were looted. I was working in Auburn / Lewiston, Maine, at the time. My parents told me everything over the phone.

My best friend works in Chicago, and has lived there and in the Chicago area since August 1980. I first visited him there two months later. He’s been there half our lives, to date, so Chicago is almost as much home to me as NYC and vicinity.

There may be more waiting for you here than you think, that would make a trip from southern Maryland worthwhile. If you don’t want to drive, fly or take a train.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Loew's 46th Street Theatre on Feb 13, 2006 at 6:42 am

Thanks, Bway.

PKoch
PKoch commented about Loew's 46th Street Theatre on Feb 13, 2006 at 5:27 am

I, too, take pride in being a member of Cinema Treasures, have contributed much to it, and consider myself to be intelligent and courteous.

I merely answered East Coast Rocker’s question about the origin of the name Bananafish Gardens.

I will leave it to the management to decide, and act upon, what it considers to be irrelevant.

What more did you want to say about Loew’s 46th Street Theatre in Nrooklyn, NY ?

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Feb 13, 2006 at 5:17 am

Hi, Bway.

Lickily ? No, a little Sasquatch never crawled up to me and licked me in the Ridgewood or any other theater, mistaking me for its parent.

Yeah, I know, I’m leaving this wide open (with pun intended) for trolls to jump in and start posting about how they were serviced in porno theaters …

PKoch
PKoch commented about Ridgewood Theatre on Feb 13, 2006 at 4:54 am

Did you see a film about Sasquatch at the Ridgewood, or Sasquatch itself ?

I stand 6 ft. 3 inches and wear size 13 shoes, so I may have been mistaken for Sasquatch in the dark of the Ridgewood Theater by one of the shorter, Hispanic ushers.