Embassy Theatre

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.

ElaineW and MVitale, you certainly know and remember your old neighborhood well ! It’s like the discussions I started on the Ridgewood Theater page in spring and summer 2004.

Where was the Earl Theatre ? Does it have a page on Cinema Treasures ?

How funny! My cousin Dennis is doing fine. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife (a woman he met in Guam when he was stationed there). He has a few grandchildren, too.

I think 1974 or even 75 may have been the last graduating class from St. Michael’s.

What fun! Did you know Tina Suzdak? I think she, too, may have been in your grade.

Elaine: No, that wasn’t my Aunt Millie. She had Joseph, Linda and Cathy. My father’s name was Sal but that wasn’t him. My father was the mailman for the neighborhood, from Hill Street to Sheridan Avenue, on the side of Atlantic closer to Liberty.

My sister Loretta graduated from St. Mike’s in 1963 and my sister Corinne graduated in 1968. I graduated in ‘73. I remember Kenny’s because I used to buy my Barbies there! In the '70s, “Electric Lady” was a hip clothing store.

I also had cousins, The Walls, who lived in between the convents on Grant Avenue next to St. Sylvester’s. My cousin Dennis Wall may be about your age.

I was laughing about your movie stories. When I was 13, I was headed to the Earl to see “The Graduate” until my sister told my mother that it was “full of bedroom scenes” and she ran down the block to catch me.

Jack: No, not related to Masoni. My family lived on Sheridan, near the corner of Atlantic Avenue. And YES… the crumb buns were great!!

Elaine: My aunt Millie and cousins Joseph, Linda and Cathy may have lived on Forbell (or Eldert’s…not sure) on the side of Atlantic Avenue closer to Fulton St. We lived on Sheridan, on the other side of Atlantic, closer to Liberty Avenue.

I went out with Gregory Roman who lived on Forbell Street.

I think I saw that movie at the Earl too! I also remember seeing “House on Haunted Hill” and “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors” there, and running home in the dark, scared out of my wits!

I laughed when I read “Joseph’s Hair Salon”. Remember “Ben’s”? It was owned by Ben Gazzarra’s sister. Some other stores I remember on Liberty were Thom McAnn’s, Crystal’s, King John, John’s Bargain Store, Busy Bee (hamburger place), Bo-Peep (children’s clothing store), Haber Jewelry.

We went to St. Sylvester’s grammar school and St. Michael’s HS.

Love reading this stuff!!!

I think you might be referring to the Crescent Bakery. It was located next to the candy store on Fulton St. right off Crescent. As you came down the el stairs from the train it was on the right side -same side as Tilotta’s. All their pastries and cakes were put in pink boxes and tied with white string. My family’s favorite item from Crescent Bakery were their fantastic crumb buns. After Mass on Sunday morning everyone coming from Blessed Sacrament Church used to stop at this bakery and the line was literally out the door and sometimes almost to the corner! The best bakery ever. There was another very good bakery on Fulton between Autumn and Lincoln. It was Pabst’s Bakery. I went to Blessed Sacrament school with son Eric Pabst.
For MVitale: are you related to anyone who lived on Autumn Ave (50s/70s) by the name of Masoni?

Thank you, all ! Great memories ! Cypress Hills lives again !

I wish Karl B were back to read all this. Don’t know what ever happened to him.

Tim O, London Squire was the name I knew that restaurant by. Many thx!

Jack, I remember the Hamburg but not the contest!

And YES… Millie is my aunt!

We lived on Autumn Ave. between Fulton St. and Ridgewood Ave. We were on the side going towards Jamaica Ave. By the way, we used to know a Milly Vitale back in those days. Any relation?

Thanks, Jack Tomai. You'rw welcome to the correction on THE NANNY. I know about the Jahn’s in downtown Richmond Hill. I thought there may have once been another Jahn’s across Jamaica Avenue from the Valencia. There used to be a Jahn’s on Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills. I went there with a friend one Saturday in August 1982. We also saw “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy” that day at the Midway.

I was last in Jahn’s in downtown Richmond Hill Saturday July 8th 2006. As I’ve posted here before, I have literally been in brighter and livelier funeral homes, it was so dark and quiet and uncrowded, the last few times I’ve been in there. Also on July 8th 2006 I went into RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill. It’s still recognizable within as a movie theater, but there was a flea market going on in there when I was there. I spoke with a man named Bob who pointed to the kiddie section he had sat in there as a kid, fifty-odd years ago.

The RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill has a page on this site. I think it’s theater # 3972. I would be most interested in your memories of it. Thanks in advance.

I think the Hillside Roller Rink was at that wonderful skewed intersection of Hillside and Metropolitan Avenues, where Kew Gardens begins to segue into downtown Jamaica. I went there once as a kid of 12 in April 1968 with other kids from the Ridgewood YMCA.

Thanks for the correction on THE NANNY. My wife will kill me if she thinks I forgot the name of the movie we saw on our first date! Jahn’s Ice Cream Parlor was on Hillside Ave. next to Hillside Roller Rink and the RKO Keiths (a beautiful theatre in the 50s/60s). Can’t help out with the name of the bar on the border although my cousin Frank owned a tavern called the Autumn Cafe in the 50s located on the corner of Lincoln Ave and Atlantic Ave.

Thanks, Jack Tomai and BrooklynJim (love your accent, and how you spell it). Glad you enjoyed the Boston Baked Scrod.

Thanks, Jack, for your Ridgewood stories. I remember THE BABYSITTER on TV in 1968. I’ll check the release date on the IMDb.

www.imdb.com

No, I don’t remember Bette Davis' live appearance at the RKO Madison in 1962 for “Baby Jane”, but many thanks for mentioning it. I’m guessing that the ice cream parlor opposite the Valencia was a Jahn’s.

Are either of you guys familiar with “The Last / First Bar In Brooklyn”, about six blocks southeast of Fulton and Crescent, on the Brooklyn / Queens border, near where Fulton Street transitions into Rockaway Boulevard ? I passed it en route to the Cross Bay II at 92nd and Liberty on Easter Eve 1991 to see “Silence Of The Lambs”.

Huge-looking full moon rising dead ahead of me that evening as I walked southeast on Rockaway Blvd. to the Cross Bay II.