RKO Madison Theatre

You have to go around to the back and sides of the Madison on Wyckoff Avenue and Madison Street to get a good idea of its true size. The frontage on Myrtle Avenue is deceptively small. The same is true of the RKO Bushwick, even more so, with its “Flatiron Building” type “nose”, where the marquee once was, at Bway, Howard Avenue, and Monroe Street : stand on the southwest corner of Madison Street and Howard Avenue, and look diagonally across that intersection to the northeast corner occupied by the Bushwick to get a good idea of its true size.

To do the same for the Ridgewood, one needs to go to the eastern corner of Cypress Avenue and Madison Street, and look diagonally across to the Ridgewood at the western corner.

Panzer65, I also appreciate that NY Times quote, because it correctly places the RKO Madison in Queens.

You’re welcome, Panzer65. Your cautions about going “beyond that door” are right-on, and well worth heeding.

You can get SOME idea of what this once beautiful theater looked like from the photos that Warren and others have posted links to.

MrBill, thanks for the New York Times article. Here’s a quote from it :

“The Madison was built in 1927 for burlesque and vaudeville and was the second largest theater in Queens, behind the RKO Keith in Flushing.”

I never knew the Madison was the second largest theater in Queens. Thanks. As to “blight”, all I can think is : the presence of an ugly store that gave no hint that the building it is in, was once a beautiful theater. The restoration of the baroque facade would serve as a reminder that the building was indeed once a theater.

Thanks in advance for asking if you can look “beyond the door”. I’ll be eager to read what you find out, once you’ve posted it here.

Thanks Bway & Peter K.,
I may be stepping into The Twilight Zone beyond that door, excellent view upon the once proud RKO Madison and its possible hidden treasures.It just adds to the mystique, these mysteries of unseen areas that are waiting to be discovered.

Bway, really puts the whole mystery into perspective, we must remember that unfortunately there was a fire, so if anything remains it may be water damaged, soot accumulation,or the bleak possibility that because of these circumstances,the manager may not allow access to areas not open to the public, which may present a hazard. The next question is if that happens,no one including CT members will ever venture to areas that should be documented and photographed for people like myself who want to experience first hand what this once beautiful theater looked like.

The intoduction is incorrect in it’s final sentence above, which says something to the effect of “the current retail space only uses the former lobby, and the theater may be intact inside”. That isn’t correct, the Liberty Department store uses the whole downstairs auditorium from the stage to the inner and outer lobbies. Nothing is intact in the theater, at least at ground level. The only thing that “could” be intact is perhaps the ceiling dome, and perhaps the top of the walls, and perhaps, maybe part of the balcony “behind the door”, but other than that, NOTHING remains, and nothing is visable in the whole store, except you can see the physical curve of the balcony as it stretches across the former theater.

Peter, thanks for confirming when the fire was. I thought it was after the theater closed, but before converting to retail.
Ironically, perhaps if it didn’t burn, they wouldn’t have gutted it as fully as it was gutted, as they wouldn’t have needed to. But the fire probably really damaged a lot of the interior, if not just the fire itself, but the water when putting it out, and then what the fire and water didn’t destroy, the soot and smoke from the fire would have really destroyed everything else…. So really, even if by some slight chance the upper portions of the walls and the ceiling dome remain “behind that door” in the balcony, it’s probably heavily damaged from the soot, and then let’s not forget it’s been another 30 years since the fire. Sadly, even if we “look beyond the door”, it would probably be disappointing, but it is possible, the upper walls and what’s left of the balcony could be still there, even if in shambles.

Bway, the fire was between The Theater and Consumers. I remember looking into the charred interior in April 1979, and have posted above about it, probably more than four years ago. I don’t know the exact date of the fire. I’m guessing it was between November 1978 and February 1979.

Yes, the mystery of what may remain of the theater “behind that door” IS very intriguing !!!!

Panzer65, I’m glad I made you feel like James T. Kirk.

Now, to switch to a 1975 demonic possession – horror movie :

“Panzer65 and Bway have gone ………. BEYOND THE DOOR !!!!!!!”

“WHERE OLD THEATRE OBSESSION GROWS …. AND GROWS …. AND GROWS !!!!”

Or, you might go through that door into a balcony seat and back into the past and see a movie up on that huge old screen …. next stop : The Twilight Zone !

It’s funny; I thought about asking the guy up near the front of the store (the manager?) if I could take a few shots inside the Liberty, but I didn’t feel good. Maybe I should have asked anyway. Maybe he wasn’t even the manager; just another cashier. But I will ask if I go back in October.

Maybe someone on the board who remembers the Madison when it was still a theater could meet me at the store and look around with me.

My last visit was July of last year, I posted what I had taken in dated July 14, 2007. Hopefully it will be more detailed, and of course, the photos to prove it.

Panzer65, I hope you do, and that, once you have, you write about it here.

Yes, Panzer65, Peter.K = PKoch. I don’t know if such a computer program exists. I agree, the only real way to solve the mystery would be to ask the manager for access to areas not open to the public. Do you intend to do this ?

It would be great if there were some sort of architectural graphics computer program, into which digital photos of both the RKO Madison as it once was, as a movie theater, and as it is now, as a Liberty Department Store, could be input, and it would then generate, as output, plan, elevation, section (two-dimensional) and axonometric (solid) drawings of the RKO Madison as both a theater and as a Liberty Department Store, to help answer such questions as, are the balcony seats and ceiling still behind that door up in the furniture department ? Was the grand staircase jackhammered out, or is it still behind some wall ? etc.

I have a tentative trip to the City planned for October, and I’ll ask if I can take a few photos inside the Liberty Department Stores. Other than being a little bigger inside than it looks from the outside, I couldn’t visualize it as ever having been anything but a bargain department store. Maybe someone who remembers it when it was still a theater can connect the dots.

What I was saying, is basically what Warren said too…. The furniture store is NOT in the balcony where the seating was, but what I called the “balcony Mezzanine”. I don’t know what the correct term for that area would be, but it’s the area you would come to after ascending the grand staircase, but you are still not in the seating area yet. I severely doubt they leveled the balcony seating area, which is probably all still behind that door upstairs in the furniture area, to the left in the middle when you first come up. I believe that door leads to the white area in Warren’s photo, on the right of the photo, which would be the middle of the actual balcony.
As for the grand staircase, wheather or not the grand staircase was removed is up for debate, as I have no idea, but the current staircase in the store looks nothing in structure to what the grand stairway looks in Warren’s photo of the Madison foyer. They either jackhammered it up, or closed it in behind a wall, and then built the current store stairway, which if jackhammered, may lead to where the original staircase led, or is a totally new structure that they added. That stairway has been there since the Odd Lot days, so whatever happened happened soon after the theater was gutted.

As for warren’s photo of the foyer, I “think” that the outer lobby would be to the left (along with Myrtle Ave), and the auditorium would be to the right, but I am not sure of that.