Apollo, I regret that too. I can still visualise the interior exposed while transferring between M and J trains at Myrtle-Bway station. I only wish i took a few photos at the time. This is another theater that I wish I could see the interior of. I looked at it in progressing stages of decay since I was a child…and now it’s gone.
Thanks Apollo of all the great comments about the area theaters. I believe the church that originally set up in the RKO Bushwick is the same organization that eventually moved into the Loews Gates when that theater became available. I forgot the reason, but think it was because the Loew’s Gates was either bigger, or because the Gates was in better shape at the time. A shame they didn’t stay in the RKO, as it was such an ornate theater, and it would still be preserved today. However, it may have been a sacrifice for the Gates, because that may be the theater that is gutted and a school now. Either way, I am happy that the Bushwick’s building still stands, even if the interior is gutted.
As for the Monroe, is the building I speculated to be the Monroe’s building (in the Monroe theatre section of this site) the Monroe theater?
I narrowed it down to the white building to the right of RKO Bushwick (with the tree up against it), next to the vacant lot with the cars in this photo I took from the Gates Ave el station back in 2003.
Here is the link to the photo I took of the Bushwick, with what I think is the monroe to the right of it, across the street.
I bowled at the Glenwood with my mother and cousins one afternoon in fall of 1980 or 1981. I only remember the alleys themselves, and the area where you sat while waiting for your turn. I also vaguely remember where you bought refreshments. I don’t remember anything else about the building. I didn’t even know it was theater back then.
Did the ceiling still have the plasterwork or still in view? Was there any other parts of the theater still showing it’s heritage as a theater (balcony, etc)? Was it an ornate theater when it was still a theater?
I do remember very very clearly the old marquee. It was similar to the Oasis' with the name “Glenwood” in little bulbs on the front. I believe it was a pretty elaborate marquee, and that lasted right till the end when the building was razed.
Yes, there was a “Ridgewood Grove” building, that at first glance does sort of look like it may have been a theater. I is just north of the Myrtle-Wyckoff El station, on the right hand side of the el if going north. It is currently a huge Chineese Buffet, and Hispanic Restaurant-Nightclub, and also a Billard Hall.
It may or may not be what lostmemory remembers. There is a “Grove Street” that does interstect Knickerbocker Ave about a block or two from Knickerbocker-Myrtle, and many theaters are named for the Street they ajoin. The Ridgewood Grove is fairly far from the Knickerbocker-Myrtle intersection. I’m still thinking it may be a former name for the Rivoli, but really have no idea. Maybe there was yet another theater right near there.
Maybe it was the “Rivoli” Theater under a different name?
The Rivoli is at the Knickerbocker Ave station of the M line (on the Queensbound platform side). It is curently a church (like so many other theaters).
Here’s a link: /theaters/7087/
I don’t know if the Rivoli was called the “Grove” at some time, or if this is the theater you read about, but many theaters went through numerous name changes.
Lostmemory, Eddie is obviously a troll with nothing better to do than talk about his balcony fantasies.
Your post is on topic and most people coming here would be happy to see those dates in the appropriate theater sections, rather than someone’s personal sex fantasies in the balconies of any of those theaters.
Wow, I just checked out the 175th St theatr page. What a spectacular theater, and lovingly preserved throgh the church! Theaters lend themselves very well to conversion to churches, as they do the least harm to the integrity of the theaters.
This particular theater at 175th St actually rents the theater out for movies, etc! Check out he 175th St section of the site: /theaters/44/
The Valencia (Tabernacle of Prayer) should do the same.
Wow, I never knew about this theater, until it was mentioned in the Valencia’s (jamaica) section of the site, which has also been converted to a church. This is a spectacular theater! Traditionally, the transformation of theater to church had been kind to a lot of theaters, like the Valencia, the Loew’s Gates, etc. Theaters lend themselves very well to churches, and if they can’t be a theater anymore, churches are the next best thing, as they dod the least “harm” to a theater in conversion.
Here’s a history of the theater: http://www.revike.org/cchurch/history.asp
Yeah, I always use the Brooklyn line as the Ridgewood-Bushwick border too. I think the whole “confusion” dates back to when Ridgewood was serviced through the Brooklyn Post office, even though in Queens. It’s also what allowed (thankfully) Ridgewood to retain many of it’s old streetnames in Queens, even though Queens went to the numbering system.
I love your story about the fire escapes and the outdoor Colonial theater. That’s so “Old Brooklyn”. It’s great.
BTW, that reminds me, did you see that lostmemory and I finally solved the mystery of the theater and open air theater at Seneca and Myrtle (where the CTown is now) in the Ridgewood section? It was called the “Evergreen”. I was planning to add it to the site, but didn’t get the time.
I agree. While I am not clear if the Chauncey St station is in Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, or East New York, it’s certainly not Ridgewood. As for the Ridgewood-Bushwick border, people generally use the Queens-Brooklyn line as the divider, although I don’t know if that is technically correct.
Thanks lostmemory! Yeah, I found those two articles last night, and read about it. I was just a little disappointed about the lack of photos.
It’s true, the Richmond Hill Keiths is often mistaken for the Flushing Keith’s. I believe the Flushing one is technically called, the RKO Keith and the other one is the RKO Keith Richmond Hill, but I know a lot of people confuse them.
I was hoping to see a photo of the interior auditorium of the Keith (Flushing) somewhere, with no luck. (Read all about in the RKO Keith (Flushing) section….
I remember reading about the Madison’s organ in the Times Newsweekly “Our Neighborhood” section, many years ago. I believe the article discussed the fate of it (where it wound up). But I don’t remember where it went, nor do I remember if it was the Madison’s organ. Well one of the Ridgewood-Bushwick theater’s organ wound up going to some good place.
It’s so hard to research this stuff too. Last night i spent an hour researching the RKO Keith’s Flushing, just to find some info out about it, and even get some interior photos either current condition or past. It’s so hard to find this stuff on the net. All I came up with was a poor image (small) of two guys standing on one of the Keith’s marble stairways with the ornate railing missing. I would love to see interior photos of the Madison from when it was in operation. I was lucky enough to find one photo of the RKO Bushwick from the 1920’s, and you can see it’s final interior condition (or 10 years prior) in the movie “The Believers”.
It amazes me it’s so hard to see interior photos of most theaters.
I was too young to remember if the time I was in there if there was an organ playing, however, I do know the RKO Madison did have an organ. I don’t know at what point they stopped using it.
Is 4 Howard on the corner of Broadway? I believe the Bushwick Theater was on the southeast corner of Broadway and Howard St, so the Monroe (4 Howard) had to be on the opposite corner, the southwest corner of Broadway and Howard. I was there a few weeks back and don’t remember seeing a theater-like building on the other side of Howard St. In fact I had lunch across Howard St at McDonalds…..on the southwest corner, which may tell us the fate of the Monroe building…..if in fact 4 Howard St was across the street from the RKO Bushwick.
However, that neat looking low brick building in the link above, to the right of the Bushwick appears to be the site where the Mc Donald’s is now, so I don’t exactly know where “4 Howard St” was/is.
The McDonalds is listed as 1380 Broadway, but I still assume 4 Howard has to be at the corner of Broadway, unless it’s at the corner of Monroe and Howard, which is across the street from the McDonalds (Ironically right where I parked my car). Monroe comes in there at an angle too, forming a landscaped triangle adjacent to the RKO Bushwick. I vaguely remember a rundown solid fence around a vacant lot on the corner of Monroe and Howard, when I parked there, but really didn’t pay attention. Below is a photo taken from the Gates Ave station that I took in July of 2003, that shows the McDonalds site to the right of the RKO Bushwick, if that cross Street is Howard St, 4 Howard has to be right around there. Could this vacant lot with the cars be the site of the former Monroe? Again, # 4 has to either be where that McDonalds is, the vacant lot mentioned, or that white building with the tree along the wall right next to the lot (assuming the lot is 2 Howard St).
Here’s the link: View link
Much has been talked about here about the lobby of the Keith’s. Any word on what the main auditorium’s condition is in? From what I gather it’s not that great of condition, maybe even totally trashed. Does anything remain of the walls or ceiling, or anything? I would love to see photos of the Keith’s both in it’s heyday or current shambles, anyone know of any available on the net?
Oh well, I guess I misread your other post. I think the Exorcist may be the last film to ever play at the Madison, if not THE last to play there (anyone know the final film?). Now the Exorcist is almost too much to take in in ANY theater.
I remember passing there around when they were going to close the Madison, and my father was sort of sad that it was closing, and I couldn’t understand why they wanted to close it. I also walked that way all the time when my father and I used the subway, as my father always had an aversion to taking the M train to Wyckoff to take the L, we always had to walk all the way to Myrtle-Wyckoff to the L.
Anyway, I remember this so clearly, the doors were open in front, and it had the distinctive “Madison smell” coming out onto the sidewalk. I can still see the sort of dim lobby in my head from that evening.
I wish I could go back to that night and just tell them “not to hurt it!” (sort of how I wish I could go back to 1964 to tell them not to hurt Penn Station).
Of course a couple years later I remember standing in the same spot with my father peaking through the wooden barricade into the darkness of the vast interior of the semi-gutted theater, the distincitve “Madison smell” now gone forever, replaced with the smell of charred wood and construction.
Oh man Peter, you saw “The Fall of the House of Usher” at the Madison!?! Wow, that must have been great! As mentioned somewhere else here above, theaters like the RKO Madison must have been great settings to see horror movies. The whole atmosphere of old ornateness is kind of the settings Hollywood always uses for them anyway. The RKO Keiths must have been another great one for horror movies, but somehow the Madison (the way I vaguely remember it), was dark, and sort of “past it’s prime” and a little spooky. Of course, things like that are always spooky when you are a kid. (I assume when the RKO Keiths wasn’t painted beige and lit up with flourescent lighting, it also may have been spooky – it was a bit spooky in the balcony when I snuck up there).
It’s not possible, but I would love to go see “Usher” in the Madison – maybe in a timewarp….. Or let’s get the RKO Keiths restored and see it there….
My last sentence was supposed to read, “As I mentioned earlier in this thread this is THE theater that probably clinched my INTEREST in old theaters”.
I also forgot to mention that all the chandeliers were still present on either side of the balcony level too, and they occasionally would be lit during the flea markets, but not often. Some of the light fixtures throughout the theater still had the original light bulbs yet! Those really old ones that looked sort of like flames. I remember them specifically in the light fixtures near the front emergency exit doors. The sconce was broken, but the light bulb was still there and original – and lit!
Really? It was multiplexed? Are you sure? If it was, all evidence was taken away, because as a flea market even in the early 80’s, the balcony was in full view, and “undamaged”, meaning all plasterwork was still there. The ceiling is also undamaged (and in original paint (or at least it was when I was last there) and in clear view, The walls were painted beige up to about ¾ of the way up (the procenium arch was beige on the sides, and original on top.
It’s been a while, and I never was in there as a theater, but here’s how I remember it as a teenager going to the flea markets there.
You walked down an ornate lobby, with “foggy mirrors” from filth to a second set of doors and an “inner lobby” with a huge ornate and filthy chandelier. There was a marble staircase on the left, and a wrapping balcony level overlooking the “inner lobby”, but don’t remember what was on the right. (maybe the former concession area?). I actually snuck up that marble staircase during one of the flea markets as a kid to check out the balcony level, which was thick with cobwebs.
Then another set of doors that took you into the main auditorium. On the right was second staircase up to the balcony (in the main auditorium), and they had a makeshift concession stand in front of that to serve food at the flea market.
If looking up to the balcony from the orchestra level, all the seats were there, and there was no evidence that it had ever been partitioned off, either from the main auditorium, or in half.
Unless it was a REALLY bad triplexing, where sound would have traveled from one theater to the next, I can’t see any evidence that the theater was multiplexed. I don’t know if it is still the case, but even the original tapestry curtain still existed on the stage back in the 80’s! It was in the down position, and they (to my horror even then) cut a part of it to put in a doorway to get to the stage area.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread this is THE theater that probably clinched my interet old theaters, just walking through that as a kid in it’s “era of the past” state.
Everytime I see that photo, I wish more and more the RKO Keith would be restored. The current owner has beutifully restored the marquee (I think after a movie company removed the 50’s covering on the marquee). There was talk that they were going to partially restore it, and a radio museum would be put there, but I think that fell through.
I used to love walking though that theater as a kid because it’s such a diamond in the rough. All the old features are still there, just waiting for restoration. It’s probably more painfull to look at that theater just “so close, yet so far away” than other ornate theaters, such as the Madison that are totally gutted with no hope of returning to their glory. At least with the RKO Madison, as sad as it is that it’s interior had been destroyed, at least you can write that one off. There is no way you can write the RKO Keith off just sitting there in all it’s tarnished glory.
I always thought there should be a place on the site where you can ask general questions about theaters that you don’t have enough information about, like: “I know there was a theater at the corner of Myrtle and Seneca, but am trying to find more information about it”, or “What’s the theater next to the el tracks in this photo?”. It would sort of help prevent what has happened to the Ridgewood Theater page (not that it’s a bad thing, because I have found this theater page very interesting, not only because I have fond memories of the the Ridgewood Theater, but also because I was a resident of Ridgewood for over 20 years), and it seems to cover the theater and every other theater around Ridgewood too.
Neither can I. I think I will try to get a bit more information about the Evergreen Theater, and then add it to the site.
Amazingly, the Ridgewood Theater page has become the gathering point to try to put together all the pieces for all the other theaters in the Ridgewood-Glendale area. This is among one of the largest theater pages on this site. I have been trying to find out for quite some time about the theater at Seneca and Myrtle, and finally I have a name to go by now.
Thanks Warren too for the “Whitney” information; I will check my “Old Queens” book when I get home.
Apollo, I regret that too. I can still visualise the interior exposed while transferring between M and J trains at Myrtle-Bway station. I only wish i took a few photos at the time. This is another theater that I wish I could see the interior of. I looked at it in progressing stages of decay since I was a child…and now it’s gone.
Thanks Apollo of all the great comments about the area theaters. I believe the church that originally set up in the RKO Bushwick is the same organization that eventually moved into the Loews Gates when that theater became available. I forgot the reason, but think it was because the Loew’s Gates was either bigger, or because the Gates was in better shape at the time. A shame they didn’t stay in the RKO, as it was such an ornate theater, and it would still be preserved today. However, it may have been a sacrifice for the Gates, because that may be the theater that is gutted and a school now. Either way, I am happy that the Bushwick’s building still stands, even if the interior is gutted.
As for the Monroe, is the building I speculated to be the Monroe’s building (in the Monroe theatre section of this site) the Monroe theater?
I narrowed it down to the white building to the right of RKO Bushwick (with the tree up against it), next to the vacant lot with the cars in this photo I took from the Gates Ave el station back in 2003.
Here is the link to the photo I took of the Bushwick, with what I think is the monroe to the right of it, across the street.
That’s because it unfortunately closed in the late 70’s. Unfortunately, by the 80’s it was gutted.
I bowled at the Glenwood with my mother and cousins one afternoon in fall of 1980 or 1981. I only remember the alleys themselves, and the area where you sat while waiting for your turn. I also vaguely remember where you bought refreshments. I don’t remember anything else about the building. I didn’t even know it was theater back then.
Did the ceiling still have the plasterwork or still in view? Was there any other parts of the theater still showing it’s heritage as a theater (balcony, etc)? Was it an ornate theater when it was still a theater?
I do remember very very clearly the old marquee. It was similar to the Oasis' with the name “Glenwood” in little bulbs on the front. I believe it was a pretty elaborate marquee, and that lasted right till the end when the building was razed.
Yes, there was a “Ridgewood Grove” building, that at first glance does sort of look like it may have been a theater. I is just north of the Myrtle-Wyckoff El station, on the right hand side of the el if going north. It is currently a huge Chineese Buffet, and Hispanic Restaurant-Nightclub, and also a Billard Hall.
It may or may not be what lostmemory remembers. There is a “Grove Street” that does interstect Knickerbocker Ave about a block or two from Knickerbocker-Myrtle, and many theaters are named for the Street they ajoin. The Ridgewood Grove is fairly far from the Knickerbocker-Myrtle intersection. I’m still thinking it may be a former name for the Rivoli, but really have no idea. Maybe there was yet another theater right near there.
Maybe it was the “Rivoli” Theater under a different name?
The Rivoli is at the Knickerbocker Ave station of the M line (on the Queensbound platform side). It is curently a church (like so many other theaters).
Here’s a link: /theaters/7087/
I don’t know if the Rivoli was called the “Grove” at some time, or if this is the theater you read about, but many theaters went through numerous name changes.
Lostmemory, Eddie is obviously a troll with nothing better to do than talk about his balcony fantasies.
Your post is on topic and most people coming here would be happy to see those dates in the appropriate theater sections, rather than someone’s personal sex fantasies in the balconies of any of those theaters.
Wow, I just checked out the 175th St theatr page. What a spectacular theater, and lovingly preserved throgh the church! Theaters lend themselves very well to conversion to churches, as they do the least harm to the integrity of the theaters.
This particular theater at 175th St actually rents the theater out for movies, etc! Check out he 175th St section of the site:
/theaters/44/
The Valencia (Tabernacle of Prayer) should do the same.
Wow, I never knew about this theater, until it was mentioned in the Valencia’s (jamaica) section of the site, which has also been converted to a church. This is a spectacular theater! Traditionally, the transformation of theater to church had been kind to a lot of theaters, like the Valencia, the Loew’s Gates, etc. Theaters lend themselves very well to churches, and if they can’t be a theater anymore, churches are the next best thing, as they dod the least “harm” to a theater in conversion.
Here’s a history of the theater:
http://www.revike.org/cchurch/history.asp
Yeah, I always use the Brooklyn line as the Ridgewood-Bushwick border too. I think the whole “confusion” dates back to when Ridgewood was serviced through the Brooklyn Post office, even though in Queens. It’s also what allowed (thankfully) Ridgewood to retain many of it’s old streetnames in Queens, even though Queens went to the numbering system.
I love your story about the fire escapes and the outdoor Colonial theater. That’s so “Old Brooklyn”. It’s great.
BTW, that reminds me, did you see that lostmemory and I finally solved the mystery of the theater and open air theater at Seneca and Myrtle (where the CTown is now) in the Ridgewood section? It was called the “Evergreen”. I was planning to add it to the site, but didn’t get the time.
I agree. While I am not clear if the Chauncey St station is in Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, or East New York, it’s certainly not Ridgewood. As for the Ridgewood-Bushwick border, people generally use the Queens-Brooklyn line as the divider, although I don’t know if that is technically correct.
Thanks lostmemory! Yeah, I found those two articles last night, and read about it. I was just a little disappointed about the lack of photos.
It’s true, the Richmond Hill Keiths is often mistaken for the Flushing Keith’s. I believe the Flushing one is technically called, the RKO Keith and the other one is the RKO Keith Richmond Hill, but I know a lot of people confuse them.
I was hoping to see a photo of the interior auditorium of the Keith (Flushing) somewhere, with no luck. (Read all about in the RKO Keith (Flushing) section….
I remember reading about the Madison’s organ in the Times Newsweekly “Our Neighborhood” section, many years ago. I believe the article discussed the fate of it (where it wound up). But I don’t remember where it went, nor do I remember if it was the Madison’s organ. Well one of the Ridgewood-Bushwick theater’s organ wound up going to some good place.
It’s so hard to research this stuff too. Last night i spent an hour researching the RKO Keith’s Flushing, just to find some info out about it, and even get some interior photos either current condition or past. It’s so hard to find this stuff on the net. All I came up with was a poor image (small) of two guys standing on one of the Keith’s marble stairways with the ornate railing missing. I would love to see interior photos of the Madison from when it was in operation. I was lucky enough to find one photo of the RKO Bushwick from the 1920’s, and you can see it’s final interior condition (or 10 years prior) in the movie “The Believers”.
It amazes me it’s so hard to see interior photos of most theaters.
I was too young to remember if the time I was in there if there was an organ playing, however, I do know the RKO Madison did have an organ. I don’t know at what point they stopped using it.
Is 4 Howard on the corner of Broadway? I believe the Bushwick Theater was on the southeast corner of Broadway and Howard St, so the Monroe (4 Howard) had to be on the opposite corner, the southwest corner of Broadway and Howard. I was there a few weeks back and don’t remember seeing a theater-like building on the other side of Howard St. In fact I had lunch across Howard St at McDonalds…..on the southwest corner, which may tell us the fate of the Monroe building…..if in fact 4 Howard St was across the street from the RKO Bushwick.
However, that neat looking low brick building in the link above, to the right of the Bushwick appears to be the site where the Mc Donald’s is now, so I don’t exactly know where “4 Howard St” was/is.
The McDonalds is listed as 1380 Broadway, but I still assume 4 Howard has to be at the corner of Broadway, unless it’s at the corner of Monroe and Howard, which is across the street from the McDonalds (Ironically right where I parked my car). Monroe comes in there at an angle too, forming a landscaped triangle adjacent to the RKO Bushwick. I vaguely remember a rundown solid fence around a vacant lot on the corner of Monroe and Howard, when I parked there, but really didn’t pay attention. Below is a photo taken from the Gates Ave station that I took in July of 2003, that shows the McDonalds site to the right of the RKO Bushwick, if that cross Street is Howard St, 4 Howard has to be right around there. Could this vacant lot with the cars be the site of the former Monroe? Again, # 4 has to either be where that McDonalds is, the vacant lot mentioned, or that white building with the tree along the wall right next to the lot (assuming the lot is 2 Howard St).
Here’s the link:
View link
Much has been talked about here about the lobby of the Keith’s. Any word on what the main auditorium’s condition is in? From what I gather it’s not that great of condition, maybe even totally trashed. Does anything remain of the walls or ceiling, or anything? I would love to see photos of the Keith’s both in it’s heyday or current shambles, anyone know of any available on the net?
Interesting, I never was in the Flushing Keiths, nor ever read it;’s page….I think I’ll do that now. I heard it also was a quite ornate theater.
Oh well, I guess I misread your other post. I think the Exorcist may be the last film to ever play at the Madison, if not THE last to play there (anyone know the final film?). Now the Exorcist is almost too much to take in in ANY theater.
I remember passing there around when they were going to close the Madison, and my father was sort of sad that it was closing, and I couldn’t understand why they wanted to close it. I also walked that way all the time when my father and I used the subway, as my father always had an aversion to taking the M train to Wyckoff to take the L, we always had to walk all the way to Myrtle-Wyckoff to the L.
Anyway, I remember this so clearly, the doors were open in front, and it had the distinctive “Madison smell” coming out onto the sidewalk. I can still see the sort of dim lobby in my head from that evening.
I wish I could go back to that night and just tell them “not to hurt it!” (sort of how I wish I could go back to 1964 to tell them not to hurt Penn Station).
Of course a couple years later I remember standing in the same spot with my father peaking through the wooden barricade into the darkness of the vast interior of the semi-gutted theater, the distincitve “Madison smell” now gone forever, replaced with the smell of charred wood and construction.
Oh man Peter, you saw “The Fall of the House of Usher” at the Madison!?! Wow, that must have been great! As mentioned somewhere else here above, theaters like the RKO Madison must have been great settings to see horror movies. The whole atmosphere of old ornateness is kind of the settings Hollywood always uses for them anyway. The RKO Keiths must have been another great one for horror movies, but somehow the Madison (the way I vaguely remember it), was dark, and sort of “past it’s prime” and a little spooky. Of course, things like that are always spooky when you are a kid. (I assume when the RKO Keiths wasn’t painted beige and lit up with flourescent lighting, it also may have been spooky – it was a bit spooky in the balcony when I snuck up there).
It’s not possible, but I would love to go see “Usher” in the Madison – maybe in a timewarp….. Or let’s get the RKO Keiths restored and see it there….
My last sentence was supposed to read, “As I mentioned earlier in this thread this is THE theater that probably clinched my INTEREST in old theaters”.
I also forgot to mention that all the chandeliers were still present on either side of the balcony level too, and they occasionally would be lit during the flea markets, but not often. Some of the light fixtures throughout the theater still had the original light bulbs yet! Those really old ones that looked sort of like flames. I remember them specifically in the light fixtures near the front emergency exit doors. The sconce was broken, but the light bulb was still there and original – and lit!
Really? It was multiplexed? Are you sure? If it was, all evidence was taken away, because as a flea market even in the early 80’s, the balcony was in full view, and “undamaged”, meaning all plasterwork was still there. The ceiling is also undamaged (and in original paint (or at least it was when I was last there) and in clear view, The walls were painted beige up to about ¾ of the way up (the procenium arch was beige on the sides, and original on top.
It’s been a while, and I never was in there as a theater, but here’s how I remember it as a teenager going to the flea markets there.
You walked down an ornate lobby, with “foggy mirrors” from filth to a second set of doors and an “inner lobby” with a huge ornate and filthy chandelier. There was a marble staircase on the left, and a wrapping balcony level overlooking the “inner lobby”, but don’t remember what was on the right. (maybe the former concession area?). I actually snuck up that marble staircase during one of the flea markets as a kid to check out the balcony level, which was thick with cobwebs.
Then another set of doors that took you into the main auditorium. On the right was second staircase up to the balcony (in the main auditorium), and they had a makeshift concession stand in front of that to serve food at the flea market.
If looking up to the balcony from the orchestra level, all the seats were there, and there was no evidence that it had ever been partitioned off, either from the main auditorium, or in half.
Unless it was a REALLY bad triplexing, where sound would have traveled from one theater to the next, I can’t see any evidence that the theater was multiplexed. I don’t know if it is still the case, but even the original tapestry curtain still existed on the stage back in the 80’s! It was in the down position, and they (to my horror even then) cut a part of it to put in a doorway to get to the stage area.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread this is THE theater that probably clinched my interet old theaters, just walking through that as a kid in it’s “era of the past” state.
Everytime I see that photo, I wish more and more the RKO Keith would be restored. The current owner has beutifully restored the marquee (I think after a movie company removed the 50’s covering on the marquee). There was talk that they were going to partially restore it, and a radio museum would be put there, but I think that fell through.
I used to love walking though that theater as a kid because it’s such a diamond in the rough. All the old features are still there, just waiting for restoration. It’s probably more painfull to look at that theater just “so close, yet so far away” than other ornate theaters, such as the Madison that are totally gutted with no hope of returning to their glory. At least with the RKO Madison, as sad as it is that it’s interior had been destroyed, at least you can write that one off. There is no way you can write the RKO Keith off just sitting there in all it’s tarnished glory.
Wow, that had to be some destruction. What did they do?
I always thought there should be a place on the site where you can ask general questions about theaters that you don’t have enough information about, like: “I know there was a theater at the corner of Myrtle and Seneca, but am trying to find more information about it”, or “What’s the theater next to the el tracks in this photo?”. It would sort of help prevent what has happened to the Ridgewood Theater page (not that it’s a bad thing, because I have found this theater page very interesting, not only because I have fond memories of the the Ridgewood Theater, but also because I was a resident of Ridgewood for over 20 years), and it seems to cover the theater and every other theater around Ridgewood too.
Neither can I. I think I will try to get a bit more information about the Evergreen Theater, and then add it to the site.
Amazingly, the Ridgewood Theater page has become the gathering point to try to put together all the pieces for all the other theaters in the Ridgewood-Glendale area. This is among one of the largest theater pages on this site. I have been trying to find out for quite some time about the theater at Seneca and Myrtle, and finally I have a name to go by now.
Thanks Warren too for the “Whitney” information; I will check my “Old Queens” book when I get home.