Ridgewood Theatre
55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
31 people
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Hey guys… I think I found the photo that frankie was talking about.
Here’s the image of what looks like a theater on that same traffic circle (called Bartel-Pritchard Square per the caption) dated 1929. Looks to be the site of that more modern brick apartment building with concrete terraces I pointed out in the local.live view I posted above. Does it say “Windsor Theater” over the entrance?
Thanks, EdSolero.
So frankie, where was the other theater in relation to the Sanders/Pavillion? Was it on the traffic circle that sits on that corner of Prospect Park? Directly across to the right of the Sanders is an apartment building that looks like it dates back to the ‘20’s or earlier.
Here’s a local.live view that shows the buildings that currently surround the Sanders/Pavillion. The area doesn’t look like it has changed all that much in the last 70 years or so. However, the building with the terraces diagonally opposite the Sanders – across the traffic circle and in the lower left corner of the local.live view – appears to be more modern. Photo 1 posted by Lost above seems to point in that direction, but the site is obscured by the park’s trees.
Keep up the good work, guys. Does the Sanders-Pavillion Theatre have a page on this site yet ? If not, maybe you guys can start one.
Thanks, frankie. Yeah, I tried Park Slope since it was near the Sanders-Pavillion, but didn’t see it. Not being an expert on Brooklyn, I wasn’t sure if the theater might have bordered on another neighborhood and been listed there instead.
Yeah, Ed, I saw that too. It was in Park Slope, right next to Prospect Park and directly across from the Sanders-Pavilion, but I think I hit on the photo someplace else. It was a real find, because I’ve been wondering about this theater for years.
Frankie… Was the photo in the “Theater” section of Brooklynpix.com? If so, there are only 3 photos on that page right now – none of which seem to be of the theater across from the Sanders. The rest of the site is broken down by neighborhoods – in which neighborhood would the theater have been located?
Lost, I don’t know the name of that theater, and now I can’t find the photo !
Sorry typo, I meant “woundn’t have been able to come to Ridgewood before that”, haha.
I am glad everyone enjoyed the trip back to the Ridgewood. I didn’t know that Saturday was the day everyone finally decided on, but as Peter said, I wouldn’t have been able to come anyway that day unfortunately, even had I known, as I went to the jets-Giants football game on Saturday, and would have been able to come to Ridgewood before that… From what it sounds like, the Ridgewood Theater sounds exactly like I remember it when I was last in it in summer of 1991. I too remember that round ceiling in the middle balcony theater, with the two sides cut off (the remaining portion of which can be seen in either side balcony theater by the way).
Your old neighborhood theater is in good Brooklyn company with Ebbetts Field itself in now being apt. bldgs. !
Thanks, frankie, for your post about your old neighborhood theater. Good to know there’s an image of it on Brooklynpix.com. There are some great pictures on that site.
The original beautiful elliptical balcony lobby, with its beautifully molded, fixtured and medallioned ceiling, was not intact, not at all as I remembered it from when I saw “Friday The 13th” there on Tuesday June 17, 1980. What is now the balcony lobby, entrances to upper cinemas 3, 4 and 5, is about 1/3 the floor space of the original balcony lobby, and is dimly lit. The walls are painted in two shades of dark blue-gray, similar to how the outer lobby of the Madison was painted for “The Godfather” in summer 1972.
The photos posted by Ken Roe will give you some idea.
I think what struck me most about the Ridgewood on this most recenr visit was the large number of stairs we had to climb from the balcony level lobby to the upper cinema, then, once we were seated, the fact that roughly half the seats in the cinema were above where we entered. Many stairs going very high up.
Yes, Jim had socks on, as well as shoes, shorts, and a T-shirt with an old trolley car on it. frankie wore a t-shirt featuring “Bela Lugosi meets the Gorilla From Brooklyn”. I’m serious. No, Jim wasn’t looking for Mae West, but you should have heard the belly laugh that came out of him when I mentioned Fast Eddie and Mae in the balcony of the Madison over the phone.
Yes, much of the interior of the Ridgewood is still intact. No, sorry, didn’t notice if the two floors above the entrance were being used for anything, Hank’s Billiards, or anything else.
Yes, the Ridgewood is still in business. We spoke briefly with the managers after we’d seen our movie. The idea that the Atlas Park 8 would put the Ridgewood out of business never made any sense to me. Why take a bus and walk for 20 minutes to get to Atlas 8 when you’re within walking distance of the Ridgewood ?
Bway’s plan of action for Evergreen and Grove reads like a good one. My best wished to you and Ed and Bway about this.
Hi, Lost ! Speaking of Mae, I tried to research a rumor I heard that in the mid-20s she made an appearance at my neighborhood theater, then the Sanders, now the Pavilion. No luck. But I found a photo of a theater that was once directly across from the Sanders that my Dad had always told me about. It’s now an apartment building, of course. It’s on Brooklynpix.com.
No, Lost Memory, Bway was at a football game last Saturday. “Bourne” was O.K. Don’t know the first 2 stories : “Identity” and “Conspiracy”. Bourne = James Bond + The Saint + Live Free or Die Hard. I thought it was the most intelligent of the five films showing there. Jim and Frank complimented my choice.
We were touring. When Frankie and I got on the L bound for Manhattan at Myrtle and Wyckoff, Jim said he was heading into the Liberty / Madison to buy some socks. Didn’t notice any radiators while I was inside. Sort of the last thing I’d be thinking about and looking for on a 105 degree day.
While we ere at the Ridgewood, I mentioned your post on the RKO Bushwick page about the theater once at Evergreen abd Grove, and Jim remarked that you seem to have some remarkable access to NYC Bldg. Dept. info. More power to you for that, and please keep up all your fine work. Thanks.
Right on, frankie, and thanks again to you and BrooklynJim for the pleasure of your company. The diner we went to was known as the Castillo Diner when police detective Anthony Venditti was gunned down there around January 21 1986. Just so everyone knows, it’s on the triangle formed by Myrtle and St. Nicholas Avenues and Woodbine Street, now a pedestrian mall between St Nicholas and Myrtle, where the smelly old chicken market and gas station used to be, pre-1965.
When we ate there this past Saturday, what used to be counter space with stools to sit at, as it was when I last ate there, July 1968 through May 1982, is now steam tables full of food. We sat at a booth by the plate glass window looking out on Myrtle Avenue.
Yes, it’s still enormous inside what was once the Madison, yet, it seemed, most of what was once the orchestra, bordering on Madison Street, where the stage, screen and proscenium arch once were, is not floor area with goods open to the shopping public (it’s now a Liberty Dept. Store). Perhaps it’s now a storage / warehouse area.
Back to the Ridgewood : “The Bourne Ultimatum” was showing in the middle of the three cinemas made from the balcony. A bit of the large circular decoration still visible on the balcony ceiling was cut off on each side by the walls put up to separate the cinema we were in (# 4) from balcony cinemas 3 and 5 on either side of us. It was clean and comfortably air-conditioned inside. Downstairs, the outer lobby was still in great condition. We were charged $ 5 admission for the first show of the day, and got printed paper receipts as tickets.
Whoops ! I meant 9:45 A.M. ! I better fix that before cranky fella jumps all over me !!! Ha-Ha-Haaaaa !!!!!
Had a lovely afternoon at the Ridgewood with the eminent PeterK and the lovable, rascally BrooklynJim. Lost Memory, we missed you !!! And Ed Solero ! And mikemovies ! Hey Mike, I got a present for you from Peter. e-mail me your address (see above). We went to see “The Bourne Ultimatum”, and were 3 out of 5 people in the balcony ! The place looks OK; then we went to the old Ridgewood diner for some good food and nostalgic talk. Each of us separately made a visitation to the Madison. It’s still enormous in there ! It was cute to see a few folks gathering in front of the Ridgewood at 1 P.M. waiting for it to open. Just like the old days at the RKO Prospect: “Doors open 9:45 P.M. Air cooled !” Lost memory, we love you !
frankie, you’re welcome to join some neighborhood chat on Bushwick Buddies at :
http://www.bushwickbuddies.com
You would be most welcome there.
That’s exactly what I did, Warren, to get the information I posted.
Thanks for your post, frankie. I’ll send you a private e-mail next.
I have always meant to get back to the Kent. Haven’t been in years. It’s a short bus ride from my neighborhood. The Ridgewood didn’t look all that bad when I went last year. Last Saturday I rode my bike past Kings Highway & E. 7th St. The semi-porn “Cinema” is STILL open !!! Anyway, fellas, it’s too tiring to scroll down, so when you guys set a date to get together at the Ridgewood, e-mail me at .gov
Hope we can get together ! PS – No theaters left in Coney Island; just the vertical “SHORE” sign across from Nathan’s.
No, Lost Memory, it’s in central Brooklyn, about fifteen blocks west of the “junction” of Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues, and Brooklyn College. It’s nowhere near Coney Island at all.
It’s almost five miles to Coney Island from the Kent Theater, which I believe is located in Midwood.