Oasis Theatre

Thanks, Bway. Good and interesting details !

Thanks for pointing this out, Warren.

Welcome to Cinema Treasures, depaul420.

I remember a blue flourescent clock in the Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theatres.

WOW!!! Thanks SOOO much for posting those Warren. That is how I remember the Oasis as a kid, when my mother still brought me there. It was a roller rink by the time I was a teenager, and hope someone comes up from some photos of that era one day, as I remember that well too. The Oasis' ornamentation remained intact after conversion to a roller rink, the only difference of course was the leveling of the floor, dancing roller skating Eyptians in neon under the lattice in the screen area, pyramids in the middle, and of course catwalks of lights and stuff up above.
All the plaster, lighting fixtures, etc remained….even the balcony seating was all still up there and visable when skating below.

thanks panzer….my mom worked at the oasis during the 50’s also …she was a cashier on the weekends & she would get us passes that looked like vouchers …the price for a ticket was 0.25 cents…
wow…those were the days ….i remember that there was special ladies nights my mom loved those times i was lucky that i got to tag along with her on some of these occasions …as we walked in to the main lobby on these nights if you turned your head to the right there would be a display filled with gifts of glasses dishes & other things for the home …my mom was always smiling on these nights though there would be a sparkle in her beautiful grey eyes when she

got to bring something home with her…

i remember the when all of olmm would walk over to oasis we were only allowed to see religious movies such as our lady of fatima,
bernadette, & on occasion movies with danny kaye & a donkey & catinflas …i have wonderful memories of that regal theatre in all her majesty as a child the beauty of it was overwhelming …oasis will always be remain a beautiful place in my heart also on the opposite corner there was an italian restaurant does anyone remember that

I found this site by mistake. I love reading your stories of this old theatre. The CVS corporate office has a huge photo of the Oasis in the atrium of building 1. You can’t miss it. There are only three or four photos that big, the Oasis obviously means a lot to them.

Bway,
Nice description of the Oasis and the years of its demise, and you and PKoch are quite correct, when I pass I can still see the memories much better with half the building than none of the building!

Thanks, Bway, for posting your recollections.

“The theater did deteriorate fast in between the movie era and the roller rink era, when it was the rock concert venue, the outside looked like hell in that time.”

Appropriate to apperances by Richard Hell and the Voidoids !

“ … and the beautiful old stained glass light fixtures were gone, just marks where they once were, in a sea of blackness.”

A sea of blackness … that’s quite a void !

Panzer, I enjoyed your commentsw from May too. I have to agree, the Oasis was also my favorite theater. I was too young to attach to the Madison, and didn’t go there too often, and the Ridgewood wasn’t as intimate as the Oasis, I have good memories there, but it’s not quite on the status of the Oasis to me. The Oasis was my absolute favorite theater, and probably is to this day. I have so many good memories there, first as a theater, and later as the roller rink.

I don’t feel the Oasis closing to movies was the end of it’s “good years” like it was for the Madison. Sure, it was a downgrade, but I don’t think it was a bad end (at least not until after the roller rink closed). My biggest memory is those huge stained glass light fixture sconses that were way up high near the ceiling. There were about 5 or 6 on each side. They were always on when you came in for movies, and would slowly dim as the previews came on, and later darken for the movie….and always on again when the movie was over…. They lasted into the roller rink days. In fact, the theater was completely intact in the roller rink days, aside from teh seats gone, and the floor leveled. Even the balcony was intact, complete with seats up there yet. The theater did deteriorate fast in between the movie era and the roller rink era, when it was the rock concert venue, the outside looked like hell in that time. Of course, the worst was yet to come when the roller rink closed, and the poor theater sat there abandoned, and of course, just like the Madison, although at least after some happy years as the roller rink, the Oasis' fate was fire, and that was really a sad end for a great old building. It’s such a shadow of itself now with the lobby area a parking lot, and the shell there as a CVS…with not a hint of the beautiful place it once was inside. I wonder what if anything remains of the Oasis' dome in the auditorium. I do remember looking in after it burned, and the beautiful old stained glass light fixtures were gone, just marks were they once were, in a sea of blackness.

Unfortunately there are no memories I can recall other than what is posted, however I do have memories of the Glenwood bowl and the former Acme theater which I did visit as a refurbished supermarket and hope you find them interesting.

PKoch I wanted you to check out my May 28 posting to read all my priceless memories of the Oasis. Interesting how the demise of the Oasis with its bawdy rock concerts, also coincided with the demise of the RKO Madison.

I don’t know the exact date, but I still saw movies there in 1977, and perhaps even early 1978 (not 100% sure of the exact year, but it was close in there). It became a rock concert venue for a short time, but that didn’t last long due to complaints from the neighborhood, and the crowd, and “type” of crowd it attracted.
It was the roller rink by at least 1982 (whn I started to go there), but it could have been 1981 when it opened.