Comments from robertmcnally2626

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robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Mar 14, 2005 at 1:36 pm

I never saw the movie “Patton”, but I remember seeing Patton in 1945 on Pathe News in the Oasis Theater. He had just crossed the Rhine and I noticed over his right shoulder a woman rowing a small boat in the distance and she resembled Mae West. Now you have me wondering. I remember the name printed on the boat. “Eddie My Love”.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Feb 8, 2005 at 11:24 am

I have not seen a comment since 12/7/04. Although I thought I did see maybe a couple more after this date. In any event my e-mail said that a comment was made today, but I find none. Happy New Year.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Dec 7, 2004 at 4:32 pm

Lostmemory, did you find The Calvert Drive-In? You made me curious and I only see the one that is closed. Now you have me thinking about a drive-in theater in Lanesboro, Massachusettes. But should I care? It opened in 1949 and the last that I was there was in 1950. I saw 1944’s The Uninvited starring Ray Milland and Gail Russell.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Dec 2, 2004 at 8:20 am

Thanks Wassup. The only problem is that I tried this a month ago and again today. After filling out a form and putting in my comments i submit and then a message tells me to return to the form I completed. The form is blank and my comments are gone. Just for the heck of it I clicked on submit and it says Please enter a value for “Name” field. I guess I’m doing something wrong.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Nov 25, 2004 at 3:28 pm

Thanks Judy, I passed the recipe along with the one requested by Lostmemory. Hope everyone had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Nov 23, 2004 at 1:23 pm

Not to get off the subject, but since you all know something about the RKO Madison and Ridgewood theaters and because I can’t contact the Ridgewood Web site that Lostmemory told me is under construction and still is I thought perhaps someone out there might remember Peter’s Delicattessen on Fresh Pond Road near the corner of Madison Street. My sister-in-law is desperate to learn what the recipe is for Peter’s meatballs. She wished to make them over the Holidays. Peter’s closed about two years ago. Hope someone out there can help me. Thanks

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Nov 15, 2004 at 1:11 pm

And the centerpiece at the top of the staircase was a great painting of Dolly Madison. Before I retired from my job I used to visit various general contractor’s offices in Manhattan and many of them had pieces of marble from the exteriors and interiors of buildings and no doubt movie theatres on display. I saw their warehouses filled with ornaments that probably came from theaters and even huge chandeleir’s like the one that hung in the Roxy Theater. But it’s sad that they removed them from the theaters of old.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Nov 6, 2004 at 4:33 pm

might be wrong in both answers because neither picture was an RKO production. I just associate seeing them at the Madison. One was 1939’s Tower of London. Boris Karloff was scary in it, but it was Inot a horror film, but an historical melodrama. The other was 1963’s To Kill A Mockingbird. It had the second scarriest scene in a movie picture for me. Gregory Peck’s two small children encounter someone in the woods. It happened so suddenly I nearly jumped out of my seat. The scarriest scene I had ever seen was in 1946’s Great Expectations. That one I saw at the Oasis. Young Pip played by Anthony Wager is at Romney Marshes and suddenly actor Finley Currie steps out from behind a gravestone. It was too much. Finley oudid Boris in his spooky look. This was not a horror movie either. Since horror is not expected in a non-horror film then when it happens it’s doubly scary.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Nov 4, 2004 at 2:33 pm

Thanks Robert.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Nov 4, 2004 at 2:25 pm

Spiderman2 sounds like an offspring of mine. In any event I recall in the spring of 1947 when I was 14 years old that I created an outdoor movie theater. My dad gave me an Excello 16 millimeter projector and reels of Castle films of Joe Louis bouts, a nature film about bear cubs and a couple of cartoons. I went into our frontroom and aimed the projector at the drawn shade in the window. We lived on the second floor in a four story building on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood, between Woodbine and Madison Streets. The first film I showed was of the Joe Louis Billy Conn bout of June 18, 1941.

Then I went into my sister’s bedroom and looked out of her window. A crowd was gathering on the street below. I waited until the film ended and then put on the nature reel and then ran downstairs to and joined the standing room only audience. We lived only five blocks from the Oasis Theater, but my non-paying patrons seemed to enjoy my films that were shown in reverse. A man not suspecting that I was the projectionist turned to me and said, “I wonder why they’re doing that?”

I said, “I don’t know, but it’s pretty nice of them. Right?”

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Oct 23, 2004 at 4:49 pm

i’m o.k.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Oct 23, 2004 at 4:46 pm

I may have clicked on the wrong item in e-mail because I happened to see that my name is no longer on e-mail. I don’t get it. I’m merely writing this to check on it.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Oct 22, 2004 at 5:28 pm

I want to thank all of you for giving me those Queens web pages. The spider didn’t bite me, and when I showed it to my local pharmacist 55 years ago he exclaimed, “Lactrodectus Mactans.” He was a former Coumbia University professor and a bug on insects. He had a window display of a variety of spiders,poisonous snakes, crystallized venom, snake eggs and the head of a rattler. He also had on display the various antidotes. The black widow spider became his prized possession and the Ridgewood Times wrote up the story and named me as the founder of the first black widow spider in the state of New York. Thanks again.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Oct 21, 2004 at 8:26 pm

I wrote a long piece and was cut off. i’ll make it short. could anyone help me to a ridgewood web where I could talk to old and young friends. I’m not that computer literate, but i’ve known for a long time a web exist and can’t find it and the funny thing is that I found the first black widow spider in the state of new york and I wasn’t impressed by that even though the ridgewood times was. I would appreciate anyone helping me. I hate to be a pain, but I’ve been trying for more than a year. Thank you.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Oct 21, 2004 at 8:15 pm

that’s mean

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Oct 4, 2004 at 8:35 am

Robert. Thanks for commenting. Your mother is correct. That’s how it was. But she’s obviously younger than me. The incident I refer to was exactly in the year 1950.

robertmcnally2626
robertmcnally2626 commented about RKO Madison Theatre on Oct 3, 2004 at 3:12 pm

I wonder if anyone can recall an incident that occurred back in October, 1950. The Madison Theater had Halloween shows fairly consistantly till then and then I screwed that up. Between the showing of horror films they put on a live show that depicted the bedroom scene where Dracula crosses the stage in an attempt to bite a lovely lady in a bed on center stage. I climbed to the stage and tried to jump Dracula to prevent him from ‘biting'the woman. I only succeeded in making her scream, jump fro the bed and run off. Then the actor playing Dracula having seen me with my hands raised ran from the stage.

The stagehands tried to capture me, but I escaped. The curtain was brought down and the small play was ruined. I scrambled beneath seats and hid here and there for awhile and when at least half a dozen cops came searching for me I alluded them. Then I beat it out of the theater.

The Madison didn’t have another Halloween show for at least two years. Then in 1952 or 1953 they resumed the horror show and this time it starred Bela Lugosi. Unfortunately he was a no-show. The newspapers the next day said they would no longer have a Halloween show and they alluded to the 1950 incident as well. They sued Bela, but I don’t know what the outcome was. I never guessed that my juvenile prank would result in such chaos and I was lucky to escape. That was 54 years ago this month. Does anyone remember it?