Ridgewood Theatre

I know what you mean about car theft and break-ins. My father’s sister and parents suffered from it in Cypress Hills and Woodhaven in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. My wife suffered from it in Flushing, Queens, and midtown Manhattan, 1990-92, despite taking out the radio from the dashboard and putting a “No Radio” sign behind the windshield.

I’m still a city kid at heart, also. You can take me out of Ridgewood, but you can’t take Ridgewood out of me !

KathyO, I do not know if Robert Osolinik had an older sister who graduated St. Brigid in 1966 and then attended Christ The King High School. Perhaps AprilW or DABOC might know.

AprilW, even I, with my memory, can’t help you with your question about the vertical Ridgewood Theater sign. Kind of reminds me of “The Hot L Baltimore”, though. Wonderful “Barney Miller” and “Night Court” black humor which I somehow never enjoyed.

KathyO, the “Brooklyn” side : many members of my mother’s family lived at 412 Harman Street between Wyckoff and Irving Avenues from 1929 until my aunt sold it in 1987.

The younger of my two uncles lived with his family at 219 St. Nicholas Avenue, the north corner of St. Nicholas and Greene Avenues, until they moved to Bethpage, L.I. in June 1972.

Thank you, Lost Memory, for your photo of Linden Street. Such views of Ridgewood are embedded in my genetic makeup : in my DNA and RNA.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Ken for posting photos of the interior or the Ridgewood Theater!!! It’s been over 15 years since I have been in there, and the lobby is JUST how I remember it!!! it appears to have a good amount of it’s ornamentation yet. It actually looks better kept than the 80’s!! (It was pretty run down back then).
Oh, the good times I have had in that theater.
Did you get any photos of the auditorium you went into? Or did you just step into the lobby to take the photos, and not see a movie?

You’re welcome BillyC. and BTW My mom was also a single mom.

There’s something else I remembered about the vertical sign. At night the sign flashed because the neon letters “Theater” were directly over (or maybe under) the neon letters that said “Ridgewood.” I’m almost certain that it was one sign with two words on it. I’m not sure but I think that the word “Ridgewood” was colored in, or highlighted somehow, so that during the day the sign looked like it only said “Ridgewood.”

Can anyone confirm this—what do the old pictures show?

Lost Memory, is there an email address I can reach you at?

Peter,

Believe me I remember Sal’s, wasn’t it called the Four Barbers at one time. I got my first haircut there!

Prior to zip codes it was Ridgewood NY 27, when Zip codes came it was 11227 Growing up in Ridgewood we all knew we lived in Queens but we had that 11227 zip code that was a Brooklyn Zip. Later the Ridgewood Post Office was changed to 11385. The pictures of the lobby bring back memories, I can smell the popcorn, hotdogs (on that spit machine) and unfortunately the cigarettes. I believe the only place you couldn’t smoke was the children’s section but I may be wrong.

Here are some June 2005 photographs I took of the Ridgewood Theatre:
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115980486/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115980840/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115981091/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115981514/

Hi April, I can’t believe you not only remember me but all of my brothers names. yes, we all did sleep in one room and we did have a bunk bed but it wasn’t a triple.I remember Artie Nelson, we played stickball on Madison St with Spauldings we brought at Joe’s Army and Navy for 11 cents. He had a sister named Patty with red hair and freckles. Whenever you went up to his apartment he use to use a popsicle stick to open the vestibule door. I believe he was about 16 when he drowned in the Rockaways.
I do remember the Seuffert family and I thought on Linden Street one side was 3 family and the other side was 2 family. They lived on the last house on the street close to St. Nick. I also went to the summer concerts at Forest Park Grove.

Peter, I’m not sure if I knew you or not but remember playing Ace, King, Queen on the Key Food wall across the street from Ciros Restaurant. The only names I recall from Woodbine Street are Joe Gangi, Joe Ganci and Steve Graff. I hung out with them as a teenager.

HI April, thanks for answering that question about “Loew’s” not being on the theater sign that was attached to the wall.
Peter & April, I knew Maureen Daley and her younger sister Patricia. They lived directly across the street from us on Woodbine St. We were sort of kindrid spirits…I think their mom was divorced in the 60’s, and so was mine. In any event neither of us had a dad living with us. And we all went to St. Brigid. 1716 Woodbine was filled with great Irish immigrant families like the Mooney’s and the Murphy’s. It is hard to believe today that ‘single moms’ were not very common in Ridgewood back then.
Best wishes to all…BillyC.

I haven’t visited this site in a long time. Hello Peter, I see you mentioned me in a recent posting. Please don’t feel you owe me an e-mail. I’m just glad you survived mine. :)

Hi Debbie, The last time I saw you was just before you moved to Norman Street, and that was a long, long time ago! I remember so many things about you and your family. I remember your mom and your dad, whose initials were D.J., and your mom said it stood for Dishonest John (though I think his name was “Dennis”). You, Debbie, are probably the only person who would remember Maureen Daley (although Peter may remember her — do you?) who lived at 1716 Woodbine Street (I’m good with addresses for some reason). You and she were really good friends, but she moved away around 5th or 6th grade to Bedford, NY. I have so many memories of playing with the kids on your block and with you.

Hey, SteveD. I do remember you, too. You lived in the house next to the deli and you had two brothers, Kenny and, hmmmm, was it Eddie? I remember you told me you all slept in a triple bunk bed that your dad made, was that true? I remember playinng ace king queen with you against the wall of the Ridgewood Theater. Do either you or Debbie remember the Nelsens who lived above Joe’s Army Navy Store? The entrance to their house was on Madison. They were Arthur (who tragically drowned at Rockaway), Patty,and Karen.

Steve, you said your grandmother lived on Linden Street between St. Nicholas and Cypress. Do you remember that George Seuffert, Sr. and George Seuffert Jr, the bandleaders of Forest Park fame lived at 1666 Linden Street and gave music lessons from their home for many years? I always thought they lived in a 2 family house on that block, but of course I am probably wrong.
Leona Seuffert, the younger George’s wife, used to play the Cornet at the bandshell on Sundays and usually had a solo. We went almost every week and I just thought she was wonderful. My brother took trumpet lessons from her.

Alot has been discussed since I was last here. I would like to respond to a comment by BillyC from a posting in August,2005. Hello Billy! You sort of asked me personally if the word “Loew’s” was on the Ridgewood Theater’s vertical sign. To my recollection the words Ridgewood Theater (or maybe Theatre, but I think it was spelled the other way) appeared on the sign. I think the sign was red neon block letters and I remember that it flashed (because I slept in the front room facing Myrtle avenue!)— First RIDGEWOOD would flash, then THEATER. I believe (but, I ’m not certain) that the sign did not fall down with the marquee. I think they removed the vertical sign and then put up the new marquee, which stands today.

mrbillyc, Warren, and Bway, thanks for all this information. mrbillyc, I’m glad you had a pleasant visit to Ridgewood, and thanks for walking up our old block of Cornelia between Wyckoff and Cypress Avenues. It’s always been a quiet block, as you mentioned about the traffic noise and loud Spanish music dropping off a hundred feet into the block. The old industial type building dated 1897 in the masonry near the roof, on Wyckoff near Myrtle and Palmetto, does indeed remain from the brewery (the Welz and Zerwick) that once took up the block where the RKO Madison was eventually built, and opened around Thanksgiving 1927.

Bway, it seems so strange for the Ridgewood to be operating at such a reduced schedule, when it is the only movie theater within a four or five mile radius of itself. Has it fallen prey to home video, both viewing and games, the way the smaller neighborhood theaters like the Parthenon did to broadcast TV in the 1950’s ? Perhaps Monica can comment on this, and on the matter of Spanish, and perhaps even Polish, subtitles.

Bway, as you and I both know from the “Bushwick Buddies” website, even Bushwick, long synonymous with urban blight, decay and disaster, is at long last giving way to the law of supply and demand at the hands of upscale urban developers. Can Bushwick’s across-the border neighbor, Ridgewood, in general, and such a valuable community and entertainment resource as the Ridgewood Theater, in particular, be far behind ?

There are pictures of it, and of the Ridgewood National Bank at Cypress and Myrtle, both in Times Newsweekly “Our Neighborhood” articles, and in Christina Wilkinson’s article on Ridgewood on Kenneth Walsh’s “Forgotten NY” site.

Thanks, mrbillyc, for all the information on the Silver Dollar Club. It reminds me of the Knights Of Columbus at Bushwick Avenue and Hart St. where my parents met and went dancing, 1940-45.

In all fairness, the only brothel I was aware of was third-hand through rumors, in the spring of 1982, supposedly above Carl’s Army and Navy Clothing Store, on the southeast corner of Myrtle and Putnam Avenues, or above what used to be Epstein’s Pharmacy, then Carl’s Place Next Door to it on Myrtle Avenue. My dad said it tried to keep a low profile, but got busted anyway.

MrBilly, I’m not worried about Myrtle Ave itself, the new mall will not really effect it badly, as Myrtle Ave doesn’t really even have the type of stores that will be going into the Atlas Terminal (Borders, etc).
However, my worry all along has been for the Ridgewood Theater itself. The Ridgewood theater’s management has been cutting back the showtimes more and more over the last few months.
For Example, this is there current schedule:

16 Blocks (PG-13) 6:00, 8:00
El Sueno del regreso (NR) 8:05
Hills Have Eyes, The ® 6:00, 8:05
Shaggy Dog, The (PG) 6:05, 8:00
Ultraviolet (PG-13) 6:05, 8:05

And apparently, as you noted, they are not even open every day! How in the world can they swing a profit on a schedule like that? Obviously, they felt it wasn’t worth it to stay open during the day, and not even every day, otherwise they would be open daytimes too. This is only a recent change, the theater was always open during the day before this. The Ridgewood can’t afford to lose whatever patronage it has (which apparently isn’t that large to begin with judging by the schedule). Even if they lose a quarter of it’s current patronage to the Atlas Terminal Theater, it could be deadly.