WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES FEBRUARY 1, 2018 25
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Woodhaven’s starring role in a famous TV movie
PRESENTED
BY THE WOODHAVEN CULTURAL
AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PROJECTWOODHAVEN@GMAIL.COM
“The Queen of the Stardust Ballroom”
debuted 43 years ago
this month, on the evening of
Feb. 13, 1975. It was a critical and ratings
success and racked up 11 Emmy
award nominations.
“Ballroom” stars Maureen Stapleton
as Bea, a lonely widow who lives on
Forest Parkway in Woodhaven and
runs a small thrift shop on Jamaica
Avenue. She’s encouraged by a friend,
who tries to help her get out and enjoy
life a little more by taking her to a local
ballroom to go dancing.
There she meets Al, played by
Charles Durning, who asks her to
dance. That begins a little romance
between the two and it turns Bea’s
outlook on life around. Of course, being
a movie, things aren’t as straightforward
as they seem and there are a
few personal dramas the leads must
experience.
Stapleton and Durning were nominated
for Emmy awards for their outstanding
performances, two of the 11
nominations the fi lm would receive. It
ended up winning two Emmys: one for
Outstanding Achievement in Choreography
and another for Outstanding
Achievement in Cinematography for
a Special.
“The Queen of the Stardust Ballroom”
is warmly remembered in Woodhaven
because the CBS production fi lmed
several scenes here, along Forest
Parkway and on Jamaica Avenue, on
July 17, 1974. The fi lm shoot lasted until
4 a.m., with dozens of neighborhood
kids staying up well past midnight to
watch the action.
Maureen Stapleton and Charles Durning starred in the 1975 TV movie “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom,” much
of which was fi lmed in Woodhaven.
Those watching the film will be treated
to several glimpses of Woodhaven circa
1974. For example, you’ll see the post office
and you’ll see the long-since removed steps
to the elevated train on Forest Parkway.
And if you look closely, you’ll spot
the marquee for the long-gone Haven
Theater standing in for the outside of
the Stardust Ballroom. To non-residents
Photo courtesy of the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society
of Woodhaven, Bea’s bus ride to the ballroom
appears perfectly normal. But residents
familiar with the area get a chuckle
at a character taking a 15-minute bus ride
to a spot less than 30 seconds away.
Residents of Woodhaven may also
feel confused when they watch scenes
of a bus running along Forest Parkway,
and even a bus stop in front of the post
offi ce. For the record, Forest Parkway
itself is only a quarter of a mile long,
from Jamaica Avenue to Park Lane
South, and has never hosted a bus line.
But through the magic of Hollywood,
you can see what a bus line along one of
Woodhaven’s most well-known streets
would have looked like.
And if you watch the fi lm, you’ll
get several good looks at the steps to
the elevated train at Forest Parkway,
which were removed when that exit of
the station was closed.
When word of the production
spread through Woodhaven on that
hot summer day, kids from all over
the neighborhood came out to watch
the scenes being fi lmed. By mid-aft ernoon,
the crowds of kids had grown
so large that the production assistants
had to repeatedly ask the crowd to
quiet down.
Estimates report that there were 30
to 40 kids on-site deep into the night.
But if you talk to almost anyone who
lived in Woodhaven in 1974, they’ll
swear that they were there. Many of
those who were actually at the shoot
walked away with autographs from
the two stars of the fi lm, Durning and
Stapleton.
The following year, when the fi lm
was shown on television, it was the
talk of the town, and has been warmly
remembered ever since.
Since then, many other productions
have fi lmed scenes here in Woodhaven.
The most famous of the bunch was
Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” which
fi lmed several scenes inside Neir’s
Tavern on 78th Street and 88th Avenue.
Woodhaven has also played host
to “The Flamingo Kid,” starring Matt
Dillon; “Run All Night,” starring Liam
Neeson; and, most recently, “Wonder
Wheel,” a fi lm by Woody Allen that
transformed Jamaica Avenue into a
neighborhood from the 1940s.
But it’s “The Queen of the Stardust
Ballroom” that older residents of
Woodhaven remember the most, as
it was the fi rst and because it was
received with such acclaim.
Photo via Google Maps
This house on Forest Parkway in Woodhaven was featured in “Queen of
the Stardust Ballroom.”
