To girl2: Your grandmother, Mrs. Holleran, was a great support and very much appreciated by my mother over many years. Yes, the theater had a warm wonderful sense about it, especially at Christmas when fully decorated with evergreen festooning and pointsetta holiday cheer. One day in the mid-fifties in the theater basement, my mother and Mrs. Holleran discovered 5ft.twin Chinese Antique Wedding Vases that had adorned niches on either side of the old Bergen Theater screen. They went right into my Mother’s wagon, and they remained in Mother’s entrance hall in Greenwich from thereon. Thanks for trading memorabilia.
No. 1st run distribution policies in those days demanded not only significant milage between major cities, but also strategic location. Stamford maintained the strategic access from both Westchester and Fairfield counties. Bridgeport was too close to New Haven and Stamford.
The “Bergen” was remodeled and renamed the PIX in 1953. It reopened as an “art-house” with Charlie Chaplin’s LIMELIGHT and to the opening-night picketing by the American Legion (because of the falacious pro-communist accusations against Chaplin at that time).
The Developer/Operator was Nathan Steinberg of Greenwich, Conn.(who unfortunately passed away one week after the opening which I, his son, attended) and the theater archetect was John MacNammera who trained with the master, Thomas Lamb. The theater decor was ultra-modern 50’s sophisticated with posh, rocking-chair seating. Demi-tasse coffee was served in the upstairs lounge by aproned maids,and
the walled mirrors were a burnished bronze color.
Mrs. Holleran was the fine manager who worked with my mother for many years.
Actually, the Ridgeway had its grand opening in the summer of 1951 with the film, Flying Leathernecks starring John Wayne. The theater’s Developer/Operator was Nathan Steinberg of Greenwich,Conn. and the interior “Modern Design” (mobiles and all)was by John MacNamera who had worked and trained with the master, Thomas Lamb, who had designed some of the historic and great “Movie Palaces” across the country.
The Ridgeway was one of the first Shopping Center Theaters in the U.S.A. when Shopping Centers were a new, new thing. It had 900 plush, rocking-chair seats, air conditioning (also new then), 1000
car parking and was awarded archetectual prizes as the finest new theater in America (at a time when because of another new,new thing,
Television, few if any new theaters were being deveoloped).
Because of its design and location (Stamford then was the only city between New York and New Haven offering 1st Run Films), during the 1950s the Ridgeway was well known, attended and appreciated by the entire population within a 35 mile radius.
Dave,
The SQUARE THEATER was demolished in 1981 along with the Greek Diner and two adjoining stores to make way for the 30,000 sq.ft. Con Edison Customer Service Center now occupied by a Duane Reade Drug Store. The SQUARE was built in the mid-1930s when theater promoter/developers would erect signs on differant neighborhood corners advertising the arrival of a new theater that would never be built – so that the SQUARE THEATER, for example, could/would be built.I know this, because that promoter/developer was my father who subsequently purchased and renovated the SQUARE property in 1948 and operated it until his untimely death at the age of 42 in 1953.
To girl2: Your grandmother, Mrs. Holleran, was a great support and very much appreciated by my mother over many years. Yes, the theater had a warm wonderful sense about it, especially at Christmas when fully decorated with evergreen festooning and pointsetta holiday cheer. One day in the mid-fifties in the theater basement, my mother and Mrs. Holleran discovered 5ft.twin Chinese Antique Wedding Vases that had adorned niches on either side of the old Bergen Theater screen. They went right into my Mother’s wagon, and they remained in Mother’s entrance hall in Greenwich from thereon. Thanks for trading memorabilia.
No. 1st run distribution policies in those days demanded not only significant milage between major cities, but also strategic location. Stamford maintained the strategic access from both Westchester and Fairfield counties. Bridgeport was too close to New Haven and Stamford.
The “Bergen” was remodeled and renamed the PIX in 1953. It reopened as an “art-house” with Charlie Chaplin’s LIMELIGHT and to the opening-night picketing by the American Legion (because of the falacious pro-communist accusations against Chaplin at that time).
The Developer/Operator was Nathan Steinberg of Greenwich, Conn.(who unfortunately passed away one week after the opening which I, his son, attended) and the theater archetect was John MacNammera who trained with the master, Thomas Lamb. The theater decor was ultra-modern 50’s sophisticated with posh, rocking-chair seating. Demi-tasse coffee was served in the upstairs lounge by aproned maids,and
the walled mirrors were a burnished bronze color.
Mrs. Holleran was the fine manager who worked with my mother for many years.
Actually, the Ridgeway had its grand opening in the summer of 1951 with the film, Flying Leathernecks starring John Wayne. The theater’s Developer/Operator was Nathan Steinberg of Greenwich,Conn. and the interior “Modern Design” (mobiles and all)was by John MacNamera who had worked and trained with the master, Thomas Lamb, who had designed some of the historic and great “Movie Palaces” across the country.
The Ridgeway was one of the first Shopping Center Theaters in the U.S.A. when Shopping Centers were a new, new thing. It had 900 plush, rocking-chair seats, air conditioning (also new then), 1000
car parking and was awarded archetectual prizes as the finest new theater in America (at a time when because of another new,new thing,
Television, few if any new theaters were being deveoloped).
Because of its design and location (Stamford then was the only city between New York and New Haven offering 1st Run Films), during the 1950s the Ridgeway was well known, attended and appreciated by the entire population within a 35 mile radius.
Dave,
The SQUARE THEATER was demolished in 1981 along with the Greek Diner and two adjoining stores to make way for the 30,000 sq.ft. Con Edison Customer Service Center now occupied by a Duane Reade Drug Store. The SQUARE was built in the mid-1930s when theater promoter/developers would erect signs on differant neighborhood corners advertising the arrival of a new theater that would never be built – so that the SQUARE THEATER, for example, could/would be built.I know this, because that promoter/developer was my father who subsequently purchased and renovated the SQUARE property in 1948 and operated it until his untimely death at the age of 42 in 1953.