Ridgewood Theatre
55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
31 people
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My 1935 copy of the Brooklyn “Red Book” (A Complete Guide to Brooklyn Streets) confirms the 327 address given for the Cumberland Theatre. I’ve submitted it to CT after interviewing my mom (92) in Brooklyn and my aunt (90) in Jersey this morning. Their vivid recollections will be incorporated on that page once it’s up and running. Large Thanks to all who assisted.
EdSolero, the old postal zone number for that area was 5. It later changed to 38 prior to the use of zip codes. The cross streets were Greene Ave. & Fulton St., right by the old Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital.
Warren & Ed, “The Hill” was indeed a reference to the wealthy old Clinton Hill section. I used to live at 196 Clinton, between Willoughy and Myrtle, five blocks east of Fort Greene Park.
Not sure how addresses run and where the cross street would have been, but I know that Cumberland Street is near Fort Greene Park (I remember looking for parking and turning on to it when I took my daughter to a college fair at Brooklyn Tech last year). Perhaps “the Hill” refers to the area now known as Clinton Hill which is just to the east of Fort Greene.
BrooklynJim/LostMemory;
The Cumberland Theatre is listed in the 1926 F.D.Y. located at 327 Cumberland Street with a seating capacity given as 540. Same details in the 1927 and 1930 editions. The 1941 edition of F.D.Y. lists the same same details but it is (Closed).
Appreciated your info, Lost Memory (and also for the TZ/CT gremlins hard at work and play here – LOL!) Somewhere in my files, I believe, is one of those ancient Brooklyn Redbook Street Guides from the ‘40s. Theaters would be listed in the rear. The trick for me is to actually lay my hands on it to snag that info, so I’ll just keep this one on the back burner for awhile. Thx, LM.
To stay somewhat O/T on this ever-burgeoning Ridgewood Theater page, PKoch mentioned on 6/20 his dad’s liking the Myrtle Ave.-Richmond Hill trolley. (I think they were Peter Witt cars.) Recently, I obtained another DVD from SubwayAl (Alan I. Zelazo) over in Morris Plains, NJ, that has extensive color footage of this line in the ‘40s and very early '50s, including shots while passing the Ridgewood, the bank at the corner of Myrtle & Forest, the trip alongside Forest Park and the Jackie Robinson Parkway (the old Interboro), the apartment houses on the far side of Woodhaven Blvd. and finally terminating by the Triangle Hofbrau area of Richmond Hill near the RKO Keith’s (out of view) at Jamaica Ave. My own personal time machine, guys…
Was CT featured on some TV show recently or in a newspaper article? Or did it get a credit or mention that I missed in the recent A&E “Breakfast with the Arts” segments on Loews Wonder Theaters? There seem to be a lot of visitors to this site in the past couple of days, which might be lending to its instability. Yesterday around midday I noted that there were over 2000 guests as per the counter on this page and as of this writing there are 571! I usually see that number in the 250-350 range.
Lost Memory, if I can impose on you for a small favor, research-wise, do you have any resources or other ways to locate something about the old Cumberland Theater? (That was its name, according to my mom who attended many times with her sisters in the ‘20s and '30s.) It was located on the odd-numbered side of Cumberland Street, probably in the upper 300s between Greene Ave. and Fulton St. under the el station. Later it became an A&P and was that for many years. Today the area is sealed off as a small park or walking mall diagonally across from the Lafayette Ave. station of the A & C IND trains. I’ve not been able to find it on Google or on this CT site. Thx in advance for any help you can provide!
Thanks, Warren.
Thanks so much for posting this, KenRoe. I’ll show this to my father. His mother used to buy and read “The Chat”. It was delivered by trucks originating from Weirfield Street at Broadway in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.
My father’s mother remembered farms in Brooklyn and Queens, from about 1901 to 1920.
My dad remembers the “Richmond Hill trolley” as the predecessor of the B and Q-55 Myrtle Avenue bus, and still talks about it as his favorite type of trolley car.
For what it’s worth, the Ridgewood Theater was listed as being in Queens in the New York Daily News of Saturday, June 17, 2006.
‘The Chat’, Saturday December 23 1916…….
RIDGEWOOD’S NEW PLAYHOUSE WILL OPEN THIS AFTERNOON
Structure has been designed Along Lines of Modern Architecture
Involves Cost of $350,000
Decorations of Interior Very Pleasing—-To Give High Class Vaudeville and Moving Pictures
That Ridgewood, which was a farming section just a few years ago, has rapidly grown to a city in itself is evidenced from the fact that today will see opened a theatre that is as large as any of the Brooklyn playhouses and far more beautiful. The Ridgewood Theatre, as it has been named, is situated at Myrtle and Cypress avenues and extends through to Madison street. It has a seating capacity of 3,000 and involves an expenditure of $350,000.
The builders are well known Levy Bros. of 1-9 Montegue street, who also constructed the Bedford Theatre and the Fifth Avenue Theatre and scores of apartment houses in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The architecture is of the most modern type and the designs are simple yet pleasing to the eye. The front is made up of glased terra cotta and a spacious lobby is provided. The interior is decorated in marble and red silk moire tapestry. On the entrance to the mezzanine arcade is a large promenade and on both the orchestra and mezzanine floors are to be found lounging rooms for both ladies and men.
The building has been so designed that it is clear of all poles and the elevation of the seats is such that it permits a full view of the stage even to the last row. There are roomy loges on the balcony and two tiers of boxes.
The new theatre is readily accessible to all trolly lines leading into Ridgewood and those on the Myrtle avenue line from Richmond Hill and Jamaica.
The management will adopt a policy that will be in keeping with the beauty of the playhouse and will offer only the best grade of vaudeville numbers and high grade feature motion picture plays. The bill will be changed twice every week, this on Mondays and Fridays. There will be a matinee daily and the prices for the afternoon show will be 10 cents, while the evening shows will be 15 and 25 cents. For the opening week the management has secured an exceptionally interesting bill.
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I wonder why the Ridgewood theater was advertised as being on Myrtle and Cypress Aves when no portion of the building is actually located at that intersection
The Ridgewood Theater isn’t and was never located in Brooklyn either, but that didn’t stop them from saying it was…haha.
NUTS! Add “Cannot Find Server” to my aforementioned list as the latest loser of submitted posts. Just lost another one! Caramba y mierda del toro! All of us pride ourselves on taking the time to craft our little essays to be as entertaining and as informative as possible, only to have ‘em gobbled up into some black hole somewhere in Cyberspace. I tell ya, Peter, this site has more ups & downs than a hooker on El Cajon Blvd. on a Saturday night! It is in dire need of some fixing. Mebbe it grew too fast and outgrew its software and hardware capabilities?
Back to the ‘66 transit strike…your grandfather and my dad were two of the stubborn stalwarts by walking, and it may be what caused my dad to go out on disability later that year. The strike lasted for three weeks, through an early snowstorm and then the milder weather you recall. (January can often show its Janus-based faces, huh?) I remember getting a lift out to college classes at SJU, and also being a music nut, absolutely had to get the Hollies’ “Look Through Any Window” on Imperial. Great song and got it at Triboro Records on 165th St., right up the block from the Chock Full o' Nuts shop you cited regarding you and your dad. See? It all ties in. LOL!
Just as a fun P.S., folks always referred to Greg & me as the “M&M Kids.” He was Movies, I was Music – but then he also loved Music and I loved Movies. So there ya have it. Dual passions of a good life between a father and a son. Happy Father’s Day!
BklynJim, it works more often than not, I’ve found.
Heilige Schiese = Holy Shit !
It’s fun to be fluent in all the nicer words !
Tough ol' Irishman that he was, Quill used to refer to the newly-elected mayor as “Lindsley” just to tick him off. It worked, too! Hizzoner never had a clue how to work with any of the unions.
SteveD, really glad ya liked those oldtime pix!
On a side note, an unhappy side note, I’ve gotta add here and now that I may not decide to “live” on the CT site. Its goals are lofty, but it keeps crashing, a huge disservice to the many hundreds of guests and a ton of diehard regulars. I couldn’t even log on this morning, let alone find a theater. How often does this happen? I’ve seen way too much of it during my short time here:
“Theater Guide"
"Page Not Found
"Use Our Search Engine"
"Oops. We couldn’t locate your theater.”
Helige Schiese! Does it EVER work??? Color me frustrated and disenchanted, not to mention pissed off…
Thanks for the link, BrooklynJim. I remember it well. I used to “live” on nycsubway.org and related sites the way I now “live” on Cinema Treasures.
I remember the fare going from 15 to 20 cents in summer 1966, and discussing it with family at New World Inn Chinese restaurant, right by the Myrtle el stairs on the south side of Myrtle just west of Wyckoff, and just across Myrtle from the Ridgewood Diner. You could almost climb through a window into a booth in that Chinese restaurant from the el stairs.
I remember worrying that a 5 cent fare increase would be an unendurable financial hardship for my family, and wonderinf where we would get the extra money needed.
The New World Inn took the place of Ridgewood Gardens Chinese Restaurant, just east of the RKO Madison Theatre, after the latter burned right before Christmas 1965. I remember it well. The B-55 bus I was taking home from school at Myrtle and Wyckoff was re-routed right up my home street, Cornelia Street.
I also remember well the Rockaways double fare, that long train ride from Ridgewood to the Rockaways, and my dad calling the trains that went to Jay St. “the wooden trains”, and the ones over the Williamsburg Bridge to Chambers St. “the steel trains”.
I also remember TWU boss Mike Quill telling some judge he could “drop dead in his black robes”. I think it was unusually warm in January 1966, which made me think the transit strike was later, in May or June.
The words “commuter” and “mediator” became indelibly etched in my mind from the WMCA radio coverage of that January 1966 transit strike. I remember feeling relieved that the strike was over, hearing Canarsie Line trains running under Wyckoff Avenue once again, walking home from St. Brigid’s School.
My grandfather stubbornly walking home from work over the Brooklyn Bridge during the January 1966 strike was the beginning of the end for him, heart and health-wise.
Thanks for jogging my memory this morning with the photographs. I remember the wooden trains went to Jay Street and the steel trains to Chambers St in NYC. The only time I got on the the steel one was when my Dad would take to his job in the Wall St area.
I do remember the Rockaways as a double fare zone. You paid when you got off and paid double when you go on. The train ride from Ridgewood took hours especially if you were going to Rockaway Park.
…And $1500-2K a month over the hill in ENY!
So, for all you (former) Ridgewoodites who are old enough to have schlepped around to school and jobs in the Q-Car era (‘58-'69) of the Myrtle el when tokens, not MetroCards, cost 15-cents* a ride, this URL is for you. I posted it a few days ago on the Peerless site, but that doesn’t get anywhere near the traffic that Ridgewood theaters do.
View link
Photog Michael Littman posted some 50 or so B&W pix covering the Bridge-Jay St., Navy St., and Vanderbilt Ave. stations up to Bway-Myrtle where service ended 10/69. Some are artsy, others evocative. Hope ya enjoy going back to a bygone era!
*Transit Union boss Mike Quill did get the city to raise it a nickel in the summer of ‘66. I remember it had cost me 30 cents for the double fare zone into Far Rockaway, but 40 cents to come home. I was not a happy beachgoer.
Ah, BklynJim, you’re like me, quite a wit !
A rent of $ 1700 per month was recently asked for a recently renovated apartment at Wilson Avenue and Cooper St. in Bushwick.
Those super cockroaches can pass as doormen for that kind of rent. San Diego as a playground for the very wealthy is not much different these days, but minus the big bugs on steroids. We save that kind of stuff for pro baseball.
Maybe the cockroaches are now the landlords, similar to Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”.
Nor I. But I’m not sure I could afford to live there again.
It’s an addiction. I would never want to live there again, but I can’t stay away.
It probably does, mrbillyc. I’ll check myself, if I think of it, the next time I go by there. Wow ! All us ex-Ridgewoodites returning to our old ‘hood !
I passed on the bus Monday evening and it was still there. My dad used to take us there (circa 1962)for ‘frozen custard’ that came out of a machine. Doesn’t the sign say “Madison Coffee Shoppe”? A high class name for a tiny snack bar!
wally1975, the last time I passed by, April 4, 2006, the Madison Coffee Shop was still there, if you mean that small, triangular, hole-in-the-wall breakfast counter, on the north side of Myrtle Avenue, just west of the bar that used to be on the northwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and Woodbine Street, and just east of what used to be Gottlieb’s Jewish Deli Restaurant, and diagonally across Myrtle Avenue from what used to be the RKO Madison Theater, and what is now a Liberty Dept. Store. The Madison Coffee Shop has a white sign, with, I think, black elongated art deco letters, and a red Coca-Cola sign at either end.
where is the new theatre on cooper???
will it hurt the ridgewood???
is the madison coffee shop open???
wally1975