You have to go around to the back and sides of the Madison on Wyckoff Avenue and Madison Street to get a good idea of its true size. The frontage on Myrtle Avenue is deceptively small. The same is true of the RKO Bushwick, even more so, with its “Flatiron Building” type “nose”, where the marquee once was, at Bway, Howard Avenue, and Monroe Street : stand on the southwest corner of Madison Street and Howard Avenue, and look diagonally across that intersection to the northeast corner occupied by the Bushwick to get a good idea of its true size.
To do the same for the Ridgewood, one needs to go to the eastern corner of Cypress Avenue and Madison Street, and look diagonally across to the Ridgewood at the western corner.
Panzer65, I also appreciate that NY Times quote, because it correctly places the RKO Madison in Queens.
Eagle’s Nest was across Woodward Avenue from Linden Hill Cemetery, not Lutheran Cemetery, which straddles north and south sides of Metropolitan Avenue from 66th St. to 73rd Place. in Middle Village.
I know the Eagle’s Nest very well ! Woodward and Stanhope !
Signs on wall :
Come in here and take a seat ! It’s better here than across the street !
Creedmoor Annex (entrance to back room)
Pregnant Lucy : God Damn You, Charlie Brown !
I remember the old crusty bald dude serving up the cheeseburgers with fried onions….summer 1970 … he was making animal noises behind the bar, like Tor Johnson in an Ed Wood horror movie … my Aunt Catherine said, “The heat’s gettin' ‘im !”
Used to know a Nancy Paino, 1975-76, who lived above and next door to Eagle’s Nest. Don’t think they or the Eagle’s Nest are there any more.
Where have you been that makes the late 60’s, 70’s bed sty, bushwick and east new york look like rye’s playland or new jersey’s great adventure ??? Vietnam ? Calcutta ?
I don’t know about Farmer’s Oval being re-done, or the bar near the 104th Precinct HQ run by “rosie” : tell me more !
No, I was never served beer in a white qt container, only coffee and ice cream and Chinese food … when I was about 10 in 1965 some teenagers walked past our front door on Cornelia St. w. a container of beer, raising a ruckus, late at night …
Don’t know about that Roslyn movie house that became a rock concert hall.
T Jai’s and McZak’s were mentioned to me by a college classmate whom I ran into in Ridgewood Savings Bank in summer 1979, after we had both graduated Cooper Union in May 1979 : Fred Fischl, who used to live on Fresh Pond Road near the Oasis Theatre. He had a cousin named Frank Tellian who lived nearby and who was an SFP classmate of mine. Fred mentioned these two bars because I wanted to know if there were any singles' bars in Ridgewood.
When I asked Fred what he’d been doing since graduation, he grimaced, and made a masturbatory gesture with his right hand.
I’m glad this site is really jarring your old cobwebs…..
It has certainly jarred mine, as you can read from all the memories I’ve posted …
I never knew McZak’s used to have live bands, most of which were solo type artists. I only stopped in there once with a h.s friend in April 1983, not to pick up girls, but I think just use the john and have a drink …. on the way back to Ridgewood from Beefsteak Charlie’s in Forest Hills … “Ulysses” with Kirk Douglas in the title role was on the TV in McZak’s, and the Cyclops had just eaten one of his men …
“These Greeks are tough ! Stringy meat ! More wine !”
My friend said his reaction to that would be diarrhea.
I was last near there Fri. Sept. 2 2005 at the Hess-Miller Funeral Home for the wake of another h.s. classmate of ours.
Thanks, LuisV. When I referred to the RKO Keiths Richmond Hill, in the past tense, I was thinking of when it still showed movies. It is indeed still pretty much intact, as I saw for myself on Saturday, July 8 2006. I think I posted a “trip report” of this visit on the Keith Richmond Hill’s page on this site.
Bushwick Buddies also has pix of 14 Holy Martyrs church and school as they are now. You can put in a request for images of them when you attended them.
I’ve checked out Forgotten New York and Brooklynpix.com……
I’m in Ridgewood every month, last visited Bushwick in mid-July 2006, and keep up with recent photos of Bushwick on the Bushwick Buddies site. I also have a very good memory.
I don’t know if TJ’s or McZaks on Metropolitan Avenue just east of Fresh Pond is still there, but I remember them from 1979-1983 as singles' bars.
Please continue harping away on the local watering holes. They have value, as you posted, as the social starting and ending points. Yes, the bar is still there by what used to be the Glendale LIRR stop. Trains stopped stopping there March 13 1998.
Thanks for the location of Trinity. I remember those train passes well, as I used them myself to commute between Myrtle and Bedford Aves. on the Canarsie L line while attending St. Francis Prep, Sept. 1969 through June 1973.
Yes, the RKO Keith’s was in Richmond Hill, on Hillside Avenue, right next to Jahn’s, between Myrtle Avenue and the LIRR viaduct. There is lots about both of them on Bushwick Buddies.
I know what you mean about the old Yankee Stadium.
You’re welcome, Panzer65. Your cautions about going “beyond that door” are right-on, and well worth heeding.
You can get SOME idea of what this once beautiful theater looked like from the photos that Warren and others have posted links to.
MrBill, thanks for the New York Times article. Here’s a quote from it :
“The Madison was built in 1927 for burlesque and vaudeville and was the second largest theater in Queens, behind the RKO Keith in Flushing.”
I never knew the Madison was the second largest theater in Queens. Thanks. As to “blight”, all I can think is : the presence of an ugly store that gave no hint that the building it is in, was once a beautiful theater. The restoration of the baroque facade would serve as a reminder that the building was indeed once a theater.
Thanks in advance for asking if you can look “beyond the door”. I’ll be eager to read what you find out, once you’ve posted it here.
I know 14 Holy Martyrs. The school was on Central Avenue between Eldert and Covert, and the church was on the western corner of Central and Schaeffer. My father’s best boyhood friend, Vincent Richard Ferro, 1919-1969, went to Mass and confession at both 14 Holy Martyrs and St. Martin Of Tours at Knickerbocker and Weirfield.
Thanks for giving the locations of both the Seneca Inn and the Cobbler Inn. I am not familiar with either though I must have passed by both hundreds if not thousands of times.
How close were you and Vicki Hobson, given the 3-year age difference ?
Yes, the Madison Diner, now the Montas Diner, and before that, the Castillo Diner, was / is across Myrtle Avenue from the Liberty Dept. Store / former RKO Madison Theatre.
Where was Most Holy Trinity H.S. located ?
Have you been on Bushwick Buddies yet ?
When are you going back to walk the streets of Bushwick and Ridgewood again ?
The closest I’ve come to seeing an exterior view of the Halsey Theater was the A & E Biography’s version of it in October 2002, with Brad Garrett as Gleason, but not the real thing. Perhaps Warren will come forward with some images of the Halsey Theater. Perhaps one of those NYC tax photos from around 1939 or so, which is how we got images of the Monroe, and of the Eagle / Luxor Theatres.
Bway, the fire was between The Theater and Consumers. I remember looking into the charred interior in April 1979, and have posted above about it, probably more than four years ago. I don’t know the exact date of the fire. I’m guessing it was between November 1978 and February 1979.
Yes, the mystery of what may remain of the theater “behind that door” IS very intriguing !!!!
Panzer65, I’m glad I made you feel like James T. Kirk.
Now, to switch to a 1975 demonic possession – horror movie :
“Panzer65 and Bway have gone ………. BEYOND THE DOOR !!!!!!!”
“WHERE OLD THEATRE OBSESSION GROWS …. AND GROWS …. AND GROWS !!!!”
Or, you might go through that door into a balcony seat and back into the past and see a movie up on that huge old screen …. next stop : The Twilight Zone !
Panzer65, perhaps it’s time for you to boldy go where no CT member has gone before : behind the walls and through the doors of the Liberty Dept. Store that was once the RKO Madison Theatre !
Yes, Panzer65, Peter.K = PKoch. I don’t know if such a computer program exists. I agree, the only real way to solve the mystery would be to ask the manager for access to areas not open to the public. Do you intend to do this ?
It would be great if there were some sort of architectural graphics computer program, into which digital photos of both the RKO Madison as it once was, as a movie theater, and as it is now, as a Liberty Department Store, could be input, and it would then generate, as output, plan, elevation, section (two-dimensional) and axonometric (solid) drawings of the RKO Madison as both a theater and as a Liberty Department Store, to help answer such questions as, are the balcony seats and ceiling still behind that door up in the furniture department ? Was the grand staircase jackhammered out, or is it still behind some wall ? etc.
Thanks, Bway, for your Busy Bee / Liberty cmt. about the Madison’s exterior facade.
Thanks, MrBill. Right on about the Queens county line.
Thanks for the compliment, Panzer65. Many older theaters used the engineering / architectural technique that you mention. Good observation !
You have to go around to the back and sides of the Madison on Wyckoff Avenue and Madison Street to get a good idea of its true size. The frontage on Myrtle Avenue is deceptively small. The same is true of the RKO Bushwick, even more so, with its “Flatiron Building” type “nose”, where the marquee once was, at Bway, Howard Avenue, and Monroe Street : stand on the southwest corner of Madison Street and Howard Avenue, and look diagonally across that intersection to the northeast corner occupied by the Bushwick to get a good idea of its true size.
To do the same for the Ridgewood, one needs to go to the eastern corner of Cypress Avenue and Madison Street, and look diagonally across to the Ridgewood at the western corner.
Panzer65, I also appreciate that NY Times quote, because it correctly places the RKO Madison in Queens.
Eagle’s Nest was across Woodward Avenue from Linden Hill Cemetery, not Lutheran Cemetery, which straddles north and south sides of Metropolitan Avenue from 66th St. to 73rd Place. in Middle Village.
Zitch :
I know the Eagle’s Nest very well ! Woodward and Stanhope !
Signs on wall :
Come in here and take a seat ! It’s better here than across the street !
Creedmoor Annex (entrance to back room)
Pregnant Lucy : God Damn You, Charlie Brown !
I remember the old crusty bald dude serving up the cheeseburgers with fried onions….summer 1970 … he was making animal noises behind the bar, like Tor Johnson in an Ed Wood horror movie … my Aunt Catherine said, “The heat’s gettin' ‘im !”
Used to know a Nancy Paino, 1975-76, who lived above and next door to Eagle’s Nest. Don’t think they or the Eagle’s Nest are there any more.
Zitch :
Where have you been that makes the late 60’s, 70’s bed sty, bushwick and east new york look like rye’s playland or new jersey’s great adventure ??? Vietnam ? Calcutta ?
I don’t know about Farmer’s Oval being re-done, or the bar near the 104th Precinct HQ run by “rosie” : tell me more !
No, I was never served beer in a white qt container, only coffee and ice cream and Chinese food … when I was about 10 in 1965 some teenagers walked past our front door on Cornelia St. w. a container of beer, raising a ruckus, late at night …
Don’t know about that Roslyn movie house that became a rock concert hall.
Peter
Zitch :
T Jai’s and McZak’s were mentioned to me by a college classmate whom I ran into in Ridgewood Savings Bank in summer 1979, after we had both graduated Cooper Union in May 1979 : Fred Fischl, who used to live on Fresh Pond Road near the Oasis Theatre. He had a cousin named Frank Tellian who lived nearby and who was an SFP classmate of mine. Fred mentioned these two bars because I wanted to know if there were any singles' bars in Ridgewood.
When I asked Fred what he’d been doing since graduation, he grimaced, and made a masturbatory gesture with his right hand.
Peter
Thanks, Zitch. How long since you’ve been in touch with steve graf, joe ganci and joe gangi ?
Peter
Zitch :
I’m glad this site is really jarring your old cobwebs…..
It has certainly jarred mine, as you can read from all the memories I’ve posted …
I never knew McZak’s used to have live bands, most of which were solo type artists. I only stopped in there once with a h.s friend in April 1983, not to pick up girls, but I think just use the john and have a drink …. on the way back to Ridgewood from Beefsteak Charlie’s in Forest Hills … “Ulysses” with Kirk Douglas in the title role was on the TV in McZak’s, and the Cyclops had just eaten one of his men …
“These Greeks are tough ! Stringy meat ! More wine !”
My friend said his reaction to that would be diarrhea.
I was last near there Fri. Sept. 2 2005 at the Hess-Miller Funeral Home for the wake of another h.s. classmate of ours.
I guess he will, and I hope he does.
OK, Lost Memory, and thanks, but didn’t the Halsey Theatre close about 10 years earlier, in 1945 ?
Thanks, LuisV. When I referred to the RKO Keiths Richmond Hill, in the past tense, I was thinking of when it still showed movies. It is indeed still pretty much intact, as I saw for myself on Saturday, July 8 2006. I think I posted a “trip report” of this visit on the Keith Richmond Hill’s page on this site.
Kevin,
What date that the Dodgers won the World Series did you have in mind ? Fall 1963 would have been way too late for the Halsey Theater.
Pax et bonum,
Peter
Zitch :
Bushwick Buddies also has pix of 14 Holy Martyrs church and school as they are now. You can put in a request for images of them when you attended them.
I’ve checked out Forgotten New York and Brooklynpix.com……
I’m in Ridgewood every month, last visited Bushwick in mid-July 2006, and keep up with recent photos of Bushwick on the Bushwick Buddies site. I also have a very good memory.
I don’t know if TJ’s or McZaks on Metropolitan Avenue just east of Fresh Pond is still there, but I remember them from 1979-1983 as singles' bars.
Please continue harping away on the local watering holes. They have value, as you posted, as the social starting and ending points. Yes, the bar is still there by what used to be the Glendale LIRR stop. Trains stopped stopping there March 13 1998.
Thanks for the location of Trinity. I remember those train passes well, as I used them myself to commute between Myrtle and Bedford Aves. on the Canarsie L line while attending St. Francis Prep, Sept. 1969 through June 1973.
Yes, the RKO Keith’s was in Richmond Hill, on Hillside Avenue, right next to Jahn’s, between Myrtle Avenue and the LIRR viaduct. There is lots about both of them on Bushwick Buddies.
I know what you mean about the old Yankee Stadium.
Peter
You’re welcome, Panzer65. Your cautions about going “beyond that door” are right-on, and well worth heeding.
You can get SOME idea of what this once beautiful theater looked like from the photos that Warren and others have posted links to.
MrBill, thanks for the New York Times article. Here’s a quote from it :
“The Madison was built in 1927 for burlesque and vaudeville and was the second largest theater in Queens, behind the RKO Keith in Flushing.”
I never knew the Madison was the second largest theater in Queens. Thanks. As to “blight”, all I can think is : the presence of an ugly store that gave no hint that the building it is in, was once a beautiful theater. The restoration of the baroque facade would serve as a reminder that the building was indeed once a theater.
Thanks in advance for asking if you can look “beyond the door”. I’ll be eager to read what you find out, once you’ve posted it here.
Zitch,
I know 14 Holy Martyrs. The school was on Central Avenue between Eldert and Covert, and the church was on the western corner of Central and Schaeffer. My father’s best boyhood friend, Vincent Richard Ferro, 1919-1969, went to Mass and confession at both 14 Holy Martyrs and St. Martin Of Tours at Knickerbocker and Weirfield.
Thanks for giving the locations of both the Seneca Inn and the Cobbler Inn. I am not familiar with either though I must have passed by both hundreds if not thousands of times.
How close were you and Vicki Hobson, given the 3-year age difference ?
Yes, the Madison Diner, now the Montas Diner, and before that, the Castillo Diner, was / is across Myrtle Avenue from the Liberty Dept. Store / former RKO Madison Theatre.
Where was Most Holy Trinity H.S. located ?
Have you been on Bushwick Buddies yet ?
When are you going back to walk the streets of Bushwick and Ridgewood again ?
Peter
The closest I’ve come to seeing an exterior view of the Halsey Theater was the A & E Biography’s version of it in October 2002, with Brad Garrett as Gleason, but not the real thing. Perhaps Warren will come forward with some images of the Halsey Theater. Perhaps one of those NYC tax photos from around 1939 or so, which is how we got images of the Monroe, and of the Eagle / Luxor Theatres.
Good thoughts, Bway. I’d never realized that about the introduction to the RKO Madison on this page.
Yes, that door has almost become a legend on this CT page for the former RKO Madison.
You’re welcome to my confirmation of when the fire was.
We’ll never know what’s “beyond the door” until someone looks.
Glad you liked my joke about “Beyond The Door” and The Twilight Zone.
Maybe Fast Eddie is behind that door with the corpse of Mae West !
Thanks, HBH ! I grok you loud and clear !
Thanks for the memories, zitch and Kevin Westley ! Keep ‘em coming !
Bway, the fire was between The Theater and Consumers. I remember looking into the charred interior in April 1979, and have posted above about it, probably more than four years ago. I don’t know the exact date of the fire. I’m guessing it was between November 1978 and February 1979.
Yes, the mystery of what may remain of the theater “behind that door” IS very intriguing !!!!
Panzer65, I’m glad I made you feel like James T. Kirk.
Now, to switch to a 1975 demonic possession – horror movie :
“Panzer65 and Bway have gone ………. BEYOND THE DOOR !!!!!!!”
“WHERE OLD THEATRE OBSESSION GROWS …. AND GROWS …. AND GROWS !!!!”
Or, you might go through that door into a balcony seat and back into the past and see a movie up on that huge old screen …. next stop : The Twilight Zone !
Panzer65, perhaps it’s time for you to boldy go where no CT member has gone before : behind the walls and through the doors of the Liberty Dept. Store that was once the RKO Madison Theatre !
Panzer65, I hope you do, and that, once you have, you write about it here.
Yes, Panzer65, Peter.K = PKoch. I don’t know if such a computer program exists. I agree, the only real way to solve the mystery would be to ask the manager for access to areas not open to the public. Do you intend to do this ?
It would be great if there were some sort of architectural graphics computer program, into which digital photos of both the RKO Madison as it once was, as a movie theater, and as it is now, as a Liberty Department Store, could be input, and it would then generate, as output, plan, elevation, section (two-dimensional) and axonometric (solid) drawings of the RKO Madison as both a theater and as a Liberty Department Store, to help answer such questions as, are the balcony seats and ceiling still behind that door up in the furniture department ? Was the grand staircase jackhammered out, or is it still behind some wall ? etc.