Vincent, I am glad you were not trying to insult me. It reads like we have a disagreement we can live with, between what constitutes a screening room and a theater. I understand what you mean about how what you consider a theater enhances the presentation of a film. What did you think of the Biograph revival cinema on West 57th St. in NYC ? That’s where I first saw “Psycho” on a movie screen Sunday July 10 1988. It was one of many blastedly hot days in that blastedly hot summer, so I stayed for a second screening of “Psycho” after the end of the second feature, titled (oddly enough), “Seconds”. I mention the Biograph, becaue it came closest to your hope of a full-sized revival movie house, complete with interior splendor, of any theater I know or have been in.
What suburb did you grow up in ? The last film I saw at Radio City was “Fantasia” in late May 1978. No, I have never seen Henessy or the Girl from Petrovka, but now that you have mentioned them, I will check them out on the Internet Movie Data Base.
Bill Huelbig, what I liked about Gimmick-O-Rama, besides the Castle films themselves, was the faithful and at times painstaking reproduction of the original Castle gimmicks. “The Tingler” went one better by having a staff member run around the darkened cinema with a
two-foot long rubber Tingler !
Speaking of William Castle, I saw his “I Saw What You Did” in its original run at the RKO Madison in Ridgewood, Queens, NY NY, summer 1965. I also read about it about that time in “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” magazine, edited by Forrest J. Ackerman.
Vincent, do not insult me by condescension, lazy or careless assumption, or pedantry. There is no need to GUESS at my age. I am 48 years of age, and saw my first films at age 5 in 1960 or 1961 in what you would call the “real” Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theaters (q.v. on this site) in Ridgewood, Queens, NY, NY, which had separate ticket prices for orchestra, loge and balcony. Among my first few films in those “real” theaters were “Morgan The Pirate” starring Steeve Reeves and “Swiss Family Robinson” in the summer of 1961 when I was 5 going on 6. Two or three years later I saw shows at Radio City Music Hall of “The Singing Nun”, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and “The Chalk Garden”. I saw “True Grit” and “Winning” at Radio City in the summer of 1969. I KNOW what a real movie palace is as opposed to what Jay Leno has referred to as “a concrete bunker at the end of the shopping mall”.
My hobby of urban archaelology is, in part, about finding and collecting images of these old, now mostly gone, movie palaces, in part, by “cross-pollinating” and cross-referencing this site with nycsubway.org, which is often the only place I can find images of these older theaters, such as Loew’s Valencia, RKO Bushwick, Loew’s Gates, the Colonial, the Dekalb / New Casino, the Decatur, the Empire, the Monroe, to name a few in Queens and Brooklyn.
I asked you what you meant by a “real” theater" so as to know EXACTLY and UNAMBIGUOUSLY what you meant, as I cannot read your mind.
I found Film Forum at 57 Watts Street to be adequate to the material I saw presented there. I consider 209 W Houston to be adequate also, even though I preferred the larger screens of 57 Watts. I did not experience, and therefore know nothing about, the screen sizes at the earlier 80 Wooster Street location. I was a frequent patron of Thalia Soho in the late ‘80’s and early 1990 and therefore remember the screen size at 15 Vandam (tiny !)
Have you expressed your wish to the management at Radio City ? If not, its probability of being fulfilled will most certainly remain ZERO. If you do, it will have some chance of being fulfilled, however small. Your results, as you know, will most probably be in proportion to your efforts. I wish you success, but, in the meantime, will take what I can get.
I should have added that it’s Grove Street, one block northwest of Linden Street, that closely intersects Irving and Myrtle Avenues, leaving no room for a curbed sidewalk “triangle”, only dust and debris around Myrtle Avenue el pillars. I remember from summer 1967 that the red traffic light there facing northwest on Irving Avenue was, or seemed, especially long.
CoolGuyCarl, I couldn’t agree with you more. I will merely add that, in 1988, the William Castle material was a “Gimmickorama” in the fall, after, and separate from, the summer sci fi / horror festival that year. I attended that festival in 1987, 88 and 89, to be a kid again, and to enjoy, and be in awe of, all that great ‘50’s sci-fi and horror I grew up with, know by heart, and love so much.
Seeing Allen Ginsberg and Herbert Hunke at the February 1988 Beat Festival was great also.
I don’t think there was a sci fi / horror festival in the summer of 1990. When I returned to Film Forum in late August 1991 for the Hammer “Curse of Frankenstein” and “Horror Of Dracula” it was at its new location at 209 W. Houston and wasn’t the same anymore. Perhaps because I had changed, and was now about to be married. Ditto mid-September 1992 when I returned for “The Blob” and “World Without End” and had been married a year. The ambience wasn’t the same as it had been at 57 Watts Street, no more excited and talkative lines of fans waiting outside one show in advance, up against original color lobby cards mounted on the wall.
My last time to Film Forum was November 1 or 2 1998 to see “Lenny Bruce : Swear To Tell The Truth”. Some of the old ambience seemed to have returned then.
My only beef with Film Forum was a cut in 1987 from Forbidden Planet : when the monkey steals fruit from the Morbius table and Robby gently zaps him away.
Bway (Chris), the Cinema Tour list of Brooklyn theaters that I printed on April 22, 2004, thanks to your help, does not list an “Irving Theater”. As you have probably already realized, Irving Avenue is not “parallel” to Myrtle Avenue, but is at a near 45 degree angle to it, as are all the northwest-southeast avenues of Bushwick and Ridgewood, from Broadway to Onderdonk Avenue, as are the southwest to northeast named streets. Onderdonk is the “last” (the most northerly) to intersect Myrtle Avenue. Woodward’s east end
is at Catalpa Avenue, and Fairview and Grandview Avenues' east ends are at Forest Avenue.
I am familiar with the triangle formed by Irving, Linden and Myrtle, and the gas station thereon. I think there’s a live poultry market
nearby also.
Thank you, muray, for your comments. It must have been great being an
usher at the Pitkin. I have seen the picture of its interior through the link posted by “bryanb” above. Beautiful !
My dad, born in 1919, grew up on and around the fashionable street of Bushwick Avenue, of the neighborhood of the same name. He and his mom shopped for Easter suits for him near Pitkin and Rockaway Avenues when he was a boy. He later dated a gal who lived on Pitkin Avenue.
I have seen “Follow The Bouncing Ball” cartoons as a kid (I was born mid-November 1955) and in the last ten years on the AMC cable tv channel. Film Forum, a lower Manhattan cinema that has revivals, often has live piano accompaniment at screening of silent films.
There is a better view of the RKO Keith Richmond Hill Theater in the following image :
http:/www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31151
This is an older image in which the theater actually appears to be showing movies ! It can be seen to the right of the streetcar. Between the right edge of the streetcar and the left edge of the RKO Keith is the entrance and one window width of Jahn’s famous ice cream parlor, still open as of April 3, 2004.
The view is north on Ralph Avenue past Gates Avenue (street sign near mid-right edge of image)and Quincy Street to the intersection of Ralph Avenue, Broadway, and Lexington Avenue in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. The trolley car shown is on the Ralph Rockaway Line. The el at the vanishing point is still there : the Broadway el, currently the J and Z lines, between the Gates Avenue and Kosciuszko Street stations. The square tower with the peaked roof to the upper right above the trolley car marks the turnout to the Lexington Avenue elevated line, which is no longer there. Its last run was Friday October 13, 1950.
Three other historic theaters, nearby to the southeast, are Loews Gates, one block diagonally away from the Empire, at Broadway and Gates Avenue, and the celebrated RKO Bushwick and Monroe Theaters, three blocks to the southeast near the intersection of Broadway, Howard Avenue and Monroe Street.
Thanks, guys, Warren and elliston and brother. Wow, ushers two to three years before I was born ! You read like contemporaries of Carol Burnett ! I remember her saying she saw “Strangers On A Train” hundreds of times due to her job as an usherette / candy girl, and that was 1951.
My favorite line from “Moulin Rouge” (I saw it at Thalia Soho, Fall 1987), the REAL “Moulin Rouge”, with Jose Ferrer as Toulouse-Lautrec, both father and son, not that putrid farce of a remake with “No Coal Kid Me” (see it with “Eyes Tight Shut”), was when that ingenue, or whatever she was, played by Zsa Zsa Gabor, says, “Dahling, zey come to luke at my bwoken heart !” and Toulouse the son, the artist, says, with perfect insouciance and world-weary ennui a la George Sanders, “But my dear, it’s been broken SO MANY TIMES !!!”
Reminiscent of Johnny Carson needling her to her face, “Any gal with a drip dry wedding dress can’t be all bad !”
Of actors working today, I think Alan Rickman could best deliver that line now. Similar to how he said, “By Grabthar’s Hammer … what a saving !” in 2000’s “Galaxy Quest”.
Yeah I know this comment belongs on the Internet Movie Database but I wanted you guys to read it.
Hi Chris, sorry about the lengthy “St. Brigid’s and SFP at the Ridgewood” posts, but I think it’s great how the Ridgewood Theater, even in its “electronic form” of a page on a theater fansite, has served as a gathering place for natives of Ridgewood to share their stories.
Hopefully, now that I’ve posted my “e-dress” (ever see this term before) Debra O'C and Vicki Hobson will be in direct contact with me, and our dialog will be off this site.
I would have attended St. Matthias myself had I not had to be six years of age before the start of first grade in September. Two of my next door neighbors on Cornelia Street attended St. Matthias.
How were the flea markets at St. Brigid ? I think my parents went to one, summer of 1977 or 1978.
Thanks for putting this all back on topic with your (hopefully) provocative post on the RKO Keith of Richmond Hill. Attending flea markets and churches are great ways of getting inside these wonderful old theaters, when all else fails !
Thanks for the compliment on my memory. May have been wrong about Joan and Andy. How did John ? die early ? How early ? Rich Danderline was a year ahead of me. I knew him, Rich Valovage, Gerard Boehme, Fernando Serna, Joseph Kriz, Roderick James and David Benjamin, all seniors when I was a junior. The evening of July 26 1972, Mick Jagger’s 29th birthday, I saw the Rolling Stones at
MSG with Fred Serna, my cousin Fran, and her date, Tony, an NYU student who provided the wheels. Fred Serna continued to be a good friend to me when I was a senior at SFP and he was a freshman at NYU. We talked just about every Saturday night.
St. Nick’s was indeed SFP’s “sister school” but I never took Driver Ed there like some guys in my class did.
I have heard of the firm of Touche Ross in my work. Gerard Boehme attended Syracuse University on a Dun and Bradstreet scholarship. I think he’s a big suit with them now.
Back to Trix O'Connor : in “Prep Profiles” in senior year he said his two favorite people were his girlfriend, and me, for getting him the interview. He signed my yearbook to the same effect.
I remember Mr. Thomas Foster and Br. Marcus Casari, OSF, as directors of music at the Prep. Leona May Smith, wife of George Sueffert, of the Sunday afternoon concerts of the same name in Forest Park, Queens, was an instrumental instructor. Andre and John Python were in the marching band. I remember the SFP marching band played a riff from Sly and The Family Stone’s “Sing a simple song” :
Naaaaah nah nah nah nah ! Hey ! Hey ! Hey ! Hey ! Not to be confused with “Nah Nah Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” by Steam (fall 1969).
“Bway” attended Christ The King High School starting, I think, in fall 1983. Having said that I will close, and let him write for himself. He’s a sharp young man with alot to say.
Good memories ! Lots more where these came from ! Please tell me more of yours !
Hello, Vicki. I remember you as a thin girl with long blond-brown hair, sort of hding behind a shy, demure smile, hands behind your back, turning from side to side. Thanks for jumping in. I too remember the Piccirillos at Lake George, NY. My parents and I met them there twice in late July 1974, en route to and returning from Montreal, Canada. My best friend from high school, Terence McHale, was one of Stanley’s closest friends, and went to see him at Lake George regularly in the 1970’s on weekends. I remember seeing Stan and sister and mom at the pizzeria at Seneca and Gates also, summer 1972. I don’t remember the name, only that the Stones' “Brown Sugar” was still on the juke box then, even though either “Tumbling Dice” or “Happy” was their latest single.
I am now a hydrologic and hydraulic engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working on Federal flood control projects. What are you doing now ? Where do you live ?
I remember reading in the Times Newsweekly in October 1995 that Father Kelly’s thing at the time was helping immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan. That’s where I work. So I was surprised I never met him on the M train while travelling from my parents' home in Ridgewood to work back then.
I quite agree with you about the Ridgewood Theater.
Debra, thanks for answering. I wasn’t sure you would. I have always had a very accurate and detailed memory. I don’t know how April Weiss and Roseanne Butera are doing now. I can tell you that Stanley Piccirillo, St. Brigid class of 1969, St. Francis Prep class of 1973, died of Hodgkin’s Disease after a 10-year battle with it, in November 1981, near Rochester NY, which is where his funeral Mass of the Resurrection was held.
I discussed your e-mail with an aunt, and she remembers a Vikki Perrone who used to give my cousin Frances Spindler a hard time, kicking her from behind when she was in line with her. I remember Vicki Hobson now that you mention with her, also Paula Rappolo. Paula had an impressive exhibit at the 6th grade science fair in February or March 1967 that included a near full-size human skeleton.
I also remember a Linda Bianco. I remember Michael Lisa now that you mention him. Thin, dark straight hair, medium height, big reddish lips, but did not resemble John Kofski, whom I heard liked to impersonate Mick Jagger later when he was in high school. I also remember Peter Grum, Stephen Fabrizio, and Kevin Clarke, none of whom I was particularly friendly with. Debbie Alzheimer (ironic last name !)
A few more St. Brigid names : James Gallo (Negro looking) William Farley (my rival smarts and grades wise) Gerald Baracca Claudio Bioardi and Jane Marincic, who lived somewhere in Glendale in the ‘60’s streets and places between Myrtle and Central Avenues. Jane was in my graduating class and actually wrote a play satirizing St. Brigid’s when we were both in 8th grade. One of the songs in the stage directions was “It Was A Real Nice Clambake” and there was a repetition of “You get more for your money at our school” (tuition, albeit nominal, started being charged in fall 1967).
I had a classmate at St. Francis Prep, Andy Kobel, whom I believe dated Joan Licari their senior year. Andy was from St. Bart’s parish in Elmhurst, Queens. I remember Joan from the yearbook as a cheerleader. Also Carol A. Seitz (“the body beautiful”) who was Marty (Trix) O'Connor’s girlfriend.
I attended St. Francis Prep 1969-1973 and graduated June 8 1973 third academically in a senior class of about 125. I had a full tuition scholarship all four years. That was a big reason I went there. Yes, Frank Burgio attended the Prep same years as me. He was a bully who thought he was funny, and a class clown, not the brightest academically. Perhaps he was a good athlete. Sal Marcicca broke his finger when they were both in 8th grade at St. Brigid. Oh, three more names, Class 8-3, boys : John Sordi, John Scalisi and Raymond Smeltzer. Ray was fond of my cousin Fran, but she thought he sent out “repulsive rays”.
I remember Miss Cirabisi now that you mention her. In my work I have communicated with a Gasper Cirabisi of the NYC Dept. of Water Supply.
Also Sister Mary Coeli, whom my cousin John Radomski, a year behind me, had for first grade. Her name means “heavenly” in Latin, but she was more like the nun from hell. She wouldn’t let John take his medicine in school, accused him of being a junkie, and made him crawl under his desk as a punishment. John’s mom, my Aunt Catherine, had to get her straightened out. I remember Coeli was young, had buck teeth, and was not particularly attractive.
There was also a Miss Cadella, whom I believe had Class 4-2 or 4-3, 1964-65 academic year, and who briefly subbed for Sr. Mary Helen. She falsely accused me of cheating in giving an answer in class. She tried to stump me and I knew the answer, but wrongly remained silent, because at the time I thought there was no percentage in giving the correct answer.
I also remember a Mr. Chini who taught 6th grade boys and then came to my home block (1600) of Cornelia Street selling encyclopedias. Robert Bennet (Beanie) who was a year ahead of me at St. Brigid and who lived across the street from me at 1667 Cornelia (six family house) was especially surprised. My smart ass cousin Joseph had a song about Mr. Chini : “I dream of Mr. Chini in a cellophane bikini !”
No I am not pulling your leg with “a crush on Deborah”. By the way, it was most intense at First Holy Communion in May 1963 because I could feel here eyes on me from the pew as I walked down the aisle and resumed my seat. I don’t think you’re the Deborah I had a crush on because I don’t recall that girl being in the school the following year. John Byrnes of Middle Village was briefly in my 3rd grade class. We were together at the Prep, Sep 1969 to June 1973.
I also remember Father James Kelly who started at St. Brigid in 1961 and whom I read for in first grade. He did my mother’s funeral on July 21 1997. I was friendly with Father Barrett in spring 1966. I was moved by how slowly and solemnly he said Mass, and was particularly taken with how he did the minor elevation of the Host :
“Through Him, in Him, with Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit” in Latin, which started off sounding “Per ipso …” Father Barrett wore thick glasses and resembled both the comedian Arnold Stang, and the contemporary French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. I also remember a very tall Father McCabe, and Monsignor Bracken, who looked like the Pope, when he entered my second grade classroom in a red skullcap and a black cassock with red buttons and piping.
Last week’s Times Newsweekly “Our Neighborhood” article had a picture of the St. Brigid pastor my mother’s generation remembers : Monsignor York.
Brother Ralph Clifford was the principal of boys fall 1961 through spring 1967, replaced by Brother Dermott in fall 1967. Two years ago Brother Ralph died and was remembered in an article in SFP Alumni news. I still have it at home.
Do you remember John Conkin the forlorn old music teacher, always trying to get us to sing those Latin vowels in assembly in the auditorium ? Now boys and girls : Aaaaah ehhhhh eeeeeee aaaawwwww oooooooh ?
Debra, I could go on forever, but must stop here. Please tell me your maiden last name. My last name is Koch. If you wish to continue this dialogue privately please post your e-mail address in the next comment on the Ridgewood Theater. Thanks in advance.
Thank you, bryanb. My father, who remembers this theater, will enjoy this also. The interior appears similar to Loew’s Valencia in Jamaica Queens in an image I saw a few eeeks ago.
I am not sure, but that might be the Monroe Theater, at 4 Howard Avenue, near the RKO Bushwick, in the upper right quadrant of image 2637, above the platform canopy, the near end of the silver train, and the person on the platform. I mean the long building with the peaked roof, two rows of windows, and a water tower at each end.
In image 26237 the roofline of the Colonial is visible between the top of the front of the train and the “square head and shoulders” apt. bldgs in the distance. It appears below these two apt. bldgs. in the other two images.
Vincent, I am glad you were not trying to insult me. It reads like we have a disagreement we can live with, between what constitutes a screening room and a theater. I understand what you mean about how what you consider a theater enhances the presentation of a film. What did you think of the Biograph revival cinema on West 57th St. in NYC ? That’s where I first saw “Psycho” on a movie screen Sunday July 10 1988. It was one of many blastedly hot days in that blastedly hot summer, so I stayed for a second screening of “Psycho” after the end of the second feature, titled (oddly enough), “Seconds”. I mention the Biograph, becaue it came closest to your hope of a full-sized revival movie house, complete with interior splendor, of any theater I know or have been in.
What suburb did you grow up in ? The last film I saw at Radio City was “Fantasia” in late May 1978. No, I have never seen Henessy or the Girl from Petrovka, but now that you have mentioned them, I will check them out on the Internet Movie Data Base.
Bill Huelbig, what I liked about Gimmick-O-Rama, besides the Castle films themselves, was the faithful and at times painstaking reproduction of the original Castle gimmicks. “The Tingler” went one better by having a staff member run around the darkened cinema with a
two-foot long rubber Tingler !
Speaking of William Castle, I saw his “I Saw What You Did” in its original run at the RKO Madison in Ridgewood, Queens, NY NY, summer 1965. I also read about it about that time in “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” magazine, edited by Forrest J. Ackerman.
Vincent, do not insult me by condescension, lazy or careless assumption, or pedantry. There is no need to GUESS at my age. I am 48 years of age, and saw my first films at age 5 in 1960 or 1961 in what you would call the “real” Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theaters (q.v. on this site) in Ridgewood, Queens, NY, NY, which had separate ticket prices for orchestra, loge and balcony. Among my first few films in those “real” theaters were “Morgan The Pirate” starring Steeve Reeves and “Swiss Family Robinson” in the summer of 1961 when I was 5 going on 6. Two or three years later I saw shows at Radio City Music Hall of “The Singing Nun”, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and “The Chalk Garden”. I saw “True Grit” and “Winning” at Radio City in the summer of 1969. I KNOW what a real movie palace is as opposed to what Jay Leno has referred to as “a concrete bunker at the end of the shopping mall”.
My hobby of urban archaelology is, in part, about finding and collecting images of these old, now mostly gone, movie palaces, in part, by “cross-pollinating” and cross-referencing this site with nycsubway.org, which is often the only place I can find images of these older theaters, such as Loew’s Valencia, RKO Bushwick, Loew’s Gates, the Colonial, the Dekalb / New Casino, the Decatur, the Empire, the Monroe, to name a few in Queens and Brooklyn.
I asked you what you meant by a “real” theater" so as to know EXACTLY and UNAMBIGUOUSLY what you meant, as I cannot read your mind.
I found Film Forum at 57 Watts Street to be adequate to the material I saw presented there. I consider 209 W Houston to be adequate also, even though I preferred the larger screens of 57 Watts. I did not experience, and therefore know nothing about, the screen sizes at the earlier 80 Wooster Street location. I was a frequent patron of Thalia Soho in the late ‘80’s and early 1990 and therefore remember the screen size at 15 Vandam (tiny !)
Have you expressed your wish to the management at Radio City ? If not, its probability of being fulfilled will most certainly remain ZERO. If you do, it will have some chance of being fulfilled, however small. Your results, as you know, will most probably be in proportion to your efforts. I wish you success, but, in the meantime, will take what I can get.
Reads good, Vincent. How is Film Forum at 209 W Houston not a “real” movie theater ? How close is Bruce Goldstein to fulfilling your wish ?
I should have added that it’s Grove Street, one block northwest of Linden Street, that closely intersects Irving and Myrtle Avenues, leaving no room for a curbed sidewalk “triangle”, only dust and debris around Myrtle Avenue el pillars. I remember from summer 1967 that the red traffic light there facing northwest on Irving Avenue was, or seemed, especially long.
CoolGuyCarl, I couldn’t agree with you more. I will merely add that, in 1988, the William Castle material was a “Gimmickorama” in the fall, after, and separate from, the summer sci fi / horror festival that year. I attended that festival in 1987, 88 and 89, to be a kid again, and to enjoy, and be in awe of, all that great ‘50’s sci-fi and horror I grew up with, know by heart, and love so much.
Seeing Allen Ginsberg and Herbert Hunke at the February 1988 Beat Festival was great also.
I don’t think there was a sci fi / horror festival in the summer of 1990. When I returned to Film Forum in late August 1991 for the Hammer “Curse of Frankenstein” and “Horror Of Dracula” it was at its new location at 209 W. Houston and wasn’t the same anymore. Perhaps because I had changed, and was now about to be married. Ditto mid-September 1992 when I returned for “The Blob” and “World Without End” and had been married a year. The ambience wasn’t the same as it had been at 57 Watts Street, no more excited and talkative lines of fans waiting outside one show in advance, up against original color lobby cards mounted on the wall.
My last time to Film Forum was November 1 or 2 1998 to see “Lenny Bruce : Swear To Tell The Truth”. Some of the old ambience seemed to have returned then.
My only beef with Film Forum was a cut in 1987 from Forbidden Planet : when the monkey steals fruit from the Morbius table and Robby gently zaps him away.
Bway (Chris), the Cinema Tour list of Brooklyn theaters that I printed on April 22, 2004, thanks to your help, does not list an “Irving Theater”. As you have probably already realized, Irving Avenue is not “parallel” to Myrtle Avenue, but is at a near 45 degree angle to it, as are all the northwest-southeast avenues of Bushwick and Ridgewood, from Broadway to Onderdonk Avenue, as are the southwest to northeast named streets. Onderdonk is the “last” (the most northerly) to intersect Myrtle Avenue. Woodward’s east end
is at Catalpa Avenue, and Fairview and Grandview Avenues' east ends are at Forest Avenue.
I am familiar with the triangle formed by Irving, Linden and Myrtle, and the gas station thereon. I think there’s a live poultry market
nearby also.
Thank you, muray, for your comments. It must have been great being an
usher at the Pitkin. I have seen the picture of its interior through the link posted by “bryanb” above. Beautiful !
My dad, born in 1919, grew up on and around the fashionable street of Bushwick Avenue, of the neighborhood of the same name. He and his mom shopped for Easter suits for him near Pitkin and Rockaway Avenues when he was a boy. He later dated a gal who lived on Pitkin Avenue.
I have seen “Follow The Bouncing Ball” cartoons as a kid (I was born mid-November 1955) and in the last ten years on the AMC cable tv channel. Film Forum, a lower Manhattan cinema that has revivals, often has live piano accompaniment at screening of silent films.
Sorry that link should be :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31151
There is a better view of the RKO Keith Richmond Hill Theater in the following image :
http:/www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31151
This is an older image in which the theater actually appears to be showing movies ! It can be seen to the right of the streetcar. Between the right edge of the streetcar and the left edge of the RKO Keith is the entrance and one window width of Jahn’s famous ice cream parlor, still open as of April 3, 2004.
The Empire Theatre can be seen above and to the left of the trolley car in the following image :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31100
The view is north on Ralph Avenue past Gates Avenue (street sign near mid-right edge of image)and Quincy Street to the intersection of Ralph Avenue, Broadway, and Lexington Avenue in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. The trolley car shown is on the Ralph Rockaway Line. The el at the vanishing point is still there : the Broadway el, currently the J and Z lines, between the Gates Avenue and Kosciuszko Street stations. The square tower with the peaked roof to the upper right above the trolley car marks the turnout to the Lexington Avenue elevated line, which is no longer there. Its last run was Friday October 13, 1950.
Three other historic theaters, nearby to the southeast, are Loews Gates, one block diagonally away from the Empire, at Broadway and Gates Avenue, and the celebrated RKO Bushwick and Monroe Theaters, three blocks to the southeast near the intersection of Broadway, Howard Avenue and Monroe Street.
Thanks, guys, Warren and elliston and brother. Wow, ushers two to three years before I was born ! You read like contemporaries of Carol Burnett ! I remember her saying she saw “Strangers On A Train” hundreds of times due to her job as an usherette / candy girl, and that was 1951.
My favorite line from “Moulin Rouge” (I saw it at Thalia Soho, Fall 1987), the REAL “Moulin Rouge”, with Jose Ferrer as Toulouse-Lautrec, both father and son, not that putrid farce of a remake with “No Coal Kid Me” (see it with “Eyes Tight Shut”), was when that ingenue, or whatever she was, played by Zsa Zsa Gabor, says, “Dahling, zey come to luke at my bwoken heart !” and Toulouse the son, the artist, says, with perfect insouciance and world-weary ennui a la George Sanders, “But my dear, it’s been broken SO MANY TIMES !!!”
Reminiscent of Johnny Carson needling her to her face, “Any gal with a drip dry wedding dress can’t be all bad !”
Of actors working today, I think Alan Rickman could best deliver that line now. Similar to how he said, “By Grabthar’s Hammer … what a saving !” in 2000’s “Galaxy Quest”.
Yeah I know this comment belongs on the Internet Movie Database but I wanted you guys to read it.
Hi Chris, sorry about the lengthy “St. Brigid’s and SFP at the Ridgewood” posts, but I think it’s great how the Ridgewood Theater, even in its “electronic form” of a page on a theater fansite, has served as a gathering place for natives of Ridgewood to share their stories.
Hopefully, now that I’ve posted my “e-dress” (ever see this term before) Debra O'C and Vicki Hobson will be in direct contact with me, and our dialog will be off this site.
I would have attended St. Matthias myself had I not had to be six years of age before the start of first grade in September. Two of my next door neighbors on Cornelia Street attended St. Matthias.
How were the flea markets at St. Brigid ? I think my parents went to one, summer of 1977 or 1978.
Thanks for putting this all back on topic with your (hopefully) provocative post on the RKO Keith of Richmond Hill. Attending flea markets and churches are great ways of getting inside these wonderful old theaters, when all else fails !
Wow, burlesque in the late 60’s ! That’s exceptional ! Thanks for mentioning that ! Glad we solved your little mystery for you !
My late mother-in-law saw the Follies Bergere in Paris while in the Army in WW II, and also once saw Gypsy Rose Lee strip !
Your post reads very “sapient” (wise) as opposed to “sappy” palaver from a bunch of “saps” !
Hi Debra O'Connor,
My e-mail address is :
.army.mil
Thanks for the compliment on my memory. May have been wrong about Joan and Andy. How did John ? die early ? How early ? Rich Danderline was a year ahead of me. I knew him, Rich Valovage, Gerard Boehme, Fernando Serna, Joseph Kriz, Roderick James and David Benjamin, all seniors when I was a junior. The evening of July 26 1972, Mick Jagger’s 29th birthday, I saw the Rolling Stones at
MSG with Fred Serna, my cousin Fran, and her date, Tony, an NYU student who provided the wheels. Fred Serna continued to be a good friend to me when I was a senior at SFP and he was a freshman at NYU. We talked just about every Saturday night.
St. Nick’s was indeed SFP’s “sister school” but I never took Driver Ed there like some guys in my class did.
I have heard of the firm of Touche Ross in my work. Gerard Boehme attended Syracuse University on a Dun and Bradstreet scholarship. I think he’s a big suit with them now.
Back to Trix O'Connor : in “Prep Profiles” in senior year he said his two favorite people were his girlfriend, and me, for getting him the interview. He signed my yearbook to the same effect.
I remember Mr. Thomas Foster and Br. Marcus Casari, OSF, as directors of music at the Prep. Leona May Smith, wife of George Sueffert, of the Sunday afternoon concerts of the same name in Forest Park, Queens, was an instrumental instructor. Andre and John Python were in the marching band. I remember the SFP marching band played a riff from Sly and The Family Stone’s “Sing a simple song” :
Naaaaah nah nah nah nah ! Hey ! Hey ! Hey ! Hey ! Not to be confused with “Nah Nah Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” by Steam (fall 1969).
“Bway” attended Christ The King High School starting, I think, in fall 1983. Having said that I will close, and let him write for himself. He’s a sharp young man with alot to say.
Good memories ! Lots more where these came from ! Please tell me more of yours !
Thanks, Robbie.
Thanks, Robbie. Warren argued that same point of transit as opposed to shopping hub in an earlier comment above on this page.
Hello, Vicki. I remember you as a thin girl with long blond-brown hair, sort of hding behind a shy, demure smile, hands behind your back, turning from side to side. Thanks for jumping in. I too remember the Piccirillos at Lake George, NY. My parents and I met them there twice in late July 1974, en route to and returning from Montreal, Canada. My best friend from high school, Terence McHale, was one of Stanley’s closest friends, and went to see him at Lake George regularly in the 1970’s on weekends. I remember seeing Stan and sister and mom at the pizzeria at Seneca and Gates also, summer 1972. I don’t remember the name, only that the Stones' “Brown Sugar” was still on the juke box then, even though either “Tumbling Dice” or “Happy” was their latest single.
I am now a hydrologic and hydraulic engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working on Federal flood control projects. What are you doing now ? Where do you live ?
I remember reading in the Times Newsweekly in October 1995 that Father Kelly’s thing at the time was helping immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan. That’s where I work. So I was surprised I never met him on the M train while travelling from my parents' home in Ridgewood to work back then.
I quite agree with you about the Ridgewood Theater.
Debra, thanks for answering. I wasn’t sure you would. I have always had a very accurate and detailed memory. I don’t know how April Weiss and Roseanne Butera are doing now. I can tell you that Stanley Piccirillo, St. Brigid class of 1969, St. Francis Prep class of 1973, died of Hodgkin’s Disease after a 10-year battle with it, in November 1981, near Rochester NY, which is where his funeral Mass of the Resurrection was held.
I discussed your e-mail with an aunt, and she remembers a Vikki Perrone who used to give my cousin Frances Spindler a hard time, kicking her from behind when she was in line with her. I remember Vicki Hobson now that you mention with her, also Paula Rappolo. Paula had an impressive exhibit at the 6th grade science fair in February or March 1967 that included a near full-size human skeleton.
I also remember a Linda Bianco. I remember Michael Lisa now that you mention him. Thin, dark straight hair, medium height, big reddish lips, but did not resemble John Kofski, whom I heard liked to impersonate Mick Jagger later when he was in high school. I also remember Peter Grum, Stephen Fabrizio, and Kevin Clarke, none of whom I was particularly friendly with. Debbie Alzheimer (ironic last name !)
A few more St. Brigid names : James Gallo (Negro looking) William Farley (my rival smarts and grades wise) Gerald Baracca Claudio Bioardi and Jane Marincic, who lived somewhere in Glendale in the ‘60’s streets and places between Myrtle and Central Avenues. Jane was in my graduating class and actually wrote a play satirizing St. Brigid’s when we were both in 8th grade. One of the songs in the stage directions was “It Was A Real Nice Clambake” and there was a repetition of “You get more for your money at our school” (tuition, albeit nominal, started being charged in fall 1967).
I had a classmate at St. Francis Prep, Andy Kobel, whom I believe dated Joan Licari their senior year. Andy was from St. Bart’s parish in Elmhurst, Queens. I remember Joan from the yearbook as a cheerleader. Also Carol A. Seitz (“the body beautiful”) who was Marty (Trix) O'Connor’s girlfriend.
I attended St. Francis Prep 1969-1973 and graduated June 8 1973 third academically in a senior class of about 125. I had a full tuition scholarship all four years. That was a big reason I went there. Yes, Frank Burgio attended the Prep same years as me. He was a bully who thought he was funny, and a class clown, not the brightest academically. Perhaps he was a good athlete. Sal Marcicca broke his finger when they were both in 8th grade at St. Brigid. Oh, three more names, Class 8-3, boys : John Sordi, John Scalisi and Raymond Smeltzer. Ray was fond of my cousin Fran, but she thought he sent out “repulsive rays”.
I remember Miss Cirabisi now that you mention her. In my work I have communicated with a Gasper Cirabisi of the NYC Dept. of Water Supply.
Also Sister Mary Coeli, whom my cousin John Radomski, a year behind me, had for first grade. Her name means “heavenly” in Latin, but she was more like the nun from hell. She wouldn’t let John take his medicine in school, accused him of being a junkie, and made him crawl under his desk as a punishment. John’s mom, my Aunt Catherine, had to get her straightened out. I remember Coeli was young, had buck teeth, and was not particularly attractive.
There was also a Miss Cadella, whom I believe had Class 4-2 or 4-3, 1964-65 academic year, and who briefly subbed for Sr. Mary Helen. She falsely accused me of cheating in giving an answer in class. She tried to stump me and I knew the answer, but wrongly remained silent, because at the time I thought there was no percentage in giving the correct answer.
I also remember a Mr. Chini who taught 6th grade boys and then came to my home block (1600) of Cornelia Street selling encyclopedias. Robert Bennet (Beanie) who was a year ahead of me at St. Brigid and who lived across the street from me at 1667 Cornelia (six family house) was especially surprised. My smart ass cousin Joseph had a song about Mr. Chini : “I dream of Mr. Chini in a cellophane bikini !”
No I am not pulling your leg with “a crush on Deborah”. By the way, it was most intense at First Holy Communion in May 1963 because I could feel here eyes on me from the pew as I walked down the aisle and resumed my seat. I don’t think you’re the Deborah I had a crush on because I don’t recall that girl being in the school the following year. John Byrnes of Middle Village was briefly in my 3rd grade class. We were together at the Prep, Sep 1969 to June 1973.
I also remember Father James Kelly who started at St. Brigid in 1961 and whom I read for in first grade. He did my mother’s funeral on July 21 1997. I was friendly with Father Barrett in spring 1966. I was moved by how slowly and solemnly he said Mass, and was particularly taken with how he did the minor elevation of the Host :
“Through Him, in Him, with Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit” in Latin, which started off sounding “Per ipso …” Father Barrett wore thick glasses and resembled both the comedian Arnold Stang, and the contemporary French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. I also remember a very tall Father McCabe, and Monsignor Bracken, who looked like the Pope, when he entered my second grade classroom in a red skullcap and a black cassock with red buttons and piping.
Last week’s Times Newsweekly “Our Neighborhood” article had a picture of the St. Brigid pastor my mother’s generation remembers : Monsignor York.
Brother Ralph Clifford was the principal of boys fall 1961 through spring 1967, replaced by Brother Dermott in fall 1967. Two years ago Brother Ralph died and was remembered in an article in SFP Alumni news. I still have it at home.
Do you remember John Conkin the forlorn old music teacher, always trying to get us to sing those Latin vowels in assembly in the auditorium ? Now boys and girls : Aaaaah ehhhhh eeeeeee aaaawwwww oooooooh ?
Debra, I could go on forever, but must stop here. Please tell me your maiden last name. My last name is Koch. If you wish to continue this dialogue privately please post your e-mail address in the next comment on the Ridgewood Theater. Thanks in advance.
Thank you, Orlando ! It’s amazing that these long-gone theaters are generating so many comments, from so many dedicated “urban archaeologists” !
Thanks, Warren.
Thank you, bryanb. My father, who remembers this theater, will enjoy this also. The interior appears similar to Loew’s Valencia in Jamaica Queens in an image I saw a few eeeks ago.
I am not sure, but that might be the Monroe Theater, at 4 Howard Avenue, near the RKO Bushwick, in the upper right quadrant of image 2637, above the platform canopy, the near end of the silver train, and the person on the platform. I mean the long building with the peaked roof, two rows of windows, and a water tower at each end.
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?2637
The RKO Bushwick itself is above the far (front) end of the departing silver train in this image.
The Avenue U Theatre can be seen in the following images. It is the crested brick building visible above the trains in these images :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?2321
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?4602
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?4784
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?4526
The RKO Keith Richmond Hill Theater may be glimpsed in the distance in the following image :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?24492
It’s the water tower and peaked roof to the upper right of the upper right corner of the front of the train (silver car) in this image.
The roofline of the Colonial Theater at 1746 Broadway, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY is also visible in these images near the vanishing point :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?26237
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?26236
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?26417
In image 26237 the roofline of the Colonial is visible between the top of the front of the train and the “square head and shoulders” apt. bldgs in the distance. It appears below these two apt. bldgs. in the other two images.