Parthenon Theatre
329 Wyckoff Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
329 Wyckoff Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 248 comments
It’s excellent———-I believe that it’s still in print in soft cover——also any reference book by WK Everson is highly recomended——-Just ask ItalianGerry who also posts here about WK Everson———Gerry is the Ultimate Authority on International films, especially Italian of course———and Everson wrote books on all genre os films——He was excellent and I have many of his books——-Joe From Florida
Thanks Joe. Do you have any plans to publish any kind of encyclopedia of classic films?
I remember “Ghandi” (both the man and the 1982 film) and would like to forget about “ET”, but find myself unable to.
That’s good to know about Maltin’s “Little Rascals” book.
I only have reference books and of his, “The Little Rascals—The Life and Times of Our Gang” is excellent, as it covers every short from the silents until the end at MGM————Joe From Florida
I loved his comment about the movie “Ghandi” which won the Oscar instead of “ET”. ~ ~ Everyone still remembers ET but no one remembers Ghandi today.
I am mostly aware of Leonard Maltin as a good film critic on ABC’s “Entertainment Tonight” circa 1985, when it was a decent show biz newsmagazine show, before it descended into T & A and trashy celebrity gossip.
Friday August 2 1985 I saw Leonard Maltin on ET give “Fright Night” an 8, then went and enjoyed it at the Ridgewood Theater. Maltin was right about it.
Or as an authoritative reference on my book shelf?
Shalom, ciao, and excelsior
I prefer to think of IMdb’s positive legacy which as you say is a Gift to all Movie Buffs & Historians; ‘nuff said about any of its shortcomings.
Maltin is a top movie critic, but I never realized what a prolific author he is or his other accomplishments. I am always in awe of people who squueze so much into a lifetime.
I don’t have the patience to start wading through his writings. Which of his books or other contributions do you folks think belong on my “must read” list?
Shalom, ciao, and excelsior
First question is that one individual in England started amassing the vast amount of information, and I cannot recall his name———-Then other were hired to assist him———-I do not know much else about it’s roots except that it did start in the UK———On Maltin, he was a regular contributor to IMDB——aka, facts, figures & reviews of Motion Pictures——-and he was receiving a salary from them as I recall—————What I heard from other sources at IMDB is that Amazon wanted him to give favorable reviews to titles released on dvd & videos that Amazon was selling and that Leonard took exception to that and resigned taking alot of his reviews with him————-They are a Gift to all Movie Buffs & Historians, but they do make mistakes, and when they are told about them, they do not correct them————Joe From Florida
It would sppear that Leonard Maltin was a figurehead for IMdb, albeit probably with all the perks of top management. IMdb saya he was Author (with others) of the IMDb’s Maltin summaries taken from his book Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide. The guy’s an acclaimed movie critic and author, but I couldn’t find any other reference to his association with IMdb.
I don’t use IMdb foums. But, I am impressed with its db capabiities and speed. It is very user friendly and spews forth tons of possible answers in every category while being very tolerant of the input supplied, such as partial, misspelled, or incomplete names.
E.g., we saw Valley of Elah last night. I knew the topless waitress was NOT Marg Helgenberger, but couldn’t think of her name. From a previous excursion, I recalled she had a daughter with Clint Eastwood…Voila, Frances Fischer. One answer leads to another question, and I end up on IMdb for a few hours in the pursuit of trivia. I doubt that half of it sticks…;–)
Joe, when did IMdb start assembling its db? Was a lot of it already in digital form, or did it require hundreds of researchers and computer gurus to create it?
You hit the nail on the head BWAY——IMDB started to go downhill when Amazon.com purchased them——a few of my early reviews still are at IMDB——I used sasheegm as my user id there——-I left those because there were no other reviews at the time and because they were personal favorites of mine——but I only did Classic Film reviews———-I still purchase from Amazon.com, it’s the idiots who are running their IMDB site that have no Moderators at their Forums that I have issues with———Joe From Florida
imdb is great for finding out the basic specifics, but their forum has become a gathering of what seem like teenagers talking about trying to meet the “sexy” young stars of some of the movies. After you leave the main page of any movie, that’s where any serious information ends.
Hi Pete: They are thick headed————Leonard Maltin left them at about the same time I did————I took most of my posts & reviews with me as Leonard did——-also IMDB’s Main Office is in London even though they are owned by Amazon.com, and Amazon wanted Maltin to give their new dvd & video releases favorable reviews which he refused to do——————-I left because their Forum had become a Porno Post as various Genres were taken over by punk kids——and since it has no warning to anyone logging in, I felt it was time to get off of a sinking ship——-After I alerted Time-Warner(A close friend of mime is VP of Community Relations in Central Florida), he got involved and they cleaned house——-Amazing what a warning from AOL-Time Warner could do at that time———Joe From Florida
I found glaring errors on the IMDb page for the live TV play “Requiem For A Heavyweight” and submitted corrections, which I don’t think were ever made there.
Read your response to Tonino Warren———I do the same with Classic Films as I have found more errors at IMDB and they never correct them———what you do with the Theaters, I do with researching Classic Films——-I have over 100 reference books by various Film Historians, with WK Everson being the most reliable———-Joe From Florida
Warren, LostMemory, and Broadway, et al: Do you do most of your research from the computer?
……..Or your personal collection of related references?
……..Or, public library archives of old papers and magazines?
Sounds like ‘lovetheoldtheaters’ has an original photo from the mid 60s which he will, hopefully, upload to Photobucket given Lostmemory’s inimitable assistance. I’ve browsed the pages of both Rogers Theaters; interesting exchanges.
It would make my day if they could find a photo as I enjoyed many Saturdays at that old place————Joe From Florida
Joe From Florida : OK that IS the Rogers Theater facade that we see in those older nycsubway.org images of the Flushing Ave station of the BMT Broadway line. I wouldn’t know where to begin looking for other images of the Rogers, especially the inside. Perhaps Lost Memory, ‘Tonino or Warren could be of assistance.
Hi PKoch: I wish somebody would come up with a photo of the Rogers, other then the baroque facade that you can see at the Flushing Ave station of the BMT Broadway line————As a kid, that was my favorite movie theater———Westerns is what they showed primarily in the late 40s and early 1950s———-While the Parthenon was wide & spacious with comfortable seats, the Rogers was narrow with only a center isle and wooden seats as I recall——-Oh yes, and plenty of sawdust on the floors, i guess to keep candy & other goodies from sticking to the floor——also they had cats roaming about——but really we should go to the Rogers page to discuss it———The Parthenon was a Palace in comparison——lol——Joe From Florida
Thanks, Joe From Florida, Warren, Ed Solero, for all this information. I never knew movies looked so good and so bright at the Parthenon. I only knew it inside as a bowling alley.
Is there a Cinema Treasures page for the Rogers Theater ? I seem to recall an ornate baroque or rococo facade or cornice, similar to that of Loew’s Valencia, above the Bway el near the Flushing Avenue station, in older images of that station on the nycwubway.org fansite. Perhaps that was the Rogers Theater.
Hi Warren: You and Ed are probably right, but their screen was nice and bright———-When In had my 16mm set up, I had an Anamorphic Lens and used the brightest lamp I could get for my Singer Insta-Load & Kalart=Victor 70-15 Projectors———-While the screen was good and bright, it still could not compare with my buddy Sid’s 35mm set up————-So while the screen at the Parthenon appeared to be 70mm, it probably was 35mm Anamorphic with a very good lens & one heck of a bright lamp to go with it———-Would love to hear from anyone else who saw Widescreen films at the Parthenon in the 50’s———and thanks for the correction guys———I guess I should have just said “Widescreen” rather then use the term 70mm———-I am certainly not a technical wizzard———Joe From Florida
Hi Ed: I collected 16mm films for years before video tape came out, and I had 16mm Anamorphic prints——They were no where near as sharp as 35mm Anamorphic prints and the same for 70mm———-Now the Parthenon could have had a 35mm projector and showed widescreen that way, but I remember the screen being very clear & bright——-and that is something you needed a very bright Lamp to project——-Plus it was big————The Screen was a wide as its stage———-I can’t swear that they had a 70mm Projector since I never saw the Projection booth———I’m going by what I recall over 50 years ago, and their screen was as bright as any other of the Chain Theaters like the Tilyou for example or the Madison———-It was excellent——The Widescreen that is——-Joe From Florida
Hey Joe… I’m sure the Parthenon run 35mm CinemaScope, but are you positive that it had 70mm capabilities? That would have been rather out of the ordinary for a 2nd run nabe back in the days before saturation releases.
Also, if you’re absolutely sure about the 70mm, I would contact the site administrators at the fromscripttodvd website to include in their “70mm in New York” feature.