PKoch, the link is http://www.myrecollection.com/ I did enjoy reading a good many of the recollections there. I’d sure like to see that 2004 Subway calendar.
Does anybody remember going to the Cross Bay Theater? We used to walk under the el in Ozone Park to get there. I actually remember the walk more than I remember the theater. I think we had to pass a cemetary that looked very spooky.
Thanks PKoch for the dentist link. Like that writer, I also like trains (long distance ones) and in a couple of weeks will be taking a trip on Amtrak from California to New York and back. I wish the trains were as luxurious as the ones in the movies, like North by Northwest and Murder on the Orient Express.
I don’t remember the el in City Line, but I do remember when they built the Grant Avenue subway to replace it. They tore down some houses across the street from my parents house to put it in and then there were empty lots left until years later when new houses were built. I believe those buildings were specially built to withstand the subway vibrations under their foundation.
Hi PKoch. I went to the Ridgewood a few times on dates, but I really don’t recall it the building. The only memory I have of the Embassy is that my brother took me there when I was very young and he got annoyed with me for getting popcorn stuck in my throat and we had to leave. I do remember the Valencia in Jamaica very well. It was quite impressive.
Someone mentioned the Arlington Library. My sister says she used to go there but I don’t remember it. I relate Arlington Avenue to our doctor’s office. His name was Catapano. What different times they were back then. We used to go to his office (which was also his house upstairs) without an appointment and wait for him to show up. His sitting room was crowded with patients. He also made house calls. He always showed up even if it was 1 a.m. Once, when he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me (I was about five) he brought a specialist to the house and they laid me on the dining room table. They decided I had appendicitis. Then my father drove me to the hospital and had it removed.
I’d never thought to look for a page on the Earl but your comment prompted me to do so. I saw that MVitale had found a made a comment there at /theaters/8834/ I never called the theater the “itch” and never realized how buggy it apparently was. I was long gone from the neighborhood by the time it turned porno.
Dennis Wall was in my 7th and 8th grade class but I didn’t know him well. I vaguely remember him being tall and blond. Do you know how he’s doing? My sister, Joan, graduated from St. Michael’s in 1973, I think, though it could have been ‘74. Hers was the last high school graduating class before they closed the school down due to the priest being killed.
Another movie story is when my friend turned 16, I was 15, and another friend, who was 14, decided to go to see West Side Story at the Rivoli theater in Manhattan. As we were not all 16, we almost didn’t get in until a man saw how disappointed we were and said we could go in with him. Luckily, he was truly a nice guy who went his way and let us go ours after we entered.
Wow, M.Vitale! I went to St. Sylvester’s (though I started at P.S. 214 until junior hight) and also went to St. Michael’s. I graduated from there in 1966. Your Aunt Millie had two daughters, Theresa and Utilia, the Dad was Sal who died fairly young. I’ve wondered what happened to the girls. They had cousins who used to visit named Mildred and Florence. What was Ben’s? I remember Bo-Peep, the grocery stores and a shoe store called Hauser’s. I worked as a teen in Woolworth’s and next door was Kenny’s.They were always competing. Also, fairly close to the Earl Theater was an ice cream parlor and a Chinese restaurant owned by a family named Yuen. My friends and I used to “walk up the Avenue” so often on errands for our parents, to go to the movies, and, especially in summer, when we’d get Italian ices from a place called Mom’s.
Back to the Earl. I saw so many movies at the Earl. Those were the days when you could sit in the theater all day if you wanted to. We had a crush on Elvis and to re-watch his film (was it “Girls, Girls, Girls?, or Blue Hawaii) we had to sit through Strategic Air Command again, featuring Jimmy Stewart and June Allison. When I was about 12, my parents sat on the adult side and I sat with my friends in the children’s section. The movie was "Some Like it Hot,” and my mother said my father was concerned that it wasn’t appropriate for children.
I came across this site tonight by accident but have spent the last hour reading about my old neighborhood’s movie theaters and surroundings. I found M. Vitale’s comments particularly interesting both because I knew a Vitale family who lived on my block on Forbell Street, and because I also used to go to Ariola’s and Jerry’s Records on Liberty Avenue. As a kid, I often went to the Earl Theater, which was a dive but the only show in town for a pre-teen. I remember watching Abbot and Costello Meet Jack in the Beanstalk and actually having to stand in the theater aisle, along with a bunch of other kids, because there were no more seats. On Saturdays, we’d get a slice of pizza for 15 cents or (if we had an extra nickel) a slice of Sicilian for twenty cents, and a coke for 10 cents, at some pizza joint along the way. It was next to Joseph’s Hair Salon. Then we’d go to the Earl for the children’s price of 26 cents and get the cheaper non-buttered popcorn for ten cents(?).
I guess I only went to the old Cross Bay as I moved out of the city by 1974.
PKoch, the link is http://www.myrecollection.com/ I did enjoy reading a good many of the recollections there. I’d sure like to see that 2004 Subway calendar.
Does anybody remember going to the Cross Bay Theater? We used to walk under the el in Ozone Park to get there. I actually remember the walk more than I remember the theater. I think we had to pass a cemetary that looked very spooky.
Thanks PKoch for the dentist link. Like that writer, I also like trains (long distance ones) and in a couple of weeks will be taking a trip on Amtrak from California to New York and back. I wish the trains were as luxurious as the ones in the movies, like North by Northwest and Murder on the Orient Express.
I don’t remember the el in City Line, but I do remember when they built the Grant Avenue subway to replace it. They tore down some houses across the street from my parents house to put it in and then there were empty lots left until years later when new houses were built. I believe those buildings were specially built to withstand the subway vibrations under their foundation.
Hi PKoch. I went to the Ridgewood a few times on dates, but I really don’t recall it the building. The only memory I have of the Embassy is that my brother took me there when I was very young and he got annoyed with me for getting popcorn stuck in my throat and we had to leave. I do remember the Valencia in Jamaica very well. It was quite impressive.
Someone mentioned the Arlington Library. My sister says she used to go there but I don’t remember it. I relate Arlington Avenue to our doctor’s office. His name was Catapano. What different times they were back then. We used to go to his office (which was also his house upstairs) without an appointment and wait for him to show up. His sitting room was crowded with patients. He also made house calls. He always showed up even if it was 1 a.m. Once, when he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me (I was about five) he brought a specialist to the house and they laid me on the dining room table. They decided I had appendicitis. Then my father drove me to the hospital and had it removed.
I’d never thought to look for a page on the Earl but your comment prompted me to do so. I saw that MVitale had found a made a comment there at /theaters/8834/ I never called the theater the “itch” and never realized how buggy it apparently was. I was long gone from the neighborhood by the time it turned porno.
I didn’t know Tina. Funny where life has taken us all. I never thought I’d end up in California. I’ve been here nearly 30 years now.
Dennis Wall was in my 7th and 8th grade class but I didn’t know him well. I vaguely remember him being tall and blond. Do you know how he’s doing? My sister, Joan, graduated from St. Michael’s in 1973, I think, though it could have been ‘74. Hers was the last high school graduating class before they closed the school down due to the priest being killed.
Another movie story is when my friend turned 16, I was 15, and another friend, who was 14, decided to go to see West Side Story at the Rivoli theater in Manhattan. As we were not all 16, we almost didn’t get in until a man saw how disappointed we were and said we could go in with him. Luckily, he was truly a nice guy who went his way and let us go ours after we entered.
Wow, M.Vitale! I went to St. Sylvester’s (though I started at P.S. 214 until junior hight) and also went to St. Michael’s. I graduated from there in 1966. Your Aunt Millie had two daughters, Theresa and Utilia, the Dad was Sal who died fairly young. I’ve wondered what happened to the girls. They had cousins who used to visit named Mildred and Florence. What was Ben’s? I remember Bo-Peep, the grocery stores and a shoe store called Hauser’s. I worked as a teen in Woolworth’s and next door was Kenny’s.They were always competing. Also, fairly close to the Earl Theater was an ice cream parlor and a Chinese restaurant owned by a family named Yuen. My friends and I used to “walk up the Avenue” so often on errands for our parents, to go to the movies, and, especially in summer, when we’d get Italian ices from a place called Mom’s.
Back to the Earl. I saw so many movies at the Earl. Those were the days when you could sit in the theater all day if you wanted to. We had a crush on Elvis and to re-watch his film (was it “Girls, Girls, Girls?, or Blue Hawaii) we had to sit through Strategic Air Command again, featuring Jimmy Stewart and June Allison. When I was about 12, my parents sat on the adult side and I sat with my friends in the children’s section. The movie was "Some Like it Hot,” and my mother said my father was concerned that it wasn’t appropriate for children.
I came across this site tonight by accident but have spent the last hour reading about my old neighborhood’s movie theaters and surroundings. I found M. Vitale’s comments particularly interesting both because I knew a Vitale family who lived on my block on Forbell Street, and because I also used to go to Ariola’s and Jerry’s Records on Liberty Avenue. As a kid, I often went to the Earl Theater, which was a dive but the only show in town for a pre-teen. I remember watching Abbot and Costello Meet Jack in the Beanstalk and actually having to stand in the theater aisle, along with a bunch of other kids, because there were no more seats. On Saturdays, we’d get a slice of pizza for 15 cents or (if we had an extra nickel) a slice of Sicilian for twenty cents, and a coke for 10 cents, at some pizza joint along the way. It was next to Joseph’s Hair Salon. Then we’d go to the Earl for the children’s price of 26 cents and get the cheaper non-buttered popcorn for ten cents(?).