Majestic Theater

Welcome back Lost Memory!!

Wow, if that’s a 1939 photo, it appears the Majestic was already abandoned by that point.

Wow, it’s a long time since I have seen a comment in this theater! I just drove by this theater the other day for the first time in years and thought of this site….

The Majestic had a pretty nice “classic” cinema marquee, and must have been something to see lit up at night. it appears to have already been closed at the time of this photo though.

Just renewing my email alerts….
Here’s a google street view of the old Majestic Theater:

View link

I use that Cypress Ave exit at Vermont from the JR Parkway often. Yes, couldn’t imagine it without a light!!

But I really think they are overdoing the traffic lights in Ridgewood. It’s slowly become like manhattan with lights at every corner, which certainly is not necessary…. I mean really, a light at Harmon and Seneca, and many of the other recent ones are just a but overdone….

I don’t know when they installed the light, but probably recently. They went on a traffic light rampage in Ridgewood lately….too many if you ask me!

As a young boy I lived on Seneca Ave. in 1960 one block from the Majestic Theatre, which appeared to have been closed for many years at that time. The theatre was on the corner of Seneca and Greene Avenues. Across the street from the theatre on Seneca Ave. was a TV repair shop that also fixed bicycles. Diagonally across the street was a barber shop. The side of the theatre was on Greene Ave. Across the street from the Greene Ave side of the theatre was many garages. Since no cars could park there, and since the theatre had a fire hydrant on the Greene Ave side, we used the area to play stick ball, “off the wall”, and handball off the side the theatre. The front of the theatre was boarded up but you could still see where the ticket box office once was. The marque was still there and the name MAJESTIC was still on the marque. When it rained we played Ace King Queen under the marque. The rear of the theatre had a yard that was full of dirt mounds, weeds, and debris. The front and side of the theatre was a great place to hang out. We were all very surprised one day when demolition workers entered the theatre. The left the side (Green Ave.) door open at night and we got our first view of the inside. The screen and seats were still there. I think there was also an orchestra pit. There were stairs that led up to the balcony and projection room. We found old comic books that were probably given out with admission. There were broken dishes that were probably given out to customers so that they would continue to return to the theatre to collect a whole set. I found old ticket rolls that had admission prices of .35 cents, .65 cents and several other amounts I can not rememnber but none were for over a dollar. The theatre became the Seneca Chapels funeral parlor. The new owners did not like it when we continued to play ball on the Greene Ave. side. The funeral parlor continued to use the marque but made it much smaller. You would never know that it was once a theatre marque. I would love to hear from anyone who has childhood memories of playing by the Majestic Theatre.

Thanks, Lost Memory. I reviewed Christina Wilkinson’s Forgitten NY article on Ridgewood on August 1, 2005 and directly e-mailed her my comments within a few days afterward. One of them was pretty much what I posted above. I’ve looked at her article a few times since then and she apparently has not made changes to her article based on my comments.

So I propose we continue with our plans to scan newspaper ads to find out exactly when the RKO Madison Theater showed its last film.

This is something I wish I knew, but do not, as I wish in retrospect I had been more observant, passing the RKO Madison at least ten times a week, walking from home to the subway at Myrtle and Wyckoff in the morning, and vice versa in the evening, every weekday, in commuting from my Ridgewood home to school in Manhattan.

One would think I would remember the date, or at least the week or month, the RKO Madison showed its last film, but I do not. Mea culpa.

Pending further evidence, I will assume Halloween 1977 as the date of that last film.

Closing date of the Madison : recommend beginning the search in October 1977 and continuing to February 1978. I KNOW, as surely as I know anything, that the RKO Madison was closed by the last Saturday of February 1978, as I have amply posted on this site, perhaps at risk of seeming as if I have “RKO Madison Turretts Syndrome” !

Thanks, Bway !

Bway;Here are a couple of links to the ‘Majestic’ that was built for the movie “The Majestic” in Ferndale, CA: View link

View link