RKO Madison Theatre
54-30 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
54-30 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
21 people
favorited this theater
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In the 60’s some German organization used to use the Madison theater for some sort of function. I remember seeing an ad for it somewhere, and it was “RKO Madison Theater, Ridgewood, Queens. I don’t remember where I saw it though.
Just to put my two cents in. I never thought of the Madison as a Brooklyn theater. I remember the Miss Ridgewood contests that were held there and I thought it unfair that a professional from an entirely different state and not Ridgewood won the contest. Many of my friends were entered in it and several others that I recognized. They were all from Queens.
Well, like I said, not “the” biggest, but certainly up there.
The famous Brooklyn-Queens debate too….regardless of how both the Ridgewood and Madison were always marketed and listed as theaters, both were, and always were in Queens. The Madison can see the border….but it’s on the Queens side! And the Ridgewood is not even a question.
Thanks, Warren, I was thinking of Brooklyn and Queens collectively.
I was also thinking that some physical dimensions could be carefully scaled from an aerial photo.
Good point, and good question ! Which was the largest, not necessarily in terms of total number of seats, but in area or volume ? Aerial photos with scales would be a big help in judging that. A few that come to mind besides the RKO Madison are the Valencia, and the other four “wonder theaters” that opened in 1929-30, and Loew’s Oriental in Bensonhurst.
Yes, that is very true. While all three were vast and huge theaters, I believe the Madison was the biggest of those three. The Madison was perhaps one of the largest non-Manhattan theaters. It was/is huge. I am sure it may not be “the” largest in Brooklyn or Queens, but it’s certainly one of them!
Bway, thanks for pointing that out about the RKO Bushwick, that it sits on its own little block, its true size unobscured by adjacent buildings. One gets a good impression of its true size walking around the sides and back of it, on Howard Avenue and then Madison Street. It also looks ominous and creepy in its pre-renovation condition, from those points of view, in those shots of it at dusk from Matthew Melnick’s “Lost Brooklyn Trips” website.
Yet, one gets a good idea of the Ridgewood’s true size from Cypress Avenue and Madison Street, and of the Madison, both from Madison Street, and from Wyckoff Avenue, looking at it across that parking lot.
Peter, if you scroll down on the local.live image, along Madison St, you will notice how close the two theaters were actually to eachother, even though their facades on Myrtle Ave seem so far away from eachother. It’s funny, because the Madison goes eastward twoards Madison St, with it’s back there, and the Ridgewood runs sort of Westward to Madison St. When you look at their backs, they are very close together. The aerial photos give a compeltely different impression than walking on the ground does. it’s completely not noticable on the ground.
And interestingly, you are also correct, the back of the RKO Bushwick is ALSO along Madison St!! The only difference with that theater is that you got a perspective on it’s size easily from the street, as it’s auditorium wasn’t hidden behind other stores like the Madison and the Ridgewood’s are. The Bushwick lets it all hang out on it’s small triangular block bounded by Bway, Howard, and Madison St.
Thanks, Bway. Both the Ridgewood and Madison Theaters lie along Madison Street, albeit on opposite sides of both Madison Street and Myrtle Avenue. If you check it, you will find that the RKO Bushwick lies along Madison Street as well.
I did NOT go into the Liberty Dept. Store that the Madison has become, today. I was last in there on Wednesday July 24, 2002 to buy T-shirts, for my dad, which I ended up wearing instead.
Here’s an aerial view of the Madison Theater. Notice how, like the Ridgewood Theater, only the former lobby area is actually in line with all the other stores on Myrtle Ave, with the bulk of the Theater auditorium behind all the stores facing Madison St. The former Facade of the Madison has the large “Liberty Dept Store” sign on it:
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Bob Furmanek, thanks for the factoid about Jerry Lewis !
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
Yes, East Coast Rocker, CT is a great place to make and rap with e-pals. Yes, thread drift can sometimes be a good thing. BTW, Ridgewood is almost totally in Queens, although, like Bushwick, it sits on the Brooklyn-Queens border.
The July 13 1977 blackout devastated Bushwick, but the National Guard was stationed on Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood so none of the stores there were looted. I was working in Auburn / Lewiston, Maine, at the time. My parents told me everything over the phone.
My best friend works in Chicago, and has lived there and in the Chicago area since August 1980. I first visited him there two months later. He’s been there half our lives, to date, so Chicago is almost as much home to me as NYC and vicinity.
There may be more waiting for you here than you think, that would make a trip from southern Maryland worthwhile. If you don’t want to drive, fly or take a train.
LOL P. I know what you mean. I just found a woman on the NY Academy of Music page with whom I knew her father who was the DM for the UA theatres in the 5 boroughs. This has turned out to be more then a treasure for sure. I grew up in Coney Island but as i said I lived in the Brooklyn section of Ridgewood. Sometimes thread drift can be a good thing don’t ya think? I am so glad I found CT. I live in Southern Maryland now but sometimes I feel like driving up there but then again what is up there for me. With the price of gas and tolls as they are I guess i am better off living those memories in my head and through others who post here. It hurts to read about places i grew up with or had been to and find out they are a retail store or like the Academy torn to the ground.
To everyone else here I just want to say a BIG HELLO to all of you and just keep on writing. I also want to add to a comment I read last night about July 13th 1977. I just got home that morning after going out to Chicago for a week. I got back that morning to the PABT and took the subway home. I remember that day real well cause i got a phone call that woke me up asking me if i had lights at my place. I remember all the looting in the Bed Sty, Williamsburg and Ridgewood sections of Brookly as well as the 6 people who were stuck high atop of the Astro Tower in Coney Island. They were stuck up there for hours till the owners in conjunction with the NYPD and NYFD and a genorator that was ample to run the lift motors were found. Since that night Astroland has aquired 2 large power generators and has been using them ever since.
Yes. The men’s room window was on the west side of the face of the building. I remember it well. East Coast Rocker, I’m glad the doberman didn’t chomp into you. Thanks for posting on this page. Now I know that you, like me, once lived in Ridgewood. A friend from parochial school (St. Brigid) whom I re-established personal contact with thirteen months ago, thanks to this website, specifically, the Ridgewood Theater page, used to live on Grove between Myrtle and Wyckoff, near the “dummy tracks”, until about 1971.
At one time i lived on Grove st between myrtle and Wykoff. I had a blast at the UA Ridgewood when they were showing Saturday Night Fever. I knew the district manager and he gave me carte blanch to seeing movies there. One day however I walked past the old RKO Madison before any retail stores were built. There was an open gate in the back that led up to the fire stairs. From there i was able to get up on the roof and in to the projection booth. There were work lights on in the inside so I was able to see around and the lights in the foyer ways were also lit and thank goodness they were. Because at one point i thought I saw a statue of a dog sitting. To my dismay it was a real doberman showing teeth. I slowly was looking for a way out and found my self in the mens room. The windows had steel gratings on them but I was able to take a coin and remove some screws and got the window open and it was right on top of the Marquee. I jumped down but then I had noway to get off of it. There was a diner across the street and finaly got someone to call the fire department and they came and set up a ladder and I came down. Good thing the NYPD didn’t show up or I may have gotten hit for trespassing. But from what I saw of the theatre it will always be an image in my mind of a beautifull place going no where.
The Cesar Romero / Sid Melton dinosaur movie was titled “Lost Continent” and dates from 1951.
The TAMI show (in the miracle of Electronovision) plus Muscle Beach Party
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RobertR, I think I saw that version of “The Lost World” on TV in fall 1963, on the “NBC Monday Night At The Movies”, 9-11 p.m., a half hour after the end of “The Outer Limits” on ABC. Unlike the silent Willis O'Brien version of the late 1920’s, it had sound, it had color, it had LIZARDS !
No matter how much you enlarge or slow down or put extra fins and spikes on a lizard, it still doesn’t look like a dinosaur !
How about “The Lost Continent” on Million Dollar Movie on Channel 9, with Cesar Romero (The Joker on the Adam West / Burt Ward “Batman”)and Sid Melton (Charlie Halpern, of “The Danny Thomas Show”) gored by a triceratops right before the end, before they get rescued (?)
Another fun double bill at the Madison
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Lucy and Bob Hope were huge stars when they did this RKO tour in 1963. Until it came out on DVD this film was never revived in repertory houses.
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With all these corpses, I guess this is fitting for the RKO Madison, considering we all heard Mae West’s corpse was in the balcony of the Madison Theater not too long ago….
I posted this ad on the Ridgewood site of the 1971 re-release
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Great ! Thanks, lostmemory !
How about some Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter jokes ?
A mind is a wonderful thing to taste, but human brain as a delicacy can be hard to swallow.
Me too. Not to mention the bloody mess inside that stains them.
I can picture instructions for a course in movie horror that one has to travel to :
“Room should be left in luggage for two severed heads.”