UA State Theatre

William on June 12, 2007 at 2:22 pm

The State Theatre was listed as part of the Skouras Theaters Corp. back in 1944. During that time the Skouras Chain also operated in Jersey City:
Apollo
Capitol
Fulton
Majestic
Monticello
Rialto
Strand
Tivoli
and the State.

teecee on March 2, 2006 at 7:01 am

Listed as part of Skouras Theatres Corp. in the 1961 Film Daily Yearbook.

dicorro on February 18, 2006 at 8:37 pm

Although the least opulent of the three Journal Square theaters in the 60s/70s, I had two of my first film epiphanies here: my parents took my sister and I to see “Mary Poppins” at the State in ‘64—one of the first movies I vividly recall seeing. In Feb '70, I saw “Funny Girl” here and forever will remember that experience — and my life long love affair with Streisand. I will never forget seeing Barbra’s finale on the State’s wide screen — that close-up as she launched in the ultimate torch song, “My Man.”

BobNJ

teecee on June 9, 2005 at 8:52 am

The theater collapsed during demolition in early 1998:

The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Jan 25, 1998 pN1
EVERY MINUTE COUNTS, WHEN RESCUERS HIT THE STREET. (NEWS)(FROM THE FRONT LINE)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 Bergen Record Corp.

By ELAINE D'AURIZIO

Michael Drennan jumped off the rescue truck into sheer chaos.

Hysterical shoppers were running into the street screaming. Right behind them was the horrifying reason why: A huge, 75-year-old movie theater had collapsed in a deafening roar, pounding metal and bricks onto two stores next to it.

Capt. Drennan and his fellow fighters in Rescue 1 – a special tactical unit – had never seen a collapse this bad, no matter how long they had been with the Jersey City Fire Department.

“It looked like a war zone,” said Drennan, a 20-year veteran. “A good 20 feet of scaffolding and workman’s tools were hanging above us.”

They all knew the old State Theater on Journal Square was being torn down that week. But it was a holiday – Martin Luther King Day – so the workmen weren’t there when 70 feet of a free-standing brick wall crumbled, bringing down the roof and second and first floors of one-half of the theater. The wall crashed on two stores buzzing with shoppers, trapping some people in a tomb of concrete and steel.

“We didn’t know if there were 10 or 50 people trapped,” said Capt. Victor Petrocelli, who has been with the department 22 years.

The firefighters' first task is to get survivors out, but they didn’t want to lose any rescuers, either. They tried to assess the damage with their eyes. Warning signs that spell danger: an unstable floor, a wall that is cracked or leaning.

So much looked shaky at this scene. “It was an incredible entanglement above our heads, a web of twisted metal that included a jackhammer,” said Capt. Robert Cobb. “We had to keep our eye on that, too.”

“It looked bad, but it could get worse,” Drennan said. “There could be a secondary collapse.”

“We were worried about any breeze that could bring it down,” Cobb said.

The task of finding out how many were buried began by collaring the injured outside for information. Other firefighters visited hospitals to talk to the injured transported there. Were they missing anyone? Was somebody delivering mail that day?

“Someone might tell you, ‘I was at my desk when the UPS guy came in to deliver,’” Petrocelli said. “We have to make sure we don’t miss anybody. We try to cut those chances.”

Commanders kept watch outside on dangling debris as rescuers ventured into the building. Helping them was the New York City Specialized Collapse Unit and search dogs trained to scratch and bark when they locate a survivor in the rubble.

First, they removed what they call “surface survivors,” or those easily seen and the injured who made it outside. Because it was a holiday, students who usually attend secretarial classes in the building weren’t there. “If they had been there, they wouldn’t have had a chance,” said Drennan.

Within an hour, the men knew at least six people were in the building. They pulled out four. They knew there were two left.

“As you sift through the rubble, there’s this eerie feeling,” said Capt. Stephan Drennan. “You want to find people but you’re hoping no one is in there. And if they are, that they are not dead.”

Stephan Drennan was pulling up to the scene just as two firefighters were carrying out a 4-year-old child. The firefighters, Wayne Dombrowski and John Cariero, had raised the little girl’s head out of six inches of water caused by flooding from broken sprinklers and broken water pipes.

The girl suffered a broken leg. But her mother, who had tried to free her baby, was still in the basement.

“We realized we could not get at survivors from the top because debris would keep falling down,” said Stephan Drennan. So they descended the dark, 25 or 30 basement steps with torches and began gingerly removing the debris, brick by brick, with their hands.

“We used laundry baskets from the store to put the bricks in because our buckets weren’t enough,” Cobb said.

They were searching for “void spaces” where people could be trapped. “Every once in a while, we’d open a space and let the dogs go in. If they stopped and scratched or barked, we’d go to that area and start digging, brick by brick,” Cobb said.

One of the firefighters heard a murmur, which turned out to be not the mother but a 34-year-old woman. Using a power saw to cut through metal, they followed her cries to an open space where they found her critically injured, her lower body pinned and her pelvis fractured.

“She was wedged between the basement and the first floor, screaming for someone to get her out. The safest way was to take her from the first floor,” Stephan Drennan said.

From 2:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. they dug on their knees and pulled those trapped to safety, including the mother of the child. By the time it was over, 10 people were taken to Jersey City Medical Center, including a pregnant woman and two children. In all, 18 had been injured – but were alive.

Despite the arduous and nerve-racking work, some firefighters refused to take a break. They were working against the clock and every minute counted.

“You see something has to be done and your energy level goes up, but people need help and that’s what you’re there for – to help them,” said Petrocelli.

The 20-member heavy rescue unit is one of the more – if not the most – versatile in the state. Besides firefighting and accident extrications, they do rescues in the water, from high-rises and bridges, and save people trapped in industrial tanks, sewer pipes, and electrical tunnels.

When they returned to headquarters, the men were exhausted. Some talked with new admiration for firefighters who helped rescue people from the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. This didn’t compare to it, but it was hard.

“When you hear people are trapped, you push it up a notch,” said Petrocelli. “You love the work because the unpredictable challenges, although dangerous, are exciting. And saving lives feels really good.”

Article CJ70626527

SwankyJohn on January 30, 2004 at 12:32 pm

If I’m not mistaken, the State Theater was empty for a number of years. There were no seats in the orchestra and much of the space had been stripped and altered for rock concerts venues. There was some talk of the theater having some kind of future but a few years ago the ceiling caved in due to disrepair and basically made the building impossible to save. They are currently building something in place of the theater – I have no idea if they intend to include a performing space of some sort – I would be surprised if they do.