Downtown Passaic today is a far cry from what I remember in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and THAT was a far cry from what my parents remembered in the 40’s and 50’s. At one time, there were 3 huge theaters, and several smaller ones, all providing entertainment. Many of the biggest stars played the stage of the Central throughout the 1940’s.
Now I feel like I need to get a Passport when entering the city. If you speak English, you are certainly in the minority.
The city of Passaic has one of the last of the large single screen theaters in the state of New Jersey, and one of the oldest. It’s in remarkably good condition, and still has most of its original fixtures. The theater has been very well maintained for the past 30 years since they’ve been showing porno. It could serve as a wonderful performance venue for residents of this area.
The fact that they are so anxious to destroy it because of the association with X-rated material is astonishing. What about the theaters first 50 years as a prime movie house?
By the way, film fans in the New York area can see KISS ME KATE in the miracle of perfected Polaroid 3-Dimension. It’s playing on Friday March 10 at the beautiful 1924 Lafayette Theatre in Suffern, New York. I’ve seen original dual-strip 3-D presented at dozens of venues over the past 25 years, and the presentation at the Lafayette is by far the best. Clear, bright and – most important of all for good 3-D – in sync AND in phase. There are no eyestrain or focus problems whatsoever. (Unlike the Film Forum which frequently presents 3-D out of phase, this will be a quality presentation.) Plus there will be some rare 3-D shorts as well, which will not be shown at any other theater on the East Coast.
If you’ve never seen real 3-D from the 1950’s (and I’m not talking about those terrible re-issues in the red/blue anaglyph system) you owe it to yourself to catch this show. And it’s in stereo sound as well!
Visit their website for all the details: View link
If one were to believe what is written today, KISS ME KATE was only released flat because of the publics lack of interest in 3-D movies. Even the new DVD contains comments to that effect.
The truth of the matter is the film had a very wide 3-D release. In fact, there were so many bookings for the 3-D version in December 1953, the studio ordered additional left/right prints from Technicolor!
I was told by a Kong expert that the “overture” on the DVD was not played before the film in 1933. It was recorded for a souvenir record created after the film was released.
Indeed, like the grand theaters, an era that we will never see again. I have many photos from this tour. I’ll see if I can get some of them scanned and posted on the individual theater pages.
You can see that Jerry was having a great time. Murray the K was with him and, at one point, they got off the tour bus to play stickball with some kids on the street. You can see the kids were thrilled by the astonished looks on their faces!
Thanks Jerry. I wasn’t trying to flood the forum with repetitive posts, but I thought fans of those individual theaters would find it interesting. Lewis wound up visiting 27 RKO theaters over the course of two days. What a schedule! He did this several times in his career, including the New York Loew’s tour for “The Bellboy” in 1960.
After the tour, Jerry wrote a letter to RKO thanking them, but also commenting on the overall run-down condition of the backstage areas. These were pretty old theaters, and those stages were no longer in active use.
It was interesting to follow his itinerary on these pages to see what happened to all these great showplaces. I don’t think anyone could do that tour today…
Downtown Passaic today is a far cry from what I remember in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and THAT was a far cry from what my parents remembered in the 40’s and 50’s. At one time, there were 3 huge theaters, and several smaller ones, all providing entertainment. Many of the biggest stars played the stage of the Central throughout the 1940’s.
Now I feel like I need to get a Passport when entering the city. If you speak English, you are certainly in the minority.
The city of Passaic has one of the last of the large single screen theaters in the state of New Jersey, and one of the oldest. It’s in remarkably good condition, and still has most of its original fixtures. The theater has been very well maintained for the past 30 years since they’ve been showing porno. It could serve as a wonderful performance venue for residents of this area.
The fact that they are so anxious to destroy it because of the association with X-rated material is astonishing. What about the theaters first 50 years as a prime movie house?
By the way, film fans in the New York area can see KISS ME KATE in the miracle of perfected Polaroid 3-Dimension. It’s playing on Friday March 10 at the beautiful 1924 Lafayette Theatre in Suffern, New York. I’ve seen original dual-strip 3-D presented at dozens of venues over the past 25 years, and the presentation at the Lafayette is by far the best. Clear, bright and – most important of all for good 3-D – in sync AND in phase. There are no eyestrain or focus problems whatsoever. (Unlike the Film Forum which frequently presents 3-D out of phase, this will be a quality presentation.) Plus there will be some rare 3-D shorts as well, which will not be shown at any other theater on the East Coast.
If you’ve never seen real 3-D from the 1950’s (and I’m not talking about those terrible re-issues in the red/blue anaglyph system) you owe it to yourself to catch this show. And it’s in stereo sound as well!
Visit their website for all the details:
View link
You “guess” they were wrong?!
That passage from IMDB is extremely accurate.
If one were to believe what is written today, KISS ME KATE was only released flat because of the publics lack of interest in 3-D movies. Even the new DVD contains comments to that effect.
The truth of the matter is the film had a very wide 3-D release. In fact, there were so many bookings for the 3-D version in December 1953, the studio ordered additional left/right prints from Technicolor!
I didn’t know Lucas had anything to do with the development of 70mm!
I agree Ed. I’m seeing this gent tomorrow and I’ll ask for additional details…
Can you imagine ANY “star” today hitting 27 theaters in 2 days?
I was told by a Kong expert that the “overture” on the DVD was not played before the film in 1933. It was recorded for a souvenir record created after the film was released.
Indeed, like the grand theaters, an era that we will never see again. I have many photos from this tour. I’ll see if I can get some of them scanned and posted on the individual theater pages.
You can see that Jerry was having a great time. Murray the K was with him and, at one point, they got off the tour bus to play stickball with some kids on the street. You can see the kids were thrilled by the astonished looks on their faces!
Thanks Jerry. I wasn’t trying to flood the forum with repetitive posts, but I thought fans of those individual theaters would find it interesting. Lewis wound up visiting 27 RKO theaters over the course of two days. What a schedule! He did this several times in his career, including the New York Loew’s tour for “The Bellboy” in 1960.
After the tour, Jerry wrote a letter to RKO thanking them, but also commenting on the overall run-down condition of the backstage areas. These were pretty old theaters, and those stages were no longer in active use.
It was interesting to follow his itinerary on these pages to see what happened to all these great showplaces. I don’t think anyone could do that tour today…
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 13, 1961.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 12, 1961.