Ridgewood Theatre
55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
31 people
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ok are you trying to be a wisea$$. Yes I meant the movie. When you live in NYC seeing someone 6"3' with big feet is nothing odd. You guys a a goof but hey if it keeps this page moving wtf. :)
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 …
Haha. I’m 6 foot, and wear a 13 (sometimes 14 shoe), but lickily was never mistaken for Bigfoot when in a theater!
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.
Ok wake me up someone. I was living on Grove between Mrytle and Wyhkoff from 1977 -1980. For some reason I recall this theatre back then as a UA Ridgewood. Pleas correct me if I am wrong. I saw Sat night Fever and Sasquatch there. I knew the UA district manager so I had free run of the place as far as not paying to get in and free refills on drinks and sitting in the then closed balcony.
Thanks, mrbillyc, that’s beautiful. I recall similar views of the RKO Madison from outside Sal’s barber shop, on the western corner of St. Nicholas and Woodbine, and, going from there towards Myrtle, from just outside Bonafide Opticians and Corato’s Pizza.
Thanks for the heads-up on the Our Neighborhood column in the Times Newsweekly. I’ll go there when I leave here. For too many weeks, it seems, the Times Newsweekly HAD no Our Neighborhood column.
I, too, will always feel connected to Ridgewood.
“Let’s keep our fingers crossed for both Ridgewood and THE Ridgewood!”
Agreed ! It would be such a shame, and so senseless, if the Ridgewood closed, because it’s the longest continuously running theater in NYC and vicinity, and there is no other movie theater for miles around.
mrbillyc, I think I still owe you a private e-mail, and I am sorry for not having replied.
Thanks, Bway, for your good thoughts.
Long live Ridgewood and THE Ridgewood!
Agreed Bill for both Ridgewood itself’s future (which I see nothing but good things), and of course the Ridgewood Theater. I want nothing more than to be proven wrong by PKoch’s optomistic outlook for the Ridgewood Theater’s future after the Atlas opens….
I consider myself a lucky person to have enjoyed many a movie at the RKO Madison, and to have been able to see the chasing lights and the letters R-K-O light up on the marquee from our stoop at 17-13 Woodbine Street. On rainy days the lights reflected off the wet bricks on the six family homes! I think I still mourn the loss.
By the way, my dad is mentioned in the Our Neighborhood column in the Times Newsweekly this week, 2/6/06. His graduation photo from PS77 was submitted by a classmate who wrote a nice article. He got a real kick out of it. My family ties to Ridgewood go back to the 1880’s on my mom’s side, and 1917 on my dad’s side, so you can see why I will always feel connected to my ‘hometown’.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed for both Ridgewood and THE Ridgewood!
Regards…bill c.
Yes. My mother used to call those crappy junk stores “those little shit shops”, as opposed to quality stores like Protass and Lobell’s, and saw them as a sure sign of the deterioration of the neighborhood. Yet, they were, and are, preferable to vacant lots and buildings that become “shooting galleries” for junkies, or places for the homeless to squat.
Yup, it’s funny how the “crud” wears off right around the Ridgewood Theater. It lasts from about the el (Madison Theater) to about the Ridgewood theater, and then it’s fine once past that around Putnam/Cypress.
Again, it’s not that I find it “bad”, just cruddy or seedy. The stores are crappy junk stores, and the look of that block or two is just a “has been” seedy look to it, right to this day.
The loss of the Madison as a viable building on that block around that time may have spurred the seediness of that block. But then, we can ask, why didn’t it recover when the Madison became a store ?
I know what you mean about Myrtle between Wyckoff and Cypress. I can feel the grunge and the crud pressing into me as soon as I step off the L train at Myrtle Avenue, and it continues as I walk east on Myrtle, despite that old and familiar Optimo Cigar sign. I can feel it fall off of me as soon as I cross Cornelia Street and pass that little McDonald’s Express across from Sterling Optical and Catalpa Avenue.
Unfortunately, you are absolutely correct. The section of Myrtle to about the Ridgewood Theater to the Madison Theater (el tracks) began to deteriorate (getting seedy) in the late 70’s, right around when the Madison Theater closed and sat there as an abandoned hulk. And it never really recovered completely, as that last block of Myrtle before heading under the el is still a little seedy, or at least grungier than the rest of Myrtle (again, not to say “bad”, but just “seedy”).
I wonder if it was in fact the loss of the Madison as a viable building on that block around that time which spurred the seediness of that block.
I think the only way Ridgewood has become a “bad” neighborhood is the increase in crime over the past forty years, but still, nothing like drug shooting wars on the street, or “Fort Apache The Bronx”. And no, no abandoned buildings. I think the worst of it was the RKO Madison Theater sitting gutted and derlelict from late 1977 to whenever the first store within it, opened.
I know I’m repeating myself, but I remember a sign on the RKO Madison in late February 1978 :
THIS IS HOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STARTS TO DECAY !
IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, CALL (PHONE NUMBER) …
There seems to be some sort of misunderstanding here that Ridgewood is a “bad” neighborhood or something. mrbillymc is absolutely correct. Bushwick and Bed-Stuy are in fact beginning to come back, and are showing the beginning stages of gentrification. However, Ridgewood really has nothing to “come back from”. It never became a bad, abandoned, and run down neighborhood like Bushwick did. RIdgewood always remained a stable, working class neighborhood. The only place Ridgewood deteriorated a small bit was right around the Buswick border, and on Myrtle from about the Madison theater to the Ridgewood theater. But even there, it only got a little “seedy”, not a terrible neighborhood. Ridgewood had just about zero abandoned buildings, right through the 70’s and 80’s. It never got that bad at all like Bushwick did. If anything, Ridgewood’s fortune is now spreading into Bushwick, not the other way around.
That beigng said though, I LOVE your idea for the Ridgewood Theater….even if a pipe dream…..
To add another dimension to this ongoing discussion, this morning I heard a local piece on WNYC-FM (during Morning Edition) about Brooklyn real estate. They commented that many people are outpriced in Manhattan have moved to Brooklyn in recent years. They specifically mentioned the gentrification going on today in Bedford Stuyvesant and Bushwick. Now if Bushwick can come back, surely some of this will spill over to Ridgewood. Unfortunately, this kind of gentrification will forever change the ‘working class’ flavor of these neighborhoods but it sure beats seeing block after block abandoned or burned (think Bushwick in the late 1970’s). As for the theater itself…my pipe dream is that it gets landmarked and can not have its usage changed. I imagine it being converted back to one theater and used for the arts and community events that require a large venue. I now live in Middlesex county NJ and there are several old vaudeville and movie theaters that are used for live events (Count Basie Theater in Red Bank and the (former RKO)State Theater in New Brunswick come to mind).
We can dream, can’t we??
“Even when I still lived in Ridgewood, I "abandoned” the Ridgewood for “better theaters”, and that was two decades ago, and the Ridgewood was only a two or three block walk away from my house!"
I did much the same !
What about strong Brooklyn commercial strips near Ridgewood and Bushwick ? That supermarket at Wyckoff and Putnam seems to be the only one of its size within a mile radius of itself, or am I wrong, and have overlooked one ?
I don’t know too much about the stores that will come into the Atlas terminal, however, I read they are to be “higher end”. That is good for the Myrtle and Fresh Pond corridors retail, as they are not exactly “higher end” stores, but rather just average stores, nothing like “mall material” anyway.
Other ocmmercial strips off hand I can think of would be Steinway St in Astoria, Main St in Flushing, Bell Blvd in Bayside, and others, that are at least as “strong” as Myrtle or Fresh Pond. Personally, I find the stores for example on Steinway St to be of a “higher quality” than Myrtle (or Fresh Pond for that matter), and many of these other areas don’t have a theater anymore.
Back to the theater.
Even when I still lived in Ridgewood, I “abandoned” the Ridgewood for “better theaters”, and that was two decades ago, and the Ridgewood was only a two or three block walk away from my house! Unfortunately, the Ridgewood hasn’t gotten better in that time. The Ridgewood’s management may be it’s own worst enemy, and for decades already. They really should have upgraded or renovated it a long time ago. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the Ridgewood Theater, and will absolutely loose a piece of myself when/if it closes, but I know myself from going there in the 80’s and 90’s that it was then already unfortunately a “stick to the floor” theater. Maybe it got better (but I doubt it). There was a reason as a teenager and in my 20’s that my friends and I went elsewhere to see a movie.
And now with this new policy of only showing movies in the evening has to hurt it further. Obviously there’s a reason they are doing this (probably because they aren’t making a profit staying open in the afternoon). This new policy can only make things worse. How can they possibly show a profit on a schedule like was posted above?
Even if only half or even a quarter of the Ridgewood’s clientele leaves for the new theater. That’s a base the Ridgewood can’t possible afford to loose.
Bway, I hope the Ridgewood Theater survives. I can’t see people taking the Q-55 bus and then walking for twenty minutes to get from lower Ridgewood (on the Bushwick / Brooklyn border) to see a movie at Atlas Park, if their homes are within a 15-minute walk of the Ridgewood Theater.
Where are these strong commercial strips within Queens (and Brooklyn), some stronger than the Myrtle and Fresh Pond corridors ?
When is the Atlas Terminal Multiplex due to open ? What type of stores will be in Atlas Terminal Park ?
PKoch, I agree with you that it is still a very busy and thriving commercial center on both Myrtle and Fresh Pond Rd. The Atlas Terminal will definitely not kill either of those commercial strips, as the type of stores that are on both of those streets are not the type of stores that will be in the Atlas Terminal Park.
That being said though, it still doesn’t add up well for the Ridgewood Theater itself. There are plenty of strong commercial strips within Queens (and Brooklyn), some stronger than the Myrtle and Fresh Pond corridors, and they don’t have a theater…. So I really feel this new multiplex will not be good for the Ridgewood. And the Ridgewood’s current policy of one or two movie times in the evening now (if that is still in effect) is not helping matters. The writing seems to be on the wall unfortunately.
Myrtle Avenue between Wyckoff Avenue and Fresh Pond Road, and Fresh Pond Road between Myrtle Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue, are still very busy and thriving commercial streets. I don’t see people taking the Q-55 bus and then walking for twenty minutes to get from lower Ridgewood (on the Bushwick / Brooklyn border) to shop at Atlas Park. But that area could use a good bookstore. The only one I know of is the Book Kingdom, on the south side of Myrtle Avenue in Glendale, just east of Fresh Pond Road, the LIRR overpass, and Central Avenue.
This is very disheartening. It appears the Ridgewood’s reign may be coming to an end. That can’t possible be a renovation schedule (like I said, just run as a 4-plex while renovating each of the 5 theaters).
I still predict the Atlas Terminal will be the final nail in the coffin the Ridgewood. It will be a sad day for me, as I have so many memories in that building. I hope Peter is proven right, and I am proven wrong about the fate of the Ridgewood after Atlas opens, but I am not optomistic. The current schedule is not encouraging.
Warren, that’s either a good sign or a bad sign. Either they are renovating it, or they are “in trouble”, and switched to an evening only format. I fear for the latter, as it being a 5 plex, they could easily close one theater at a time completely to renovate, and still keep the remaining four open.
It would be interesting to get a map of NYC and plot on it the Ridgewood Theater, and all the theaters adjacent to it in every direction, including the proposed Glendale Atlas Terminal multiplex.
Draw straight lines from the Ridgewood Theater to all the adjacent theaters. Draw the perpendicular bisectors of all those straight lines radiating outward from the Ridgewood to all the theaters adjacent to it.
Those perpendicular bisectors will form an irregular polygon around the Ridgewood Theater, and will enclose an area surrounding the Ridgewood Theater, within which the Ridgewood is the closest theater, in terms of straight line distance, “as the crow flies”.
That will give a rough idea of how many people will continue to be patrons of the Ridgewood Theater, with or without the proposed Glendale Atlas Terminal multiplex.
Myrtle Ave is busy at night. The part of Myrtle Ave is a bit seedy from about where the Ridgewood Theater is towards the Madison Theater location, It’s been like that since the 70’s. However, going in the opposite direction from the Ridgewood Theater, it’s gets better and better block by block. Myrtle AVe is still a thriving biusiness district, and starting from about the Ridgewood Theater’s block and onwards towards Glendale.
As for the condition of the Ridgewood, it hasn’t changed at all since the 1980’s. It’s been sort of “seedy” looking when it was still one theater even! I used to go there all the time as a kid, and into my teens. Throughout the late 80’s and into the 90’s it was always a sort of “stick to the floor” theater. Once I was old enough to take the subway “alone” (without adults), my friends and I “abandoned” the Ridgewood for the Forest Hills theaters, like the Continental and the Midway.
The last time I was in the Ridgewood Theater was in 1991 to see “Problem Child” with John Ritter. The outside looked just like it does now, it really hasn’t gotten worse, it “always” looked like that, at least since the 70’s. Like I said, it was “seedy” looking when I was a kid in the 70’s already, and when it was only one theater (those multicolored mosaics were there then already near the ticket booth). The Madison was always the “fancy” theater back then, and if you wanted “clean” you went to the Oasis on Fresh Pond Rd (where my mother always took me as a kid). The Ridgewood may be an old workhorse, but I always remember it as the dirtiest of all the theaters that were in the area, both inside and out, and again, that goes all the way back to the 70’s.
Ironic, that the “seediest” theater was the one that survived out of all the others. They were always able to keep the “Status Quo” in maintenance, but I do believe the Ridgewood may get a real run for it’s money once the Glendale Atlas Terminal opens. They may have to begin thinking about upgrades, I’m sure nothing was done on the inside since I was last there in 1991 either, as the outside looks just like it always did…
So many people in Ridgewood are within walking distance of the Ridgewood Theater, I can’t see many of them taking a bus and then walking to the Atlas Park development at Cooper and 80th in Glendale instead.
I think Myrtle Avenue is still very busy at night.