Jim, I’m glad ESPN didn’t misrepresent Bronx for Brooklyn at all.
You probably know that Son Of Sam was dramatized also in the Spike Lee film, “Summer Of Sam”.
Summer 1978 I cynically joked about “The Tonight Show, with guest host David Berkowitz” and a co-worker thought I was serious !
“The other Koch” … Sixteen years ago, my then-fiancee got so tired of being asked about “Uncle Ed”, she started saying, “Oh yeah, he’s coming to the wedding !”
Summer ‘77 or '78, my dad met campaigning Ed Koch, who asked my dad if he would vote for him. I forget what my father said.
I hope ESPN reruns that mini-series. I’d now like to see it.
Your taffy-fused molar, still up somewhere in the RKO Bushwick … ouch !
Yes, Marian. It’s one of several Queens neighborhoods between Ridgewood and Richmond Hill. Glendale is another.
My dad’s parents and sister moved from 169 Chestnut Street to 89-03 87th Street, near 89th Avenue, in Woodhaven, in summer 1968. By fall 1970 they had moved to the corner of 60th Place and 60th Road (?) opposite PS 153 in Maspeth, near Fresh Pond Road and Eliot Avenue. That was a lousy apt. where they didn’t get enough heat in winter, and had to go to bed with hats on. Stingy landlord. My grandfather died April 22 or 29th 1972, and was waked in the N F Walker Funeral Home on 80th Street just south of Jamaica Ave in Woodhaven, near the Haven Theatre, which has a page on this site. I’ve posted there.
By Christmas 1972 my grandmother and aunt had moved to 86-03 85th St. in Woodhaven, where they both lived the rest of their lives.
Thanks for your answer, Marian. I haven’t seen “Groove Tube” in going on 32 years, but, if I see it again, I WILL look for you in it.
Wow … Vitamin B-12 as the cocaine of its time !
Yes, Elderts Lane is the easternmost named street in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, then 75th Street in Woodhaven, Queens, is the next block east of it. I have a friend who used to live on 75th Street a block south of Jamaica Avenue.
You’re welcome, Bway. “Those doors that open to outside, that are usually open, I believe are the old emergency doors that went out under the Juliet balconies” : yes, the ones on the right, if one is facing the screen, that open onto the parking lot on Wyckoff Avenue.
The screen and back wall ran parallel to Madison Street, the northwest side of the block, between Myrtle and Wyckoff Avenues. Facing the screen, the Juliet balconies and exit doors to Wyckoff Avenue would be on the right. Exit doors to the left would have been to an alley (if there was one) at a right angle to Madison Street, between the RKO Madison and the building northeast of it, closer to the southwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and Madison Street.
Bway, I agree with you that the RKO Madison’s ornate white marble Grand Staircase must have been jackhammered out, rather than sheetrocked in, because I noticed no closed-in area where it would have been when I was there Saturday August 25th. I saw clear through the retail area back to the doors, which were open, onto the (loading dock ?) and parking lot that opens onto Wyckoff Avenue.
This was originally posted by Bway on the Ridgewood Theatre page, but it’s about the RKO Madison, so I re-posted it here :
“Thanks [brooklyn]Jim…. Wow, if that door was slightly ajar when I was in there, perhaps if I had the "big ones”, I’d pretend like I thought that door was a continuation of the furniture area….and open it. They did have a door open at the far end of the furniture are the day I was there that led to another stairway. I assume it’s an old emergency stairway from the theater days. I did poke my head in, and it was very old plaster, but not ornate plaster, and had a simple (but very old) railing in it….I think that stairway was probably one of the ones that led from the upper balcony emergency doors. The stairway went both up and down from the landing where the furniture area is.
Furthermore, I believe PKoch is right, while the stairway in the Liberty Dept store that you use to go up to the furniture area probably dates to the theater days, I too now believe that was an exit stairway from the balcony, that led to the OUTER lobby in the theater days, such as the one in the Ridgewood Theater. It’s too close to be the Grand Staircase from the Inner Lobby area that used to have the high ceiling. I am beginning to believe that the ornate white marble Grand Staircase was either jackhammered out, or they sheetrocked the area of it in….I don’t know where it could have been thiniking of the layout of the store, so I fear it may be the former…."
I don’t know if “Vertigo” ever played at the RKo Bushwick (I see no reason it couldn’t have; perhaps BklynJim can answer that). I know from “bushwickbuddy” that “Psycho” played at the nearby Loew’s Gates, that, when she went to see it, she somehow missed meeting her friends there, and ended up sitting in the balcony by herself, so that, when the knifing in the shower scene started, she almost fell off her seat !
“ … performing human sacrifice on the stage of the RKO Bushwick” : I hope that never really happened there. It’s a far cry from the innocent days of 1942 : “The Lodger”, “Women In Bondage” and vaudeville live on stage Tuesday and Wednesday evenings !
The closest thing would be the three small boys buried alive there in 1910. See Jan 26 2007 post above.
Panzer65, I’ve been waiting 3 ½ years for someone on Cinema Treasures to ask me that !
The story is in two parts :
TRAILER : An escaped convict fleeing from the law with both a bullet and stomach cancer inside of him crawls into the back of a derelict first-run movie house, and dies in between the back wall and the screen and stage. His body is never found, and remains there. The cancer inside of him, however ….
MAIN FEATURE : The movie house has re-opened as a revival cinema. Patrons are beginning to fall victim to a shape-shifting monster, which takes on such forms as the enticing Marilyn Monroe, her skirt billowing up around her as in “The Seven Year Itch”, and John Wayne on a Western street inside the men’s room : “What you doin' pissing in my street, boy ?”
It turns out that the stomach cancer became the shape-shifting monster by absorbing all the emotional energy the screen had accumulated, through decades of movie going in which countless patrons pressed their thoughts, hopes and emotions onto the images of the screen, living through them vicariously. Cancer, the dreaming disease, in that it aspires to be more than simple cells, became a conscious entity by absorbing the thoughts, hopes, dreams and aspirations of all those moviegoers. That’s also how it was able to mimic those images to entice its victims.
The usher and the ticket-taker figure this out and manage to destroy the monster somehow.
This is starting to read like “Son Of Celluloid”, Clive Barker’s “Books Of Blood” short story about a revival, ex-first run cinema, haunted by a shape-shifting monster !
Thanks for your lengthy post, Jack Tomai. Good to have you back with us.
My dad’s parents and younger sister lived at 169 Chestnut Street, between Ridgewood Avenue and Fulton Street, from about 1957 to summer 1968, but my parents and I never went to see a movie with them at the Embassy, or any theater in that neighborhood.
BklynJim, thanks for your agreeing with me about those NYC transit calendars. Bill M. even answered an e-mail question from me about one of the images : the Jamaica el passing over the LIRR mainline at 132nd Street above that parking lot full of Bungalow Bar ice cream trucks … similar to one of the Xerox images you gave me.
Our Victorian computer system … another Procrustes in modern dress !
Thanks for your answer, Jim. It all makes perfect sense to me.
The 1961 Hammer release starring Oliver Reed, “Curse of the Werewolf”, was one of many films I remember reading about in “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” magazine, yet did not see until many years later, in this case, not until 1985 or 86, and then only on TV. I remember the ripped-open shirt revealing the hairy chest, and the blood trickling down from the fanged mouth in twin gouts. The FMOF writeup very delicately described what I later realized was a rape, and resulting impregnation, near the start of the film.
Interesting that the vicinity of the RKO Bushwick had become, as you wrote, a tough and hardened area, by 1961.
One of my first memories of the Ridgewood Theater was of seeing a Greek gods and heroes film there, I’m not sure which one it was, which showed the Greek god Poseidon, ruler of the sea, rising up out of the ocean like a vast blue living mountain, ocean water running off his huge body like waterfalls, looking overpoweringly enormous to me, at age five, in 1961, sitting close to that huge screen.
ElaineW, where did you move from NYC to ? What films do YOU remember seeing at the original Cross Bay ? Or have you already posted about them on the Cross Bay Theater page on this site ?
Again, Lost, back on topic with the right kind of organ. Thanks !
Jim, I’m glad ESPN didn’t misrepresent Bronx for Brooklyn at all.
You probably know that Son Of Sam was dramatized also in the Spike Lee film, “Summer Of Sam”.
Summer 1978 I cynically joked about “The Tonight Show, with guest host David Berkowitz” and a co-worker thought I was serious !
“The other Koch” … Sixteen years ago, my then-fiancee got so tired of being asked about “Uncle Ed”, she started saying, “Oh yeah, he’s coming to the wedding !”
Summer ‘77 or '78, my dad met campaigning Ed Koch, who asked my dad if he would vote for him. I forget what my father said.
I hope ESPN reruns that mini-series. I’d now like to see it.
Your taffy-fused molar, still up somewhere in the RKO Bushwick … ouch !
Yes, Marian. It’s one of several Queens neighborhoods between Ridgewood and Richmond Hill. Glendale is another.
My dad’s parents and sister moved from 169 Chestnut Street to 89-03 87th Street, near 89th Avenue, in Woodhaven, in summer 1968. By fall 1970 they had moved to the corner of 60th Place and 60th Road (?) opposite PS 153 in Maspeth, near Fresh Pond Road and Eliot Avenue. That was a lousy apt. where they didn’t get enough heat in winter, and had to go to bed with hats on. Stingy landlord. My grandfather died April 22 or 29th 1972, and was waked in the N F Walker Funeral Home on 80th Street just south of Jamaica Ave in Woodhaven, near the Haven Theatre, which has a page on this site. I’ve posted there.
By Christmas 1972 my grandmother and aunt had moved to 86-03 85th St. in Woodhaven, where they both lived the rest of their lives.
Thanks, Warren.
Thanks for your answer, Marian. I haven’t seen “Groove Tube” in going on 32 years, but, if I see it again, I WILL look for you in it.
Wow … Vitamin B-12 as the cocaine of its time !
Yes, Elderts Lane is the easternmost named street in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, then 75th Street in Woodhaven, Queens, is the next block east of it. I have a friend who used to live on 75th Street a block south of Jamaica Avenue.
By “street”, above, I meant 72nd Avenue.
I agree with you, cinalpvill, on all counts about the Cinemart. Eddie’s Sweet Shop right across the street is part of the deal also.
You’re welcome, Bway. “Those doors that open to outside, that are usually open, I believe are the old emergency doors that went out under the Juliet balconies” : yes, the ones on the right, if one is facing the screen, that open onto the parking lot on Wyckoff Avenue.
The screen and back wall ran parallel to Madison Street, the northwest side of the block, between Myrtle and Wyckoff Avenues. Facing the screen, the Juliet balconies and exit doors to Wyckoff Avenue would be on the right. Exit doors to the left would have been to an alley (if there was one) at a right angle to Madison Street, between the RKO Madison and the building northeast of it, closer to the southwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and Madison Street.
Marian, more power to you for having been in “The Groove Tube” ! I’m glad to read you had a blast doing it. How much were you paid ?
Doesn’t Ken Shapiro jump or fall into a fountain in freeze frame at the end of “Just Me, Just You” ?
Please post more of your recollections of Dr. Cascio as they return to you. Thanks in advance.
Bway, I agree with you that the RKO Madison’s ornate white marble Grand Staircase must have been jackhammered out, rather than sheetrocked in, because I noticed no closed-in area where it would have been when I was there Saturday August 25th. I saw clear through the retail area back to the doors, which were open, onto the (loading dock ?) and parking lot that opens onto Wyckoff Avenue.
This was originally posted by Bway on the Ridgewood Theatre page, but it’s about the RKO Madison, so I re-posted it here :
“Thanks [brooklyn]Jim…. Wow, if that door was slightly ajar when I was in there, perhaps if I had the "big ones”, I’d pretend like I thought that door was a continuation of the furniture area….and open it. They did have a door open at the far end of the furniture are the day I was there that led to another stairway. I assume it’s an old emergency stairway from the theater days. I did poke my head in, and it was very old plaster, but not ornate plaster, and had a simple (but very old) railing in it….I think that stairway was probably one of the ones that led from the upper balcony emergency doors. The stairway went both up and down from the landing where the furniture area is.
Furthermore, I believe PKoch is right, while the stairway in the Liberty Dept store that you use to go up to the furniture area probably dates to the theater days, I too now believe that was an exit stairway from the balcony, that led to the OUTER lobby in the theater days, such as the one in the Ridgewood Theater. It’s too close to be the Grand Staircase from the Inner Lobby area that used to have the high ceiling. I am beginning to believe that the ornate white marble Grand Staircase was either jackhammered out, or they sheetrocked the area of it in….I don’t know where it could have been thiniking of the layout of the store, so I fear it may be the former…."
I don’t know if “Vertigo” ever played at the RKo Bushwick (I see no reason it couldn’t have; perhaps BklynJim can answer that). I know from “bushwickbuddy” that “Psycho” played at the nearby Loew’s Gates, that, when she went to see it, she somehow missed meeting her friends there, and ended up sitting in the balcony by herself, so that, when the knifing in the shower scene started, she almost fell off her seat !
Thanks, Bway.
Thanks, Chris.
“ … performing human sacrifice on the stage of the RKO Bushwick” : I hope that never really happened there. It’s a far cry from the innocent days of 1942 : “The Lodger”, “Women In Bondage” and vaudeville live on stage Tuesday and Wednesday evenings !
The closest thing would be the three small boys buried alive there in 1910. See Jan 26 2007 post above.
You’re welcome, Panzer65. It is ironic indeed !
Panzer65, I’ve been waiting 3 ½ years for someone on Cinema Treasures to ask me that !
The story is in two parts :
TRAILER : An escaped convict fleeing from the law with both a bullet and stomach cancer inside of him crawls into the back of a derelict first-run movie house, and dies in between the back wall and the screen and stage. His body is never found, and remains there. The cancer inside of him, however ….
MAIN FEATURE : The movie house has re-opened as a revival cinema. Patrons are beginning to fall victim to a shape-shifting monster, which takes on such forms as the enticing Marilyn Monroe, her skirt billowing up around her as in “The Seven Year Itch”, and John Wayne on a Western street inside the men’s room : “What you doin' pissing in my street, boy ?”
It turns out that the stomach cancer became the shape-shifting monster by absorbing all the emotional energy the screen had accumulated, through decades of movie going in which countless patrons pressed their thoughts, hopes and emotions onto the images of the screen, living through them vicariously. Cancer, the dreaming disease, in that it aspires to be more than simple cells, became a conscious entity by absorbing the thoughts, hopes, dreams and aspirations of all those moviegoers. That’s also how it was able to mimic those images to entice its victims.
The usher and the ticket-taker figure this out and manage to destroy the monster somehow.
I hope “The Bronx Is Burning” doesn’t mis-represent the Bushwick blackout, and subsequent riots and looting, as being in The Bronx.
My dad remembers that the RKO Bushwick had two balconies : upper and lower.
Thanks for the heads-up, BklynJim !
This is starting to read like “Son Of Celluloid”, Clive Barker’s “Books Of Blood” short story about a revival, ex-first run cinema, haunted by a shape-shifting monster !
Thanks for your lengthy post, Jack Tomai. Good to have you back with us.
My dad’s parents and younger sister lived at 169 Chestnut Street, between Ridgewood Avenue and Fulton Street, from about 1957 to summer 1968, but my parents and I never went to see a movie with them at the Embassy, or any theater in that neighborhood.
BklynJim, thanks for your agreeing with me about those NYC transit calendars. Bill M. even answered an e-mail question from me about one of the images : the Jamaica el passing over the LIRR mainline at 132nd Street above that parking lot full of Bungalow Bar ice cream trucks … similar to one of the Xerox images you gave me.
Our Victorian computer system … another Procrustes in modern dress !
So tempting to open that door, isn’t it ?
Thanks for your answer, Jim. It all makes perfect sense to me.
The 1961 Hammer release starring Oliver Reed, “Curse of the Werewolf”, was one of many films I remember reading about in “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” magazine, yet did not see until many years later, in this case, not until 1985 or 86, and then only on TV. I remember the ripped-open shirt revealing the hairy chest, and the blood trickling down from the fanged mouth in twin gouts. The FMOF writeup very delicately described what I later realized was a rape, and resulting impregnation, near the start of the film.
Interesting that the vicinity of the RKO Bushwick had become, as you wrote, a tough and hardened area, by 1961.
Thanks, Lost Memory, for getting this page back on topic in general, and back to the right type of organ, in particular !
One of my first memories of the Ridgewood Theater was of seeing a Greek gods and heroes film there, I’m not sure which one it was, which showed the Greek god Poseidon, ruler of the sea, rising up out of the ocean like a vast blue living mountain, ocean water running off his huge body like waterfalls, looking overpoweringly enormous to me, at age five, in 1961, sitting close to that huge screen.
ElaineW, where did you move from NYC to ? What films do YOU remember seeing at the original Cross Bay ? Or have you already posted about them on the Cross Bay Theater page on this site ?