Oasis Theatre
63-57 Fresh Pond Road,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
63-57 Fresh Pond Road,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 169 comments
Anyone remember the “punk rock” concert at The Oasis in 1978? The Ramones and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. The Queens locals wanted to kill them. Police were called and the show was cancelled. Now the Queens Museum is running a Ramones exhibit.
jgraif, are you Joseph N. Graif, Saint Francis Prep, Class of 1972, Miraculous Medal, Class of 1968 ? I am Peter Koch, SFP, Class of 1973. We spoke briefly about music from the film “2001” (“Atmospheres” by Gyorgy Ligeti)once in May 1972, at the Bedford Avenue L subway station. I don’t remember the unique progressive routine that the later marquee was lit with. I only saw one movie at the Oasis, on either the first or second Saturday of January 1976.
Its a junk store now.
Not only that, the CVS moved out about a year ago, and the “store” is now vacant.
the “later” marquee was lighted with a progressive routine that was unique and difficult to describe. the lights went on…off…on…off…and then “snarled”. it was really cool. does anyone remember this?
I was afraid of that when I saw them building the new CVS on the site of the old Meyer Chevrolet. I guess the Oasis will begin yet another chapter, and I hope that doesn’t include total demolition, even if the building as been partly destroyed by fire, partly demolished, and so forth. We shall see.
CVS built a new store a few blocks away and this will be closing shortly. They have banners hung announcing the property for lease.
I wish pictures would surface of the later marquee.
Wonder if the organ was still around when it was converted to a skating rink. That would have been cool to have the heritage as part of the modern.
This page from the New York City Organ Project has several vintage photos of the Oasis Theatre’s entrance and auditorium. Click on each image to open it to full size.
I would beg to differ, Bway. While there is nothing specific the entire shape of the building “reads” theatre.
Well, they tore off the whole right side of the theater, which is where the parking lot is now, that was the lobby area, etc, probably about ¼ or 1/3 the building. Also all the stores that were along Fresh Pond Rd are pulled off, which is where those bushes are in front. The auditorium is the only part that still remains and is the CVS. Inside, there’s nothing to remind you it was once a theater…if you didn’t know, you would never realize it was once a theater.
Funny thing when the picture came up I thought it was another church conversion because of the way the light pole appears. Then I saw the CVS sign.
I recall the restaurant before Aunt Bella’s was named Jimmy’s, a really good Italian place with Sinatra photos on the wall.
The Oasis was open well after 1976…in fact, I believe it’s last year of operation was 1981, as I remember going there to see a movie and get some Chinese food at the Fresh Pond Inn with my first paycheck as a paper boy at the age of 12 in 1981.
Of course, I fondly recall going there a couple of years later when it was a roller rink. It was a hot spot for teens back then, along with a place called “The Arena.”
I don’t remember the water fountain.
I do remember the bathrooms downstairs….they were continued to be used when it was a roller rink….I remember going down the stairs with skates on, haha…
I also know Aunt Bella’s. I was some other name in the early 90’s.
Some things I remember about the Oasis:
1) The water fountain in the lobby
2) The scary bathrooms downstairs
3) The Pez candy dispensers on sale at the snack counter
4) The Long Island Press depot around back. (I was a paperboy)
5) The Fresh Pond Inn (Chinese food)
6) The Italian place where Aunt Bella’s is now. (I think it was called Louis’s or something like that)
7) The used book store next to the Italian place.
Panzer, I have so many memories of the Oasis Roller World as a teenager in the 80’s, and from the 70’s seeing many disney movies there as a kid. Hard to believe it had fallen to be a “CVS”.
The Oasis Movie Theatre closed in 1979 not in 1977. I saw ‘Star Wars’ thereâ€"20 times in 1977 and another 4 times during the re-release in 1978.
http://tinyurl.com/ch42ey
The old Oasis roller rink, it was quite the place back in the Disco 70’s. Its so hard to imagine that, when walking into that drab CVS today.
Oh, and by the way, those fixtures survived into the roller rink days, and also were purple lighted. I think the bathrooms were in the same place as when it was a theater.
Also, the large stained glass fixtures high at the level of the ceiling in the auditorium remained into the roller rink days. I remember them being dimmed to just a slight glow when watching a movie, and then lit up again at the end of the movie.
They were usually completely off when the skating sessions were going on….but they would light them up at the end when they played the last song when the skating sessions ended, “New York, New York” was almost always the last song….those stained glass fixtures would be on then, along with the flashing strobe lighting, and they would brighten up when the session was over. The purple backlit fixtures were usually on the whole time, even during the skating sessions.
flamatt, yes, I also remember those purple lights in the fixtures. They were also in the round large fixtures under the balcony. They were interesting, as the fixtures were solid material. large, and round, and the light was sort of a “backlighting” behind them, which highlighted the roundness.
You’re welcome, flamatt, and thank you. The pizza place was and is Corato’s. The Fresh Pond Diner at Fresh Pond and Metropolitan (southwest corner)is now gone, as is the Fresh Pond LIRR stop.
Glad I came across this site. Fun to read about the place where I grew up. The info at the top said ‘Rocky’ was the last movie shown at the Oasis in 1976. I remember going to the Oasis in 1977 to see ‘Kentucky Fried Movie’, John Landis’s directorial debut. It sticks with me because this was the year we moved from Ridgewood to Florida. I saw a lot of movies at the Oasis since we lived like 2 or 3 blocks away. ‘The Exorcist’, ‘Tommy’, ‘Slap Shot’ to name a few. Here are my memories of the theater and area:
They always had the balcony closed for a couple of years at least up to 1977. There were 2 separate flights of stairs leading down to the bathrooms. The area outside the bathrooms was a fancy carpeted area similar to the between acts area of a Broadway theater. Don’t know why since the lobby was big enough. I seem to remember the lights down there had purple coverings. I remember the Karl Ehmer butcher across the street. There was also a taxi place across from Karl Ehmer. And further down Fresh Pond Rd closer to the El was a pizza place called Corado’s or something that had excellent Sicilian pizza. Seeing that the Oasis is now a CVS I can only imagine how many of the small businesses from back then are gone and replaced by corporate stores. Oh well. This time of year I can remember how clean and beautiful things were there when a snow storm rolled through. I lived right across from school, OLMM, and always liked it when school was closed due to the snow since I could make it to school with no trouble. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Yes, stevei, the Madison was at 54-30 Myrtle Avenue, on the south side, at Woodbine Street. It is now a Liberty Dept. Store. The number of its page on this site is # 4621.
havent commented since 06. i moved back to maspeth as i stated in my above comment. i always go to the cvs that is where the oasis used to stand. love reading the latest texts. wasent the Madison theater on myrtle ave?