Ridgewood Theatre
55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
31 people
favorited this theater
Showing 951 - 975 of 2,835 comments
If you can circulate the petition link to your neighbors, family, & friends, and encourage signers to post comments, that would be very helpful. Thank you!
You’re most welcome, Mike. I only wish there was more I could do for the Ridgewood Theatre.
Thank you too!
You’re welcome, Mike. Good of you to “check in” here. Thank YOU for your positive attitude and hope.
Saving a theater is indeed more difficult than saving a freestanding historic diner, but not impossible. I am still working on finding a new tenant or owner, as well as acquiring landmark status for the facade and lobby. I’ll never abandon my efforts or my sense of hope. Thank you for your positive feedback! “Movie Man” also has a nice ring to it. ;–)
Instead of “Diner Man”, how about “Movie Man” ?
Thanks, Bway, for the link. Good to see what Michael Perlman looks like.
I’ve been to the Moondance (Kirsten Dunst in “Spider Man”) but not to the Cheyenne Diner. I hope the Square Diner (Varick and Leonard) doesn’t risk closing. I’ve been eating there for 26 ½ years now.
Here’s a link I found about the preservation of the Ridgewood:
View link
I read with interest the many comments indicating an interest in a move to save the Ridgewood Theater. A Community Action Project such as this would, at first, seem overwhelming. However, it appears evident from the well written and inspired comments regarding such a project, that there are local and nearby area individuals experienced and well voiced in such procedures.
However, many more could contribute, if sought and given a mechanism to do so. For example, data of former Ridgewoodite’s could be legitimately obtained from Alumni
Associations, American Legion and V.F.W. former area members and perhaps the local newspaper’s out-of-town subscribers. The latter, although relocated, are demonstratively interested in current neighborhood happenings.
What could these long distance Ex’s do? Well, should an exploratory group of neighborhood(s) enthusiasts be formed, they would require seed money for administrative expenses egg: legal filings, stationary, postage etc. A well presented request to former area residents could, at the least, pay for petitions and perhaps coffee for those obtaining signatures on a wintry day. My point is; such an undertaking would take many interested and willing volunteers, some nearby, others not. Even twenty-five to a hundred bucks from a few dozen out-of-area nostalgic individuals could inspire a home town effort and start the ball rolling!
Note: Off the soap box and into my shoe box. If such a fund raising project is formally instituted; I will initially commit to a One Hundred Dollar donation. Jack Ahearn, Sacramento, California.
John, it’s better having over 200 signatures with quality comments from citizens who care, than signers who sign it for the sake of it, and don’t post any wothwhile comments. Quality supercedes quantity. If you care very much about seeing additional signatures, then please consider circulating the petition link to your colleagues. Thank you!
Thanks for the welcome, Peter.K. I enjoy posting here and reading what other posters have to say.
Peter, as always I have enjoyed your comments on this and many other pages.
Turning to the Ridgewood’s current plight, I think we need to reflect upon the rather paltry response that the “Save the Ridgewood” campaign has generated to date. Let’s face it, slightly over 200 signatures – many of which possess no relationship whatsover to the Ridgewood – has not been very impressive. It may also – as much as I hate to admit it – reinforce Warren’s caustic comments that most of this page’s entries have not reflected current moviegoing patterns. In any event, unless we can devise a strategy to significantly increase community support, this whole effort may simply provide the owner with an additional justification to do whatever he pleases.
Previously, I tried to bring the new residents of Bushwick into the mix. I doubt that this had much of an effect. In addition, efforts should be made to ask the two affected community boards – Brookly #4 and Queens #5 – to get involved. But the fact remains that, minus real and current local support, the Ridgewood does not have much going for it.
Let me end on a personal note. When you visit the Ridgewood Theater site, please also take a gander at the Ridgewood Casino. This ancient – and hardly visited – site may provide some hidden surprises. In several posts, I have tried to establish that the actual site of this old theater – which clearly closed in the 1910’s – still exists. I really hope that the Peters and Bways and Lost Memories – and even the Warrens – spend a few moments here and provide your comments – even if you conclude that I do not know what I am talking about!!
Talk soon.
Thanks, MPol, and welcome to CT ! Glad you enjoyed reading all our Ridgewood stories !
Hi, everybody! Although I don’t hail from Ridgewood, Brooklyn, or New York, generally, I read all the comments about the now-closed Ridgewood Theatre and all the memories of growing up in the Ridgewoiod community itself with much interest and enjoyment. The Ridgewood Theatre was yet another beautifully palatial-looking theatre. Sure wish they’d preserve more of these graceful old movie palaces instead of letting them go to seed, tearing them down, and then converting them to whatever they please just so they can fatten their wallets.
Good one, Jim ! “See” you soon, on private e-mails !
“You’re a shining star, no matter who you are ….”
Good Lord, you two, what a “shining” example: even the dingy bulbs on the old Myrtle El were FIFTEEN watts…
Thanks, once upon a time !
THAT’S A HUNGELEITER !!!!!
My mother used to call those ten-watt bulbs in the halls of her home on Harman Street, “cutcha wukoh”, Polish for “cat’s eyes” !
Peter…Least I get off topic, I’ll combine a movie house with your understated definition of ‘Hungerleiter’: There was this one Herr Hungerleiter', who being so frugalisterical, bought his ‘Stadts-Herald at the Wyckoff Ave. Station and then read it under the bright lights of the Parthenon…rather than expend the expense of his ten-watt light bulb at home!
Good one, Panzer65 ! Because the floors were always so sticky, then the cleaning lady wasn’t a stoop-washer !
If it was the floors were never sticky!
I hope the cleaning lady that was murdered inside the Ridgewood wasn’t one of those German-American women who washed their stoops !
Thanks for both posts, Lost Memory.
Thanks for the info, Michael. I suppose Beaux Arts hung on until “modern hack” (mass-produced pseduo-Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe) began to take over.
You’re most welcome to my e-mail. I hope we can all do something for RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill Theatre.
“Hungeleiter” is a Ridgewood-ism for a stingy, over-protective, extremely frugal, penny-pinching, control freak-neat landlord of German descent, such as predominated in Ridgewood fifty or more years ago, mostly.
The positive side of it is extreme civic pride, of German-American landladies washing the brownstone front stoops of their brick Ridgewood homes on a Friday morning.
The downside is getting into a fistfight with tenants for smoking in the hall, or leaving for cigarette butts on the front stoop.
Another aspect of it is extreme chutzpah, like pushing a baby carriage out in front of you to bring all traffic to a screeching halt, so you can cross Myrtle Avenue more easily on a busily shopping Saturday afternoon.
The dark green color with which most of the exterior wood trim of most houses in Ridgewood used to be painted, was known informally as “hungeleiter green”.
So, after 91 years and one week shy of three months of operation, I would expect that some “hungeleiter” had crept into the style of the Ridgewood Theatre.
Bway, Lost Memory, once upon a time, ex-Ridgewood-ites like myself, can perhaps elaborate further.
Beaux Art continued through the 1920s in many parts of our city. The theater lobby has some Art Deco touches. Please explain what “hungeleiter” means.
Thank you for your e-mail! I will get back to you shortly.
Yes, Lost Memory, that WAS weird. That and the grandmother wanting Billy dead, with her, so she wouldn’t be lonely.
Good one, once upon a time. I LOVE that movie ! I wonder if it ever played at the Ridgewood ? Why not ?
Art Deco perhaps, as well as Beaux Art ? Wasn’t Beaux Art late 19th century, architecturally ?
Maybe some “hungeleiter” in the mix, as well ?