Nathan’s just a car fare away from Myrtle and Wyckoff ?
Coney Island, as you know, was on the opposite side of Brooklyn, but, the BMT Brooklyn els being what they were in their heyday, it seems to me, if you could get to downtown Bklyn Sands Street terminal, (and you certainly could, on the Myrtle Avenue el, from Myrtle and Wyckoff) you could get to almost anywhere in Brooklyn on a BMT el, and that, of course, included Stillwell Avenue terminal in Coney Island, where the West End, Sea Beach, Culver and Brighton Lines all terminated.
I also remember Bickford’s, on Myrtle, near its southeast corner with Wyckoff, in the 1960’s, where McDonald’s is now (Lost Memory and I have joked about “St. Bickford” and Father McCabe of St. Brigid’s, though Fr. McC. never consecrated muffins there !).
My dad remembers an earlier fast food eatery near there called “The Exchange Buffet”, whose slogan was “Eat'em and beat ‘em !” Supposedly the staff could tell what you’d had, and how much to charge you for it, just by looking at the empty bowls, cups and plates on the table in front of you.
Thanks for posting these precious Parthenon movie memories of yours, once upon a time. I take it that, by the Hofbrau, rather than the Triangle Hofbrau of Richmond Hill, you mean the Rathskeller in the basement on Palmetto, just north of Myrtle, and next door to Koletty’s Ice Cream Parlor, at the northest corner of Myrtle and Palmetto, where once, the 52 trolley, and, later, its successor, the B-52 Gates Avenue to Civic Center bus, pulled in, at the end of its route.
I grew up knowing the hub of Myrtle, Wyckoff and Palmetto as “the depot”, because of all the bus lines that ended / began there : the B-26, 52, 54, 55 and 58. They all still do.
The news stand where I got my DC comics and “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” magazines was on the north corner of Palmetto and Wyckoff, next door to the Parthenon, between two Canarsie Line subway entrances.
I’ve seen “State Fair” on TV. It’s more my wife’s taste in movies than it is mine.
I first knew the Parthenon as a bowling alley, Parthenon Lanes, in Fall 1961 when I started first grade at St. Brigid. My mom and I would go in there sometimes once we’d finished lunch at Koletty’s, before returning to school for the 12:45 bell.
A big salty pretzel for five cents ! That was before my time : the price, not the pretzels. In your honor, for $ 1.50, I’ll get one on the way back from lunch this afternoon in lower Manhattan (Worth Street) !
I can understand the fascination of “What if …” : what one can’t have, or didn’t have, always seems to be more desirable than what one can, or did, have, of relations with the opposite sex.
GerardC, I’m glad there are no hard feelings on your part.
I recommend you not be too hard on yourself about throwing out those old newspaper clippings. Unfortunately, hindsight through the “retrospectroscope”, such as we are now prone to in our later (and hopefully) wiser years is always 20 / 20.
I wonder if the Astoria’s marquee fell in the same snowstorm as the Ridgewood’s : the blizzard of Beatles Day, February 9, 1969.
February 8 or 9, 1964 was the Beatles' landmark performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
I, too, have wondered, why the Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theatre pages, and not, say, the Astoria’s or Valencia’s pages, became such “wailing walls” and meeting places for people from the neighborhoods that these theaters were located in.
I think the Meserole Theatre page did also, but to a lesser extent than the Ridgewood’s and Madison’s.
It would be ironic, and poetic justice indeed, if former movie matrons got jobs in the video stores that helped put the movie theaters they used to work in, out of business.
Panzer65, have some tranya for me. I hope you relish it as much as I.
Seriously, if ANYONE goes “beyond that [second floor furniture dept.] door” in the Liberty / former RKO Madison, and takes pictures, PLEASE POST THEM HERE !!!!
Panzer65, James T. Kirk always had a good, healthy fear reaction, which saved his life countless times.
The actor who played him, William Shatner, did so much screaming on-screen, early in his career, that he was known as “the male Fay Wray”.
I’ve also suggested to Bway that those movie matrons later got jobs in video stores, where their job was to shame and embarrass adolescent boys out of renting porno movies.
The Nurse Ratched – McMurphy male sexuality confrontation / conflict is, of course, straight out of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.
MrBill, my wife has told me, Leonard Nimoy may PLAY Spock, but I AM Spock, in real life.
So, yes, let’s revisit the RKO Madison, and go where no CT member has gone before. I don’t think we’ll end up with glowing eyes, and super powers that will drive us power-mad, like Gary Lockwood’s character did.
Those nurses, matrons, and stretchers on-hand were sometimes a gimmick of those late 1950’s, early 1960’s William Castle “gimmick” movies, like “The Tingler” and “House On Haunted Hill”. Ditto the ambulance parked outside (I think that was for “Macabre”, pronounced by 12-year-old Stephen King and friends as “McBare” !).
The balcony of the Madison, and also this page, are also haunted by ….
Fast Eddie, and the ghost (or corpse) of Mae West !
It reads like most of the appeal of that usherette smiling at you was the idea of a perceived disciplinarian suddenly appearing to be a possible girlfriend.
I shudder to think what those Nurse Ratched-tough matrons with those piercing and probing flashlight beams, would have done to guys pleasuring themselves while watching porno movies ….
Restrooms, “beyond that door” : It seems that the only way to find out is to visit. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. What could the management do, besides say no ? Have you arrested as a terrorist suspect ?
Marble (grand) staircase : was at the far end of the inner lobby, the near end being the entrance from the outer lobby. The marble grand staircase would have been (you should excuse the expression) up against the (Wyckoff Avenue) wall of the building.
Here’s the link to one of the two images of the inner lobby on Bushwick Buddies :
Yes, Panzer65, it was like visiting a palace, concert hall, opera house, or a historic art museum, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As opposed to nowadays, hunkering down in “the concrete bunker at the end of the shopping mall”, for a half hour or previews and commercials, before the feature movie starts.
Even if it IS in 3-D and six-channel digital DTS sound !
Yes, once upon a time, what IF you had returned that coy usherette’s demure smile …
Please visit Bushwick Buddies for a few images of the inside of the RKO Madison in all the regal splendor that you have here so wonderfully recalled and posted for all of us here at CT !
Nathan’s just a car fare away from Myrtle and Wyckoff ?
Coney Island, as you know, was on the opposite side of Brooklyn, but, the BMT Brooklyn els being what they were in their heyday, it seems to me, if you could get to downtown Bklyn Sands Street terminal, (and you certainly could, on the Myrtle Avenue el, from Myrtle and Wyckoff) you could get to almost anywhere in Brooklyn on a BMT el, and that, of course, included Stillwell Avenue terminal in Coney Island, where the West End, Sea Beach, Culver and Brighton Lines all terminated.
I also remember Bickford’s, on Myrtle, near its southeast corner with Wyckoff, in the 1960’s, where McDonald’s is now (Lost Memory and I have joked about “St. Bickford” and Father McCabe of St. Brigid’s, though Fr. McC. never consecrated muffins there !).
My dad remembers an earlier fast food eatery near there called “The Exchange Buffet”, whose slogan was “Eat'em and beat ‘em !” Supposedly the staff could tell what you’d had, and how much to charge you for it, just by looking at the empty bowls, cups and plates on the table in front of you.
Thanks for posting these precious Parthenon movie memories of yours, once upon a time. I take it that, by the Hofbrau, rather than the Triangle Hofbrau of Richmond Hill, you mean the Rathskeller in the basement on Palmetto, just north of Myrtle, and next door to Koletty’s Ice Cream Parlor, at the northest corner of Myrtle and Palmetto, where once, the 52 trolley, and, later, its successor, the B-52 Gates Avenue to Civic Center bus, pulled in, at the end of its route.
I grew up knowing the hub of Myrtle, Wyckoff and Palmetto as “the depot”, because of all the bus lines that ended / began there : the B-26, 52, 54, 55 and 58. They all still do.
The news stand where I got my DC comics and “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” magazines was on the north corner of Palmetto and Wyckoff, next door to the Parthenon, between two Canarsie Line subway entrances.
I’ve seen “State Fair” on TV. It’s more my wife’s taste in movies than it is mine.
I first knew the Parthenon as a bowling alley, Parthenon Lanes, in Fall 1961 when I started first grade at St. Brigid. My mom and I would go in there sometimes once we’d finished lunch at Koletty’s, before returning to school for the 12:45 bell.
A big salty pretzel for five cents ! That was before my time : the price, not the pretzels. In your honor, for $ 1.50, I’ll get one on the way back from lunch this afternoon in lower Manhattan (Worth Street) !
You’re welcome, Darthscooby, and welcome to Cinema Treasures !
Thanks for the info, GerardC. There were blizzards on April 6, 1982 and in late February 1983, if that’s any help.
Good for you, SheepsheadTony. Rock on !
Thanks, Bway. “Healthy” as Warren would define it, or as we would ?
You’re welcome, once upon a time.
I can understand the fascination of “What if …” : what one can’t have, or didn’t have, always seems to be more desirable than what one can, or did, have, of relations with the opposite sex.
GerardC, I’m glad there are no hard feelings on your part.
I recommend you not be too hard on yourself about throwing out those old newspaper clippings. Unfortunately, hindsight through the “retrospectroscope”, such as we are now prone to in our later (and hopefully) wiser years is always 20 / 20.
I wonder if the Astoria’s marquee fell in the same snowstorm as the Ridgewood’s : the blizzard of Beatles Day, February 9, 1969.
February 8 or 9, 1964 was the Beatles' landmark performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
I, too, have wondered, why the Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theatre pages, and not, say, the Astoria’s or Valencia’s pages, became such “wailing walls” and meeting places for people from the neighborhoods that these theaters were located in.
I think the Meserole Theatre page did also, but to a lesser extent than the Ridgewood’s and Madison’s.
Good for you, Sheepshead Tony ! Welcome to CT !
Whom did you see at the taping of Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert ?
Thanks, once upon a time. Looking forward to reading more of your RKO Madison movie memories.
“What if” …. How about writing it, as a story ?
Yes … Episode Three, the first non-pilot episode made.
It would be ironic, and poetic justice indeed, if former movie matrons got jobs in the video stores that helped put the movie theaters they used to work in, out of business.
Panzer65, have some tranya for me. I hope you relish it as much as I.
Seriously, if ANYONE goes “beyond that [second floor furniture dept.] door” in the Liberty / former RKO Madison, and takes pictures, PLEASE POST THEM HERE !!!!
Thanks.
Panzer65, James T. Kirk always had a good, healthy fear reaction, which saved his life countless times.
The actor who played him, William Shatner, did so much screaming on-screen, early in his career, that he was known as “the male Fay Wray”.
I’ve also suggested to Bway that those movie matrons later got jobs in video stores, where their job was to shame and embarrass adolescent boys out of renting porno movies.
The Nurse Ratched – McMurphy male sexuality confrontation / conflict is, of course, straight out of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.
MrBill, my wife has told me, Leonard Nimoy may PLAY Spock, but I AM Spock, in real life.
So, yes, let’s revisit the RKO Madison, and go where no CT member has gone before. I don’t think we’ll end up with glowing eyes, and super powers that will drive us power-mad, like Gary Lockwood’s character did.
Thanks, Warren, I knew I could count on you.
Panzer65, you need to register first.
Try this shorter link :
http://www.bushwickbuddies.com/
once upon a time : Good one !
Those nurses, matrons, and stretchers on-hand were sometimes a gimmick of those late 1950’s, early 1960’s William Castle “gimmick” movies, like “The Tingler” and “House On Haunted Hill”. Ditto the ambulance parked outside (I think that was for “Macabre”, pronounced by 12-year-old Stephen King and friends as “McBare” !).
The balcony of the Madison, and also this page, are also haunted by ….
Fast Eddie, and the ghost (or corpse) of Mae West !
It reads like most of the appeal of that usherette smiling at you was the idea of a perceived disciplinarian suddenly appearing to be a possible girlfriend.
I shudder to think what those Nurse Ratched-tough matrons with those piercing and probing flashlight beams, would have done to guys pleasuring themselves while watching porno movies ….
Panzer65 :
Restrooms, “beyond that door” : It seems that the only way to find out is to visit. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. What could the management do, besides say no ? Have you arrested as a terrorist suspect ?
Marble (grand) staircase : was at the far end of the inner lobby, the near end being the entrance from the outer lobby. The marble grand staircase would have been (you should excuse the expression) up against the (Wyckoff Avenue) wall of the building.
Here’s the link to one of the two images of the inner lobby on Bushwick Buddies :
View link
Scroll down and you will see other images from the late 1920’s, shortly after the theatre opened.
Yes, Panzer65, it was like visiting a palace, concert hall, opera house, or a historic art museum, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As opposed to nowadays, hunkering down in “the concrete bunker at the end of the shopping mall”, for a half hour or previews and commercials, before the feature movie starts.
Even if it IS in 3-D and six-channel digital DTS sound !
Yes, once upon a time, what IF you had returned that coy usherette’s demure smile …
Thanks for noting this, LuisV. I think that says a lot for the Ridgewood Theatre, and some of its former patrons.
Thanks so much, once upon a time !
Please visit Bushwick Buddies for a few images of the inside of the RKO Madison in all the regal splendor that you have here so wonderfully recalled and posted for all of us here at CT !
http://www.bushwickbuddies.com
I’ll keep doing what I can, Michael.
I’ll do what I can, Michael.
Thank you Lisanne ! Is there anything else we can do to help preserve and protect the Ridgewood Theatre ?
My apologies to you, GerardC : I never meant to be sarcastic.
No, I never attended the Astoria, but, fortunately, I can read your childhood recollections of it here. Thanks for posting them here on this page.
It looks like Greenpoint, hardbop, Lost Memory and BrooklynJim remember the Astoria as well.