Ligg, I agree with most of what you said, except for the “The Commodore was there long before the subway came through” statement. The Broadway El was originally built in 1888. It predates the Williamsburg Bridge. It originally ran straight down Broadway (on the other side of the Williamsburg Savings bank, and in front of Peter Lugers and terminated at the Broadway Ferry at the East River.
When the WillyB was constructed, it was connected to that. Around 1914 or 1915, the Broadway El was heavily strengthened to allow for heavier subway cars (as opposed to the old 1880’s el cars it was originally built for). The Commondore was built in the 1920’s, almost 40 years after the el was already there.
Well, I wish you the best, as The Ridgewood Theater holds a special place for me growing up. I have great memories of the place. I have great memories of all of the theaters I attended in Ridgewood, the Madison across the street, the Oasis on Fresh Pond Rd…..and I watched as those theaters got destroyed. I would hate to see the same happen to the Ridgewood.
I wish you the best.
The thing is you can’t take that chance. There are theaters all over the city where the owners may have “meant well”, but then in the end, the theater wound up being gutted or destroyed anyway. It has to be “on paper” that it can’t be destroyed. We can’t allow that to happen to the Ridgewood. Just look at the Trylon Theater in Queens, the owners said they would perserve features, and the next thing you know they were ripping up the mosaics.
The same can’t happen to the Ridgewood. And judging by the recent photos Ken Roe posted above, there is much architectual features still intact in the theater, even though it had been multiplexed.
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.
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.
Billy, if you click on “n”, “S”, E, or W on the left side, it will shift the photos to get a that various direction vantage points. So each scene will have four corresponding similar views from other directions. it’s a great site.
Thanks for the “Glenwood Manor” link! So the Evergreen Theater became that after closing as a theater! Then burned down, and laterthe upper floors or two demolished to turn the building into the one story store building it is today.
In my opinion (and not to have wished “death” on the Ridgewood Theater in the late 70’s), but the Madison really should have been the one to survive. The Madison was definitely the more beautiful theater. It would have been a shame to have had that beautiful theater cut up into a multiplex (and it would have had to to survive), but it’s better than the alternative as to what actually happened to the Madison now isn’t it.
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!
The Alba has a page on this site, and is discussed a little bit on it’s page. The Alba was demolished for WOodhull Hospital.
Where was the Flushing Theater too there? Where Woodhull Hospital is too? I think I heard there was a theater there. “Flushing” is not on the site though if it was there. Perhaps you mean the Rogers Theater a block or two west?
Here’s an aerial view of the Evergreen theater. This is the back. The bank is to the left, and the 6 family homes are to the right. I am still convinced that the lower floor of the Evergreen Theater, what is now the supermarket is in fact the original base of the old theater, with the upper floor or floors removed in the 50’s or 60’s.
To get a perspective on the size of the original Theater property, and former airdrome, you have to consider the low building (former base of the theater), the bank on the corner, and the parking lot for the bank, which was all a part of the Evergreen property.
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.
Here’s a link to a view of the former Ritz Theater on Myrtle Ave at 71st Ave. It is currently a Blockbuster Video Store (Isn’t that Ironic).
Before Blockbuster, it was “Roman Furniture”. The building was completely redone and resufaced in the late 70’s or early 80’s when Roman Furniture moved in. Before Roman Furniture, it was a different furniture store, and it still had the marquee out front. The marquee lasted until at least the mid 70’s, I remember it well, and remember watching them remove it when I was at the A&P store across the street with my mother.
Notice how it is a much smaller building than the Ridgewood or Madison Theater buildings of course, but it is still quite a bit bigger than the neighboring stores (at least one floor higher too). The former theater building towers over the adjoining buildings, and also runs street-to-street.
Here’s the link to the aerial view of the former Ritz Theater. The Ritz is the building with the blue awning in front – Blockbuster Blue:
SteveD….haha, no I don’t think the Ridgewood ever had non-sticky floors!! I remember that even as a kid when I used to go there with my mother, and it was still one theater yet. Ironically, out of the three neighborhood theaters I attended with my parents as a small child; the Ridgewood, the Madison, and the Oasis, the Ridgewood was always the dirtiest and most run down. The irony being that out of all those theaters in Ridgewood, the Ridgewood Theater is the one that survived! I remember the Oasis Theater on Fresh Pond Rd being the cleanest of the three. That was always my mother’s theater of choice, when she we take me to a movie (usually Disney movies). The Madison was sort of “in the middle”, not necessarily clean, but not as run down or dirty as the Ridgewood was either.
However, unfortunately bot the Madison and the Oasis closed before I became a teenager, so while I had great times as a teenager in the Oasis Roller Rink it became, the Ridgewood Theater is really where most of my happy memories are (many mentioned far above in this long thread of comments)…..sticky floors and all. The Ridgewood perhaps wouldn’t be “The Ridgewood” if not for it’s sticky floor, haha. I like Peter though can’t comment on it’s current interior condition either though, as I was last in the building to see “Problem Child” with John Ritter, and that I believe was summer, 1991 when that movie was out.
Peter, yes, it does appear that the Ridgewood is sort of “Three buildings in one”. The Lobby, the Theater itself, and the stage area with the water tank on it. I believe, like the Madison, the Ridgewood was also originally a legit theater, with a stage.
Lost, here’s a link to a view of the former Ritz Theater on Myrtle Ave at 71st Ave. It is currently a Blockbuster Video Store (another ironic event here in a Ridgewood Theater….) Before Blockbuster, it was “Roman Furniture”. The building was completely redone and resufaced in the late 70’s or early 80’s when Roman Furniture moved in. Before Roman Furniture, it was a different furniture store, and it still had the marquee out front. The marquee lasted until at least the mid 70’s, I remember it well, and remember watching them remove it when I was at the A&P store across the street with my mother.
Notice how it is a much smaller building than the Ridgewood or Madison Theater buildings of course, but it is still quite a bit bigger than the neighboring stores (at least one floor higher too). The former theater building towers over the adjoining buildings, and also runs street-to-street. I will also post this link and comments in the Ritz Theater section of the site.
Here’s the link to the aerial view of the former Ritz Theater. The RItz is the building with the blue awning in front – Blockbuster Blue:
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:
Here’s an aerial view of the Ridgewood Theater. Notice how the lobby area is in line with all the other store buildings on Myrtle Ave, and how the main part of the theater is actually way behind that, at the intersection of Cypress Ave and Madison St:
Here’s a current aerial view of the intersection of Bway and Roebling. I assume the Wilson was on the righthand corner, where that low building with the silver roof is?
Is that where the Wilson Theater was?
Can someone that knows anything about the theater please add it (if if did indeed play cinema)?
Louie, check the Aster Theater site, I posted a current aerial view of the intersection of Roebling and Bway there. Which corner of Bway and Roebling was the Wilson? I can’t find a Wilson Theater on the site in Brooklyn. If you know anything about it, no matter how minimal, can you add it to the site using the Add a theater feature? Perhaps once it’s added, people will know some more info on it.
Here’s a current aerial image of Roebling and Broadway. Peter Luger Steakhouse is on the right, near the old Williamsburg Savings Bank.
Where was the Wilson Theater, it appears the only place it could have been is where that flat low building with silver roof is at the corner of Roebling and Bway.
Louie, I don’t think the Wilson Theater at Bway and Roebling has even been added to the site yet. If you have even minimal information or remebrances of it, can you add it to the site using the “Add a Theater” link on the left?
Lost Memory, I agree. This could be a golden opportunity for the Ridgewood to restablish themselves. Apparently it is the old continuously operating theater in New York, if not the country. They could clean the place up (and I don’t really know if it’s still as bad inside as it once was, meaning rats and stuff). But anyway, either way, it surely could use an upgrade either way.
The discounts or free popcorn would get people through the door once again to see all the improvements, and reform their movie going habits.
There is definitely room to keep the theater afloat, even with the new multiplex, but the Ridgewood management can’t chose the status quo, they will have to work at it to make it work, and it can succeed.
Perhaps they can even go to showing a foreign films in one or two of the theaters to attract the Polish and Hispanic current residents of Ridgewood in, and keep normal films in the the other four.
Steve, I remember when the theater was still one theater and they would show the movies in succession. The credits would play, and people would start coming in for the next showing while people would be leaving for the session ending.
I believe most people who sat in the balcony (which was the smoking section if I am not mistaken, would use the left stairway in the back of the old auditorium (which would now be the stairway to theater 1, the leftmost balcony), and would leave through the stairway in the lobby, which is now the stairway to theaters 4 and 5 (the middle and right balcony theaters).
PKoch – Me too, I love the Twilight Zone. I’m working on the second season DVD set right now, just finished the first.
Mandatory Theater Reference: The RKO Keith’s Richmond Hilll would be a great set for an episode. I can picture a scene of someone standing looking at a table of junk in the flea market, and slowly around him the camera angle swerves to the ornate plasterwork, and “ala Titanic” flashes to the past and the same platerwork in all it’s original beauty…. (well it’s the start of a script).
Ligg, I agree with most of what you said, except for the “The Commodore was there long before the subway came through” statement. The Broadway El was originally built in 1888. It predates the Williamsburg Bridge. It originally ran straight down Broadway (on the other side of the Williamsburg Savings bank, and in front of Peter Lugers and terminated at the Broadway Ferry at the East River.
When the WillyB was constructed, it was connected to that. Around 1914 or 1915, the Broadway El was heavily strengthened to allow for heavier subway cars (as opposed to the old 1880’s el cars it was originally built for). The Commondore was built in the 1920’s, almost 40 years after the el was already there.
Well, I wish you the best, as The Ridgewood Theater holds a special place for me growing up. I have great memories of the place. I have great memories of all of the theaters I attended in Ridgewood, the Madison across the street, the Oasis on Fresh Pond Rd…..and I watched as those theaters got destroyed. I would hate to see the same happen to the Ridgewood.
I wish you the best.
The thing is you can’t take that chance. There are theaters all over the city where the owners may have “meant well”, but then in the end, the theater wound up being gutted or destroyed anyway. It has to be “on paper” that it can’t be destroyed. We can’t allow that to happen to the Ridgewood. Just look at the Trylon Theater in Queens, the owners said they would perserve features, and the next thing you know they were ripping up the mosaics.
The same can’t happen to the Ridgewood. And judging by the recent photos Ken Roe posted above, there is much architectual features still intact in the theater, even though it had been multiplexed.
Warren, what year was that Payton’s Lee Ave Theater demolished for a subway line?
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.
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.
Billy, if you click on “n”, “S”, E, or W on the left side, it will shift the photos to get a that various direction vantage points. So each scene will have four corresponding similar views from other directions. it’s a great site.
Thanks for the “Glenwood Manor” link! So the Evergreen Theater became that after closing as a theater! Then burned down, and laterthe upper floors or two demolished to turn the building into the one story store building it is today.
In my opinion (and not to have wished “death” on the Ridgewood Theater in the late 70’s), but the Madison really should have been the one to survive. The Madison was definitely the more beautiful theater. It would have been a shame to have had that beautiful theater cut up into a multiplex (and it would have had to to survive), but it’s better than the alternative as to what actually happened to the Madison now isn’t it.
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!
The Alba has a page on this site, and is discussed a little bit on it’s page. The Alba was demolished for WOodhull Hospital.
Where was the Flushing Theater too there? Where Woodhull Hospital is too? I think I heard there was a theater there. “Flushing” is not on the site though if it was there. Perhaps you mean the Rogers Theater a block or two west?
Here’s an aerial view of the Evergreen theater. This is the back. The bank is to the left, and the 6 family homes are to the right. I am still convinced that the lower floor of the Evergreen Theater, what is now the supermarket is in fact the original base of the old theater, with the upper floor or floors removed in the 50’s or 60’s.
To get a perspective on the size of the original Theater property, and former airdrome, you have to consider the low building (former base of the theater), the bank on the corner, and the parking lot for the bank, which was all a part of the Evergreen property.
View link
The Ritz was probably a much bigger theater than the Majestic or the Evergreen.
I posted aerial shots in their various theater pages.
Here’s an aerial view of the Majestic Theater:
View link
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.
Here’s a link to a view of the former Ritz Theater on Myrtle Ave at 71st Ave. It is currently a Blockbuster Video Store (Isn’t that Ironic).
Before Blockbuster, it was “Roman Furniture”. The building was completely redone and resufaced in the late 70’s or early 80’s when Roman Furniture moved in. Before Roman Furniture, it was a different furniture store, and it still had the marquee out front. The marquee lasted until at least the mid 70’s, I remember it well, and remember watching them remove it when I was at the A&P store across the street with my mother.
Notice how it is a much smaller building than the Ridgewood or Madison Theater buildings of course, but it is still quite a bit bigger than the neighboring stores (at least one floor higher too). The former theater building towers over the adjoining buildings, and also runs street-to-street.
Here’s the link to the aerial view of the former Ritz Theater. The Ritz is the building with the blue awning in front – Blockbuster Blue:
West on top:
View link
Another angle, with north on top:
View link
SteveD….haha, no I don’t think the Ridgewood ever had non-sticky floors!! I remember that even as a kid when I used to go there with my mother, and it was still one theater yet. Ironically, out of the three neighborhood theaters I attended with my parents as a small child; the Ridgewood, the Madison, and the Oasis, the Ridgewood was always the dirtiest and most run down. The irony being that out of all those theaters in Ridgewood, the Ridgewood Theater is the one that survived! I remember the Oasis Theater on Fresh Pond Rd being the cleanest of the three. That was always my mother’s theater of choice, when she we take me to a movie (usually Disney movies). The Madison was sort of “in the middle”, not necessarily clean, but not as run down or dirty as the Ridgewood was either.
However, unfortunately bot the Madison and the Oasis closed before I became a teenager, so while I had great times as a teenager in the Oasis Roller Rink it became, the Ridgewood Theater is really where most of my happy memories are (many mentioned far above in this long thread of comments)…..sticky floors and all. The Ridgewood perhaps wouldn’t be “The Ridgewood” if not for it’s sticky floor, haha. I like Peter though can’t comment on it’s current interior condition either though, as I was last in the building to see “Problem Child” with John Ritter, and that I believe was summer, 1991 when that movie was out.
Peter, yes, it does appear that the Ridgewood is sort of “Three buildings in one”. The Lobby, the Theater itself, and the stage area with the water tank on it. I believe, like the Madison, the Ridgewood was also originally a legit theater, with a stage.
Lost, here’s a link to a view of the former Ritz Theater on Myrtle Ave at 71st Ave. It is currently a Blockbuster Video Store (another ironic event here in a Ridgewood Theater….) Before Blockbuster, it was “Roman Furniture”. The building was completely redone and resufaced in the late 70’s or early 80’s when Roman Furniture moved in. Before Roman Furniture, it was a different furniture store, and it still had the marquee out front. The marquee lasted until at least the mid 70’s, I remember it well, and remember watching them remove it when I was at the A&P store across the street with my mother.
Notice how it is a much smaller building than the Ridgewood or Madison Theater buildings of course, but it is still quite a bit bigger than the neighboring stores (at least one floor higher too). The former theater building towers over the adjoining buildings, and also runs street-to-street. I will also post this link and comments in the Ritz Theater section of the site.
Here’s the link to the aerial view of the former Ritz Theater. The RItz is the building with the blue awning in front – Blockbuster Blue:
West on top:
View link
Another angle, with north on top:
View link
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:
View link
Here’s an aerial view of the Ridgewood Theater. Notice how the lobby area is in line with all the other store buildings on Myrtle Ave, and how the main part of the theater is actually way behind that, at the intersection of Cypress Ave and Madison St:
View link
Here’s a current aerial view of the intersection of Bway and Roebling. I assume the Wilson was on the righthand corner, where that low building with the silver roof is?
Is that where the Wilson Theater was?
Can someone that knows anything about the theater please add it (if if did indeed play cinema)?
View link
Louie, check the Aster Theater site, I posted a current aerial view of the intersection of Roebling and Bway there. Which corner of Bway and Roebling was the Wilson? I can’t find a Wilson Theater on the site in Brooklyn. If you know anything about it, no matter how minimal, can you add it to the site using the Add a theater feature? Perhaps once it’s added, people will know some more info on it.
Here’s a current aerial image of Roebling and Broadway. Peter Luger Steakhouse is on the right, near the old Williamsburg Savings Bank.
Where was the Wilson Theater, it appears the only place it could have been is where that flat low building with silver roof is at the corner of Roebling and Bway.
View link
Louie, I don’t think the Wilson Theater at Bway and Roebling has even been added to the site yet. If you have even minimal information or remebrances of it, can you add it to the site using the “Add a Theater” link on the left?
Peter, we did it again.
Lost Memory, I agree. This could be a golden opportunity for the Ridgewood to restablish themselves. Apparently it is the old continuously operating theater in New York, if not the country. They could clean the place up (and I don’t really know if it’s still as bad inside as it once was, meaning rats and stuff). But anyway, either way, it surely could use an upgrade either way.
The discounts or free popcorn would get people through the door once again to see all the improvements, and reform their movie going habits.
There is definitely room to keep the theater afloat, even with the new multiplex, but the Ridgewood management can’t chose the status quo, they will have to work at it to make it work, and it can succeed.
Perhaps they can even go to showing a foreign films in one or two of the theaters to attract the Polish and Hispanic current residents of Ridgewood in, and keep normal films in the the other four.
Steve, I remember when the theater was still one theater and they would show the movies in succession. The credits would play, and people would start coming in for the next showing while people would be leaving for the session ending.
I believe most people who sat in the balcony (which was the smoking section if I am not mistaken, would use the left stairway in the back of the old auditorium (which would now be the stairway to theater 1, the leftmost balcony), and would leave through the stairway in the lobby, which is now the stairway to theaters 4 and 5 (the middle and right balcony theaters).
PKoch – Me too, I love the Twilight Zone. I’m working on the second season DVD set right now, just finished the first.
Mandatory Theater Reference: The RKO Keith’s Richmond Hilll would be a great set for an episode. I can picture a scene of someone standing looking at a table of junk in the flea market, and slowly around him the camera angle swerves to the ornate plasterwork, and “ala Titanic” flashes to the past and the same platerwork in all it’s original beauty…. (well it’s the start of a script).