I vaguely remember the McVickers from past visits to Chicago. While on vacation there, July 1 through 17, 1983, I saw an Eddie Murphy double feature of “48 Hours” and “Trading Places” at a theater near or under the el in The Loop, with my best friend, who lived in Chicago then, with a mostly black audience. The theater may have been the McVickers.
The Monroe Theater was across Howard Avenue from the Bushwick, at 4 Howard Avenue. There is a page for the Monroe on this site. The number escapes me at the moment.
MojaveByrd, the dessert you are referring to was posted about by Warren elsewhere as “the drink you eat with a spoon”. Custard or vanilla yogurt, perhaps ?
Thanks, LindaF. I will ask my dad about the Alhambra as a grocery store. He and my mom lived on Weirfield two doors towards Wilson Avenue from St. Martin Of Tours R.C. Church, across the street from Halsey (Irving Square) Park. Their landlady there was Ann Delaney, and her brother Tom. That was summer 1955, before they moved to the Ridgewood home they had just bought, on Cornelia Street.
OK, we’ll move the rock n roll chat to the page for the Brooklyn Paramount, and the Wyckoff and Palmetto news stand talk to the Parthenon Theater page.
Yes, Jack Tomai, Forrest J.Ackerman was indeed the editor of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, also of MONSTER WORLD. I used to get them inside that little hole-in-the-wall news stand which is still there at the northern corner of Wyckoff and Palmetto under the el.
Yes, I think it cost 35 cents.
I wonder how many parents told their teenage daughters not to go to rock n roll shows because they could get pregnant at them ?
I know Salerno’s well, having eaten there with a date on two Saturdays in 1990, April 21 and September 8th. On April 21st 1990 my date and I went to Jahn’s for dessert after eating at Salerno’s. I last ate at the Hofbrau on Friday November 10 1994 with my wife, a friend from work, and his wife. By May 1995 the Hofbrau was gone and had become the Cafe Europa. Now it is medical offices.
The “triangle” is that formed by Myrtle Avenue, Jamaica Avenue, and 117th Street, where the Q-55 bus turns around to return to Ridgewood. Hillside Avenue begins north of Myrtle Avenue at 117th Street. The RKO Keith Richmond Hill sits on Hillside Avenue between Jahn’s to the south and Salerno’s to the north, just south of the LIRR viaduct and the now closed Richmond Hill LIRR station.
By all means, Panzer65, if you’re visiting RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill, please get a sundae next door at Jahn’s. I did precisely that a year and a week ago, on Saturday July 8 2006. No, I didn’t try out the player piano. I did ask what kept them in business. They said mostly the bingo and flea market crowd from RKO Keith’s. I had wondered, because the place is so dark, deserted and quiet inside. I have literally been in brighter, more crowded and livelier funeral homes !
By contrast, Eddie’s Sweet Shoppe across from the Cinemart is much more bustling and lively.
You are most likely to my hospitality, Panzer65. My pleasure !
Thanks for your answer, Jack Tomai. You mention rock n roll shows were thought to be dangerous because of their mix of ethnicities. You mean black and white ? White kids digging black music ? I ask, because the Rolling Stones classic “Brown Sugar” is about inter-racial sex, and ironically uses a black man’s music (Chuck Berry’s) to sing an ode to white racism.
Ah yes … pot and the police adding to the excitement ! Who wants to see safe, legal Pat Boone, or Wayne Newton ?
“Yeah, we’ll have a party, but we gotta post a guard outside !”
Eddie Cochran
“And when da police knocked, those doors flew back ! But they kept on rockin', goin' round and round ….”
Chuck Berry, “Around and Around”
Yeah, a scary movie and rock ‘n roll : two quick bops to the nerves that feel good. Just like orgasm.
I saw CURSE OF THE DEMON at Film Forum, sometime from summer 1987 through 1989. I knew about it as a kid from “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” magazine.
Jack Tomai, the RKO Madison was probably at its worst in April 1979, right after it burned. There are plenty of images of the Ridgewood and Madison as they are now available on their pages on this site.
A friend of mine at work graduated Grover Cleveland High School in 1965. His graduation ceremony was held at the RKO Madison Theater. Ditto his younger brother in 1972. Cleveland’s grounds were quite extensive. I’ll ask my friend why they held their graduations at the RKO Madison.
As for the cleanup between matinee and evening performances at the Dekalb / Casino, I’m also reminded what Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle said near the beginning of “Taxi Driver” :
“Some nights I have to clean the come off the back seat before leaving the cab at the garage.”
I mentioned that to a former friend, now deceased, who used to drive a cab for a living, and he said that was VERY accurate.
Bway, I was thinking the exact same thing myself. I think the image showed that “Women in Bondage” was on a double bill at the RKO Bushwick, along with “The Lodger”, starring George Sanders and Merle Oberon, in 1942, and that the marquee also read “Burlesque every Tuesday and Wednesday evening”. The link to that image must be someplace on the page for the RKO Bushwick (theater # 1322).
I remember laughing when I saw the image, because the marquee read as though the “women in bondage” appeared as the burlesque at the Bushwick on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings !
Thanks, Joe G and Bway. Bway, the movement along the Canarsie line you’ve described as going on now, reads like history of a century ago repeating itself. You may want to look at the latest “Our Neighborhood” article in the Times Newsweekly. In it, a Mrs. Bollmann Ognibene reminisces about how her parents came from “kleine Deutschland” (little Germany) on the Lower East Side to Ridgewood in 1904.
Personally, I wonder where in Ridgewood, in 1904, as it was mostly undeveloped then. She reminisces further about attending PS 88 at Catalpa and Fresh Pond.
Jack Tomai, I’m glad I brought back some great memories of yours when I mentioned A & S in downtown Bklyn. Please go on with your movie memories. You won’t bore me at all. I used to like the drum set at A & S in downtown Bklyn. One of my aunts, who was like a second mother to me, used to work there in the 1960’s.
I know about those downtown Bklyn movie palaces, but never saw a film there until a year and a day ago : Saturday, July 15, 2006, when I saw the original “Psycho” at the BAM Rose Cinema. Great !
My dad is more familiar with the downtown Bklyn movie palaces than I, having seen burlesque and Eddie Cantor at Loew’s Metropolitan.
What rock n roll performers did you see at the Bklyn Paramount, and in what way were rock n roll shows thought to be dangerous back then ? I can guess, but would like to read your own answer, in your own words.
Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones used to collect posters from the Deep South that were heavy against black music :
DON’T LET YOUR KID BUY NEGRO RECORDS ! SAVAGE STUFF ! IT WILL TWIST THEIR MINDS !
Little did they know …
Cue opening riff of “Johnny B. Goode” and the rest is history.
THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE are classic 50’s B movies right up my alley, though I’ve mostly seen them many years after their original release at Film Forum and Thalia Soho and Cinema Village in lower Manhattan.
I think I had one, or something like it, at A & S in downtown Brooklyn as a kid.
Frozen custard served in a tall glass. Got it.
Thanks.
Warren, what exactly was “the drink you eat with a spoon”, and on what theater’s page did you post about it on ? The Valencia ?
I vaguely remember the McVickers from past visits to Chicago. While on vacation there, July 1 through 17, 1983, I saw an Eddie Murphy double feature of “48 Hours” and “Trading Places” at a theater near or under the el in The Loop, with my best friend, who lived in Chicago then, with a mostly black audience. The theater may have been the McVickers.
The Monroe Theater was across Howard Avenue from the Bushwick, at 4 Howard Avenue. There is a page for the Monroe on this site. The number escapes me at the moment.
MojaveByrd, the dessert you are referring to was posted about by Warren elsewhere as “the drink you eat with a spoon”. Custard or vanilla yogurt, perhaps ?
Thanks, LindaF. I will ask my dad about the Alhambra as a grocery store. He and my mom lived on Weirfield two doors towards Wilson Avenue from St. Martin Of Tours R.C. Church, across the street from Halsey (Irving Square) Park. Their landlady there was Ann Delaney, and her brother Tom. That was summer 1955, before they moved to the Ridgewood home they had just bought, on Cornelia Street.
Good for you, saps. I last visited Saturday July 8 2006, though I did not see a film there.
Thanks for your answer, dewotr.
OK, we’ll move the rock n roll chat to the page for the Brooklyn Paramount, and the Wyckoff and Palmetto news stand talk to the Parthenon Theater page.
You’re welcome, anniegirl.
Long live Williamsburg and Greenpoint !
Yes, Jack Tomai, Forrest J.Ackerman was indeed the editor of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, also of MONSTER WORLD. I used to get them inside that little hole-in-the-wall news stand which is still there at the northern corner of Wyckoff and Palmetto under the el.
Yes, I think it cost 35 cents.
I wonder how many parents told their teenage daughters not to go to rock n roll shows because they could get pregnant at them ?
I know Salerno’s well, having eaten there with a date on two Saturdays in 1990, April 21 and September 8th. On April 21st 1990 my date and I went to Jahn’s for dessert after eating at Salerno’s. I last ate at the Hofbrau on Friday November 10 1994 with my wife, a friend from work, and his wife. By May 1995 the Hofbrau was gone and had become the Cafe Europa. Now it is medical offices.
The “triangle” is that formed by Myrtle Avenue, Jamaica Avenue, and 117th Street, where the Q-55 bus turns around to return to Ridgewood. Hillside Avenue begins north of Myrtle Avenue at 117th Street. The RKO Keith Richmond Hill sits on Hillside Avenue between Jahn’s to the south and Salerno’s to the north, just south of the LIRR viaduct and the now closed Richmond Hill LIRR station.
Good points, all, Panzer65. Please continue your good posts !
By all means, Panzer65, if you’re visiting RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill, please get a sundae next door at Jahn’s. I did precisely that a year and a week ago, on Saturday July 8 2006. No, I didn’t try out the player piano. I did ask what kept them in business. They said mostly the bingo and flea market crowd from RKO Keith’s. I had wondered, because the place is so dark, deserted and quiet inside. I have literally been in brighter, more crowded and livelier funeral homes !
By contrast, Eddie’s Sweet Shoppe across from the Cinemart is much more bustling and lively.
You are most likely to my hospitality, Panzer65. My pleasure !
The exterior of the Bushwick was preserved, fortunately, but the inside was gutted to convert it into a school.
Thanks for your answer, Jack Tomai. You mention rock n roll shows were thought to be dangerous because of their mix of ethnicities. You mean black and white ? White kids digging black music ? I ask, because the Rolling Stones classic “Brown Sugar” is about inter-racial sex, and ironically uses a black man’s music (Chuck Berry’s) to sing an ode to white racism.
Ah yes … pot and the police adding to the excitement ! Who wants to see safe, legal Pat Boone, or Wayne Newton ?
“Yeah, we’ll have a party, but we gotta post a guard outside !”
“And when da police knocked, those doors flew back ! But they kept on rockin', goin' round and round ….”
Yeah, a scary movie and rock ‘n roll : two quick bops to the nerves that feel good. Just like orgasm.
I saw CURSE OF THE DEMON at Film Forum, sometime from summer 1987 through 1989. I knew about it as a kid from “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” magazine.
Don’t know about rock ‘n roll at the Valencia.
Jack Tomai, the RKO Madison was probably at its worst in April 1979, right after it burned. There are plenty of images of the Ridgewood and Madison as they are now available on their pages on this site.
A friend of mine at work graduated Grover Cleveland High School in 1965. His graduation ceremony was held at the RKO Madison Theater. Ditto his younger brother in 1972. Cleveland’s grounds were quite extensive. I’ll ask my friend why they held their graduations at the RKO Madison.
Here’s the link to the aforementioned article :
View link
Excuse me, 1905, not 1904.
As for the cleanup between matinee and evening performances at the Dekalb / Casino, I’m also reminded what Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle said near the beginning of “Taxi Driver” :
“Some nights I have to clean the come off the back seat before leaving the cab at the garage.”
I mentioned that to a former friend, now deceased, who used to drive a cab for a living, and he said that was VERY accurate.
Bway, I was thinking the exact same thing myself. I think the image showed that “Women in Bondage” was on a double bill at the RKO Bushwick, along with “The Lodger”, starring George Sanders and Merle Oberon, in 1942, and that the marquee also read “Burlesque every Tuesday and Wednesday evening”. The link to that image must be someplace on the page for the RKO Bushwick (theater # 1322).
I remember laughing when I saw the image, because the marquee read as though the “women in bondage” appeared as the burlesque at the Bushwick on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings !
Thanks, Joe G and Bway. Bway, the movement along the Canarsie line you’ve described as going on now, reads like history of a century ago repeating itself. You may want to look at the latest “Our Neighborhood” article in the Times Newsweekly. In it, a Mrs. Bollmann Ognibene reminisces about how her parents came from “kleine Deutschland” (little Germany) on the Lower East Side to Ridgewood in 1904.
Personally, I wonder where in Ridgewood, in 1904, as it was mostly undeveloped then. She reminisces further about attending PS 88 at Catalpa and Fresh Pond.
Jack Tomai, I’m glad I brought back some great memories of yours when I mentioned A & S in downtown Bklyn. Please go on with your movie memories. You won’t bore me at all. I used to like the drum set at A & S in downtown Bklyn. One of my aunts, who was like a second mother to me, used to work there in the 1960’s.
I know about those downtown Bklyn movie palaces, but never saw a film there until a year and a day ago : Saturday, July 15, 2006, when I saw the original “Psycho” at the BAM Rose Cinema. Great !
My dad is more familiar with the downtown Bklyn movie palaces than I, having seen burlesque and Eddie Cantor at Loew’s Metropolitan.
What rock n roll performers did you see at the Bklyn Paramount, and in what way were rock n roll shows thought to be dangerous back then ? I can guess, but would like to read your own answer, in your own words.
Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones used to collect posters from the Deep South that were heavy against black music :
DON’T LET YOUR KID BUY NEGRO RECORDS ! SAVAGE STUFF ! IT WILL TWIST THEIR MINDS !
Little did they know …
Cue opening riff of “Johnny B. Goode” and the rest is history.
THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE are classic 50’s B movies right up my alley, though I’ve mostly seen them many years after their original release at Film Forum and Thalia Soho and Cinema Village in lower Manhattan.
Period.
Zkid, in the words of the Bruce Willis character, from the first “Die Hard” film :
“Welcome to the party, pal !!!!”
The Ridgewood Theater party, that is !