Ridgewood Theatre

55-27 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood, NY 11385

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alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 18, 2006 at 4:19 pm

you rock native! Let’s save this theater!!!

AL

NativeForestHiller
NativeForestHiller on April 18, 2006 at 1:29 pm

The following website will assist you in forming a non-profit. It’s very imformative, & contains the necessary forms:

www.nyc.gov/html/sbs/nycbiz/html/starting/notforprofit.shtml

PKoch
PKoch on April 18, 2006 at 11:41 am

“Also, I am looking for someone who knows how to write in to apply for 501 © status…..

HELP!!!!!!!"

Try LostMemory, Warren or NativeForestHiller.

I’d help you if I could, but I can’t.

PKoch
PKoch on April 18, 2006 at 11:39 am

AL, my lips are as sealed as those of a Jivaro shrunken head-hunter : sewn together !

alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 18, 2006 at 11:37 am

They’re going to make some calls to get the ridgewood evaluated for landmark status. They were totally 100% behind my project idea…..
Shhhhhhh don’t say anything LOL
Also, I am looking for someone who knows how to write in to apply for 501 © status…..

HELP!!!!!!!

AL

alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 18, 2006 at 11:36 am

They’re going to make some calls to get the ridgewood evaluated for landmark status. They were totally 100% behind my project idea…..
Shhhhhhh don’t say anything LOL

PKoch
PKoch on April 18, 2006 at 11:21 am

KathyO, I remember a re-release of “Gone With The Wind” at the Ridgewood Theater late in 1972 or early in 1973. A high school friend of mine, in his naivete, thought it had been just released that year, rather than 1939, because he was so taken with the beauty of it.

Frank Burgio graduated SFP with me in June 1973. I also attended St. Brigid with him and knew him well. He thought he was my friend, but he wasn’t. He also thought he was a clown, but he just came across to me as a bully and a wise-ass.

In St. Brigid, Class 8-1, he also thought he was tough, but Sal Marcicca (sp ?), Class 8-3, broke his finger for him, sometime before New Year’s Day, 1969, if my cousin Joseph, who was also in class 8-3 then, is to be believed. I see no reason why he would have lied about it.

KathyO
KathyO on April 18, 2006 at 10:02 am

Peter Koch, I’ll depend on your memory for this one. I believe the last movie I saw at the Ridgewood Theater was “Gone With the Wind” again, unless it was at the Madison. (This, of course, was pre-VCR and TIVO where certain movies would be re-screened every number of years). The other reason I address this to you is that my best friend’s mom took us to see the movie and I see that you graduated from St. Francis Prep in 1973 – well her son, Frank Burgio, probably graduated somewhere around that time. Did you know him?

PKoch
PKoch on April 18, 2006 at 8:53 am

Bway, it would be ironic indeed if one of the last films to have been shown at the Oasis was that 1979 or 1980 burning classic of modern cinema, “Roller Boogie” (It’s love on wheels !), starring none other than …. Linda Blair !

PKoch
PKoch on April 18, 2006 at 6:50 am

Thanks for the info, Bway. I think that Karl Ehmer ad, the standing pig in the butcher hat and apron, is still painted on the building near where the Oasis Theater used to be, on the east side of Fresh Pond Road, facing north.

It was once defaced with graffiti, reading :

EAT MY MEAT ! I’LL PORK YA !

which I think is gone now.

Bway
Bway on April 18, 2006 at 6:42 am

Yes, I was a teenager when the Oasis became a roller rink (perhaps even a pre-teen). Anyway, while I did see many movies there as a kid before the roller rink, I did skate there a lot too. I remember looking up at the balcony and seeing all the seats still up there, and then you could sit and relax on the old stage area, with the neon dancing Egyptians in the place where the screen once was.
Before the roller rink, I think it was a concert hall for a year or two, but that didn’t last long. By the way, only the old lobby area, and the right side of the Oasis was demolished for the CVS, as well as the stores along Fresh Pond Road. The auditorium itself is in fact the CVS now. The auditorium was not demolished, only the lobby area, and the right side of the building. The Oasis (like the RKO Madison) burned at some point after the roller rink, so I am sure little if anything remains above the false drop ceiling in the CVS.

PKoch
PKoch on April 18, 2006 at 4:02 am

Hello, all. I am glad to have read all that is going on to save and preserve the Ridgewood Theater. Please let me know what I can do to help.

alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 17, 2006 at 6:43 pm

awesome! If I need the help I will open up and explain my project in full detail. Appreciate that. You have my e-mail as well. please use it as often as you’d like!!

AL

NativeForestHiller
NativeForestHiller on April 17, 2006 at 5:53 pm

Hi Al!

I’m very happy to come across someone who’s dedicated to a such a commendable project. While I don’t have the resources to allocate funds, I would assist you with a fundraiser if the time calls for it.

The Theater Historical Society of America might have some vintage photos which can assist you in its restoration. I have never been to the Ridgewood Theater, but have strong feelings for its preservation. I believe that landmarks contribute to the continuity & vitality of communities. If you have any questions, please contact me at – Michael

alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 17, 2006 at 5:41 pm

I do not remember the oasis when it was a theater, but I was a kid roller skating at the oasis roller world. That was a great time for me and I was heart broken when it closed, then when it was sold, knocked down and made into a cvs and parking lot…..
If I need to, If they back out, I want to get a small group of people together, who can help me get the funding to bring my project to fruition. This needs to be done. Thank you for your support and if anything comes out public about this project, just remember to help by voicing your opinions for saving the theater any way we can!!!
anyone can e-mail me if they want to privately….

AL

Bway
Bway on April 17, 2006 at 4:21 pm

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.

alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 17, 2006 at 1:40 pm

Thanks. either way it goes, If they back out of this, I still want to get the funding for the project together. So I will have to take another avenue to do so. The funding and backing are essential to doing this. We had the plan prior to the ridgewood theater and I looked it over once to find that it would have been perfect for what we wanted to do. Now this whole thing came about. I don’t want to back off from the project regardless. Good to know the community may actually back it and either way the local polititians are interested.

AL

PKoch
PKoch on April 17, 2006 at 1:24 pm

Thank you, AL. You have my solemn promise that I will do NOTHING to leak this out. I want NO harm to come to the Ridgewood Theater.

alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 17, 2006 at 1:11 pm

Well i cannot say too much right now. But I will know definitely very soon, how things will look. After my meeting. So far they are into it because it saves the theater itself. But nothing solid yet. But please. I am only telling you because I want people rest assured that we have every intention on doing something great here. NO DESTROYING THE BUILDING…….I really don’t want this to leak out because god forbid some big so and so comes along and swipes the idea out from under us and hurts the theater building….We are trying to avoid that. That’s why i was sooo suprised to see that ted renz and gary giordono mentioned something about it.
You can e-mail me also, instead of posting on here if it makes it easier for you.

PKoch
PKoch on April 17, 2006 at 12:50 pm

ALtheFilmguy, how much clout do you have to achieve this, and what % chance success do you estimate you have to save the Ridgewood Theater ?

alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 17, 2006 at 11:55 am

Let’s just say I’m the guy proposing the idea and the project. I want to save the theater too. I am a life long resident here in ridgewood.

PKoch
PKoch on April 17, 2006 at 11:18 am

That is almost too good to be true. ALtheFilmGuy, how do you know this ?

alliewayfilms
alliewayfilms on April 17, 2006 at 11:11 am

What if I told you I know personally that the theater is going to be kept in tact? Just cleaned up and it’s structure preserved and used for it’s intended purpose.