Oasis Theatre

The last marquee used on the Oasis was installed about 1948 or maybe 1947, around the time they changed the marquee on the Ridgewood. There used to be an Ice Cream Parlor on Fresh Pond Road, just south of the EL, Katty-corner from the carbarns and across the street from the greasy spoon where the shop men used to dine. The owner told my father that it was in Ridgewood when he asked back in 1949. I was sitting next to him.

Please post your priceless memories here, Panzer65, if you haven’t already. Thanks. I’d love to read them.

I also saw that movie, and I believe it was also at the Oasis. I saw lots of movies at the Ridgewood also while it was still one screen, but probably saw the most at the Oasis. Of course, once the Ridgewood was the only game in town in the 80’s, I saw many there too.

Peter, it’s an ad for a whole bunch of Disney films to be shown during the summer of 75 at the Oasis. The Oasis always seemed to have a lot of Disney Movies….my mother used to always take me there, and I have seen a lot of the Disney Movies at the Oasis, probably because the Oasis always showed a lot of them.
I saw some at the RIdgewood also, like Pinnochio, but most were at the Oasis. I don’t remember ever seeing a Disney movie at the Madison.

Summer 1975
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PKoch, Thanks for your reply regarding the Lowe’s Jersey City. As far as ornate theaters go, it appears the years they were constructed, 1929-1930 ,were the “Golden Age” of theater construction. Your description of this theater is quite interesting. I attended high school near the Valencia, and marveled at its ornate facade, so many carvings and curves, a rare treasure indeed.The Kings in Flatbush, is apparently abandoned.Are their plans for its future? Are the Inside and outside features intact? Indeed, a theaters so called after life
is conversion to a church, with exception to my other favorite, the RKO Bushwick. The Paradise which is the last in the Loew’s genre,has been preserved, I hope to visit it soon!

Panzer, the Oasis was much simpler than a theater like the Ridgewood or Madison, but it had a simplistic beauty all it’s own. I remember it had large (huge) stained glass sconces along the side walls at a few intervals, and they survived right to the roller rink days. They usually didn’t light them during skating sessions, but they did light them up at the beginning of the sessions, or near the ends, when they played what was usually the finalle song, “New York, New York”, and they would stay lit as you left the floor.

By the way, there are some historic photos of the interior of the Oasis to jar your memory linked somewhere up above, see warren’s July 15, 2005 post for the links.

….now if only we can all find a photo of the interior of the Ridgewood Theater, we would be all set….

I think Loew’s Jersey has a page on this site. I think all its classic features were retained. It was one of the five large, luxuriant, palatial Loew’s Wonder Theaters that opened in 1929 and 1930, the other four being, the Valencia in Jamaica, Queens (now a church) the Kings on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn (now a derelict hulk) the 175th Street in Manhattan (Reverend Ike’s money church in the 1970’s) and the Paradise in the Bronx, now landmarked and preserved, and featured in the excellent PBS “Walk Through The Bronx” documentary with Dick Hartman and Barry Lewis.

I don’t know if they’re up to 24 screens yet at the Green Acres multiplex in Valley Stream. At least sixteen. My parents and I only saw one feature at the drive-in that preceded it : a double feature of “The Out Of Towners” and “Rosemary’s Baby” in the summer of 1970 : two films about the worst that could happen in NYC : the first, a comedy with some serious moments, the second, a serious horror story with some blackly comedic touches.

PKoch, in reply, I have not visited The Atlas Park cinema, but am happy that the lobby is one that has a look and feel that you just stepped into a movie house and not just some auditorium. In regards to the Loew’s Jersey City, its great to see classic theaters revived, the trend now is demolition, and hopefully Landmarks Preservation will move to landmark the Ridgewood, the oldest operating theater in NYC. The Loew’s Jersey city appears to be your favorite or one of them, can you describe it? Does it retain the classic features? As far as Green Acres, that, like the Oasis has a place in my heart, as I spent many times in my parents Chrysler at the defunct drive in, and plan on posting there as time allows. Screens are up to 24?!

PKoch, thanks for your reply, the only two classic ballparks left are
Boston’s Fenway Park built in 1912, and Chicago’s Wrigley Field built in 1911. Yankee Stadium, which was built in 1923, was renovated in 1974, and a lot of the old character of the old park were removed.
Incidentally, A new retro style replica of the original Yankee Stadium as it looked in 1923, is being constructed next to the old one, the only feature and this is a definite, is that columns holding the stands will not obstruct any views. It is slated to be completed in 2009, along with the Mets' Citi Field, an Ebbets Field replica.

Panzer65, thanks for your reply. What are the only two classic ball parks left ? It’s good that you’re noticing, and thinking in terms of, aesthetics. New theaters following the trend of the resurrection of “retro” ballparks ? Have you been to the new Atlas Park Cinema at 80th and Cooper in Glendale ? I was there last July 15th, 2006, and, although I didn’t see a film there, I did step into the outer lobby, and liked what I saw. It may not have been as splendid as the revived and restored Loew’s Jersey in Jersey City, but neither was it a concrete bunker at the end of the shopping mall ! I would rserve that “honor” and dubious distinction for the Green Acres 16-plex in Valley Stream, Nassau County, Long Island. Or is it up to twnety-four screens now ?

The lobby of the Green Acres Multiplex, when I was there the last Saturday of January 1987, to see “Star Trek IV”, was so busy, both visually, and in terms of people, that it reminded me of the New York Stock Exchange.

Panzer65, you’re welcome. That’s a very good description of going to the Oasis, “your second home”, as a kid. Please keep posting here.

True, the new cinemas can’t replicate this. As Jay Leno said, years ago, it’s not a movie house any more. It’s a concrete bunker at the end of the shopping mall !