That was a good scene, too, Panzer65. I think you meant “calm”, not “clam”, lake. I think that was Adrienne King, the heroine and one surviving teenager, in the rowboat, when Jason came up out of the water and tried to drag her down.
Yes, good thing no one near you had a jumbo tub of popcorn when Jason popped up.
Thanks, Adrian. I’m no kid, so I know what those double-features were like. I saw “Friday The 13th” in the balcony of the Ridgewood on Tuesday June 17th 1980, four days after it opened on Friday June 13th 1980. Bucket of popcorn got tossed up in the air when Jason’s mother’s head went flying !
Bway, the Haven WAS on the right side of Jamaica Ave if headed to Jamaica. It was most definitely on the SOUTH side of Jamaica Avenue.
Thanks for posting your movie memories here, Adrian Collazo ! I am 53 years old, like you, a horror movie fan, and saw many films at both the Haven and the Ridgewood. I remember the posters in the subway for “Zombie” in the summer of 1980, though I did not go to see it. I can see it in my mind’s eye as I write this. I modified the Stones' single “Emotional Rescue” to be about “Zombie” :
I’M COMING NOW, TO KILL AND EAT YOU !
I’LL COME TO YOUR EMOTIONAL RESCUE !
Did you DELIBERATELY walk home on the (north) cemetery side, of Jamaica Avenue, to scare yourself sh*tless ?
Thanks, BrooklynJim. How many stories high was the inner lobby, and what did those large rectangular windows open onto inside ? How about that high circular “porthole” way up near the cornice on the rounded corner ?
You’re welcome, Panzer65. I’ve also privately questioned “BrooklynJim” about this, and am awaiting his answer. I think he said he was last to the RKO Bushwick in 1961.
Panzer65, I think the lobby was triangular, an isosceles right triangle, and the auditorium rectangular, with the long dimension parallel to Howard Avenue. ziggy, I don’t think there was ever any office space within.
The only interior photos I know of were provided by Bway, taken from his copy of the 1987 film “The Believers”, the end of which was filmed inside the RKO Bushwick Theatre. There is probably access to them somewhere on this thread. They show the inner lobby and the auditorium. There is also a photo of the interior available somewhere, taken shortly after the theater opened, taken from the balcony, looking down towards the proscenium arch, stage, and screen.
That’s a good, basic question, Louis Rugani, and I thank you for asking it. I would guess that all those windows opened into the inner lobby, with the possible exception of that circular “porthole” high up on the corner, which may have opened into the outer, upper balcony.
It would be great to have a photo of the inner lobby of the RKO Bushwick, when it still functioned as a theater.
Lost Memory, I just tried the link, and it works. It shows the Bushwick inhabited by the Pilgrim Baptist Church, which now occupies Loew’s Gates Theatre. Thank you.
You’re welcome, William, I’m glad to read that. It would be well if this theater could be listed as the Brooklyn Fox, to distinguish, it, say, from the Fox Theatre in St. Louis that I mentioned in my posts above.
Nor I. Good reading you again, Ed Solero. Thanks for stopping by the Trylon and taking photos.
Cindy Vail, my cousin Fran is now, unfortunately, almost totally incapacitated by multiple sclerosis, and has been, for a number of years.
You’re welcome to all the fond memories. It must have been awesome seeing “The Birds” at the Ridgewood Theatre at age 7.
That was a good scene, too, Panzer65. I think you meant “calm”, not “clam”, lake. I think that was Adrienne King, the heroine and one surviving teenager, in the rowboat, when Jason came up out of the water and tried to drag her down.
Yes, good thing no one near you had a jumbo tub of popcorn when Jason popped up.
Thanks, Adrian. I’m no kid, so I know what those double-features were like. I saw “Friday The 13th” in the balcony of the Ridgewood on Tuesday June 17th 1980, four days after it opened on Friday June 13th 1980. Bucket of popcorn got tossed up in the air when Jason’s mother’s head went flying !
Bway, the Haven WAS on the right side of Jamaica Ave if headed to Jamaica. It was most definitely on the SOUTH side of Jamaica Avenue.
Thanks for posting your movie memories here, Adrian Collazo ! I am 53 years old, like you, a horror movie fan, and saw many films at both the Haven and the Ridgewood. I remember the posters in the subway for “Zombie” in the summer of 1980, though I did not go to see it. I can see it in my mind’s eye as I write this. I modified the Stones' single “Emotional Rescue” to be about “Zombie” :
I’M COMING NOW, TO KILL AND EAT YOU !
I’LL COME TO YOUR EMOTIONAL RESCUE !
Did you DELIBERATELY walk home on the (north) cemetery side, of Jamaica Avenue, to scare yourself sh*tless ?
Thanks, John D. and Warren.
Yes, just like the Flatiron Building, that corner really gets in one’s face.
Panzer65, the unusual design perhaps resulted from the unusual shape of the block that the theater was designed to occupy.
Thanks, Bway and Warren.
Thanks, Bway. So, those rooms were not the interior lobby, but above the ceiling of the lobby.
Thanks, BrooklynJim. How many stories high was the inner lobby, and what did those large rectangular windows open onto inside ? How about that high circular “porthole” way up near the cornice on the rounded corner ?
Understood, Jim, about Gates & Bway circa 1961.
You’re welcome, Panzer65. I’ve also privately questioned “BrooklynJim” about this, and am awaiting his answer. I think he said he was last to the RKO Bushwick in 1961.
Panzer65, I think the lobby was triangular, an isosceles right triangle, and the auditorium rectangular, with the long dimension parallel to Howard Avenue. ziggy, I don’t think there was ever any office space within.
The only interior photos I know of were provided by Bway, taken from his copy of the 1987 film “The Believers”, the end of which was filmed inside the RKO Bushwick Theatre. There is probably access to them somewhere on this thread. They show the inner lobby and the auditorium. There is also a photo of the interior available somewhere, taken shortly after the theater opened, taken from the balcony, looking down towards the proscenium arch, stage, and screen.
That’s a good, basic question, Louis Rugani, and I thank you for asking it. I would guess that all those windows opened into the inner lobby, with the possible exception of that circular “porthole” high up on the corner, which may have opened into the outer, upper balcony.
It would be great to have a photo of the inner lobby of the RKO Bushwick, when it still functioned as a theater.
Indeed we do, George.
Thanks for the album cover shot, Lost Memory.
The theater may be gone for over forty years, but the page about it here on Cinema Treasures remains active and open.
Cool, LM. Thanks.
Thanks, Lost Memory.
I don’t know if the non-RKO Madison had a balcony or not. Perhaps only a small one like Loew’s Trylon had.
Zip should probably be 11207, not 37.
The zip code given at the top of the page, 11237, is wrong. The theater was in East New York and 11237 is Wyckoff Heights two miles to the northwest.
Worked for me.
Lost Memory, I just tried the link, and it works. It shows the Bushwick inhabited by the Pilgrim Baptist Church, which now occupies Loew’s Gates Theatre. Thank you.
Thanks, Bway. The arches remind me of Carnegie Hall and the Cooper Union Foundation Building a bit.
You’re welcome, William, I’m glad to read that. It would be well if this theater could be listed as the Brooklyn Fox, to distinguish, it, say, from the Fox Theatre in St. Louis that I mentioned in my posts above.
William, good points you’ve made. Thanks.