Loew's Jersey Theatre
54 Journal Square,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
54 Journal Square,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
98 people
favorited this theater
Showing 526 - 550 of 1,509 comments
Sure had a great time at the Wonder Morton organ shows. A very happy and relaxing weekend trip. Drove all the way from Ohio. Can hardly wait to get back there again for another organ show.
Here are some pictures of the weekend’s events, Wonder Morton, Loew’s Theatre and people.
http://www.gstos.org/ww/ww-event-photos.htm
Lighting under the balcony is reached by a ladder. Lighting on the top is reached by the catwalks, which encircle the coves. Little metal circles (we call them pie plates) are taken off to reach in to the sockets.
Instead of “catwalk” I meant to say “gridiron.” Has anyone been up there? Just curious. I’m not going up there.
You’re a brave man, Bob. I wouldn’t dare do what you did. I’m afraid of gaping holes, especially when I don’t know how deep they are. I know the lights you are talking about. Their cleaning and restoration did a lot to bring out the beauty of the front upper side walls. Until they were on, I never noticed that “clam shell” effect in the walls. It also brings out that “jeweled” curtain in front of the organ chamber. When are they going to put the left side “jeweled” curtain back up? I hope it is somewhere safe and sound. It has to be 100 feet high at least.
AND…how on earth do they change the lightbulbs in the main dome in the auditorium? Scaffold or through a little door way up high? Either way, the prospect terrifies me.
The most amazing vertigo inducing place I know of in the Loew’s is the “endless” and open flights of stairs to the stage catwalk.
You hit the nail on the head, Bruce: “Everyone should thank there lucky stars that they have a huge movie palace such as the Loew’s Jersey showing American movie classics.”
I know things are not always perfect and yes people who run the Jersey should listen and improve on the projection of its films. Everyone should thank there lucky stars that they have a huge movie palace such as the Loew’s Jersey showing American movie classics. Most people who love movies would kill to have a theatre like this where they live.I hope a good deal of money comes there way and they continue to restore such a glorious theatre.brucec
I hope the people at the Loew’s read this.
When I have mentioned these things in the past they look at me like I am out of my mind. They are very protective of the place and who can blame them.
I just wish as an audience member you could mention things to them and they did not start to bristle.
I have given up on complaining about the focus. And I am sure if I spoke to them about the problems with Flesh and the Devil I would have been banned from the theater for life. Thank God for anonymity on these sites! As well if I were on the staff and noted these issues I would be considered a troublemaker and I am not joking.
What Collin has done is truly amazing in fact it is downright astonishing. But he does remind me of that line in Funny Girl where Walter Pidgeon says to Streisand “this is my theater,” and she responds, “so nobody argues with the landlord?”
Allow me to share a story about lighting in the Jersey.
About 7 years ago, Bob Eberenz and I were tracing out speaker lines in the catwalks above the theater. I noticed two ladders that went down on either side of the auditorium into total darkness. Armed with a flashlight and a prayer, I descended the ladder not sure what I would find. About 20 feet down, I found myself behind the side wall on the top of the organ chamber. Looking into the tiny access space, I spotted ancient light bulbs. None of them were working. Nobody was even aware that lighting existed in that particular area of the auditorium!
So I climbed back up and armed myself with a dozen 100 watt bulbs. With one hand holding the ladder and another holding the bulb, I reached as far as I could into the little space and began changing the bulbs. One by one, they lit and I could see how much light they were throwing onto the area. All went well until one of the sockets had a bad circuit and sparked. It scared the heck out of me and it was a good thing I had a strong grip on the ladder. There was a good ten feet between me and the side wall, and the area below me descended into total darkness. I’m not sure how long the drop was and I certainly didn’t want to find out!
When I got back to the projection booth, I was absolutely pitch black from all the dirt. Thank goodness I had worn a protective mask, but my nostrils were still full of black soot.
But the payoff when I got to the orchestra level was worth it. There for the first time in probably 50 years, was lighting above the side chambers throwing a warm glow onto the ornate walls above them. That lighting is still working today. Check it out the next time you are there.
My point to this story is not to take credit for some achievement in the theater (and I hope my use of the first person is not offensive) but to illustrate that the lighting you are seeing now is greatly minimized from what originally existed. When all of the balcony rail lights and side wall lighting is restored, and all the cove and dome lighting is replaced, you will see the beautiful architecture in this magnificent theater come to life once again!
The good comments about the “Flesh and the Devil” show surprise me! What ARE you guys talking about? “Good projection”?
I went to Loew’s Jersey for the first time in a while for that show and the projection STUNK as it usually does! Always out of focus, always bad adjustment on the lamp houses,and lord help you if it’s in widescreen- always out of frame!
One time, I remember they ran “Ben Hur”, with almost EVERY reel change out of frame. How embarrassing! Doesn’t the staff even care?
I’m not a professional projectionist, but I think it’s time the Loew’s got a new projectionist staff.
Suffern is a great place to see a film, and I’d like to shake the projectionist’s hand there for such a great job, but it’s so gosh darn hard to get to from NYC.
On the up side, Dennis James played well though and the film was very good.
To Bob F.: I remember the constant radio communication between the orchestra tech and the projectionist. I don’t know if that is still done, but I suspect that it is. It was certainly done for the Loew’s Wonder Weekend this last weekend.
Imagine a movie house so big that you need radio communication and or binoculars to check on the quality of the presentation! The projection booth is 180 feet from the screen. That is much too far to judge things from the booth.
If you look at the 1929 lighting board, they had intercom communication in the old days in order to constantly monitor the presentation.
Saps, Yes I know of the Lafeyette Theatre. I haven’t been there, but I will go someday. The Byrd Theatre also intrigues me. The Union County Arts Center (aka Rahway (NJ) Theatre also does it, but the screen is certainly not 50 feet wide, and the organ is 7 ranks vs. 23 ranks, and the theatre seats 1,500. The Loew’s Jersey seats (someday) 1,800 in the balcony alone. I can only think of the quotation from Marcus Loew, “We sell tickets to theatres, not movies.” An interesting survey would ask the question, “did you come to the Loew’s Jersey to see the theatre, the movie, or both?” I am perfectly happy to pay ½ the admission fee to just see the theatre, in my opinion.
There’s a place in Suffern, NY, I believe…
I agree with MBD, in general, I find the presentations of classic films to be outstanding at the Loew’s. I come back again and again, and I usually say “so that’s what the movie is supposed to look like.” Seeing a classic movie on TV and where it was meant to be presented are two VERY different things. A classic film presentation on a 50 foot wide screen in a real movie palace is almost more than we can ask for in 2008. Does anyone know of any other movie palaces that do this on a regular basis? and I’ll qualify it and say, on a 50 foot screen with a live pipe organ pre-quel concert—just like in the good old days?
Thanks, Peter and Movie for answering my projection question. Now I have a question related to the lighting of the auditorium. It looks like all of the lighting in the auditorium has been restored, so my question is, why is it still so dark in the auditorium? Are the lights used at the same wattage as they were in the 1920s-1940s or are they dim lights? Also, there was to have been (back in ‘29) a chandelier in the auditorium, but that never happened. I would think that would brighten things up quite a bit. Of course, the walls are much darker now than they originally were, so I imagine that has an effect too. Yet another dream of mine is to someday see the auditorium in all its glorious shiny gold, cream and red. As it is now, it does not look gold or cream or red—but what a space!!!
I can’t speak to what happened last Saturday during Flesh and The Devil, as I was not there. I am the volunteer projectionist for most of the Friday shows, and I have been running projectors for over 30 years. Please let me clarify some misconceptions.
First, the Loews Jersey is running carbon arc lamps (Ashcraft Super-Corelites for those who care) and presently runs 20 minute reels. Because of this, there is ALWAYS a projectionist in the projection room.
Second, as someone pointed out, from the back of the theatre and the projection room, the movies always look to be in focus. Because of this, we use binoculars to focus.
Third, because of the distance from the projector to the screen, and the size of the screen, any lab printing focus imperfections in the film look terrible. If a reel, or a scene is printed out of focus, there is nothing we can do to compensate for it, and if the focus shifts between scenes in a given reel, it is the film print.
That being said, of course and occasional screwup can happen, but they are the exception not the rule. Everyone involved in Friends Of The Loews wants you to enjoy your visit, and of course, come back.
movie534, your earlier response about an out-of-focus complaint reminded me of my main pet peeve: when a comment about focus is made, the projectionist shouldn’t just look at the screen and determine it’s in focus – he should go to the booth and re-focus the lens to make sure it’s as sharp as possible. I usually sit in the 10th row, and it looks different between the 10th row and the last row. The best way to focus is during the credits, when there is writing on the screen and there is less room for interpretation.
One thing that really irritates me is when I tell an usher that the picture is out of focus, he will invariably go into the theater and check for himself first. It takes every ounce of self-control for me NOT to say, listen, fuckwad, I’ve been going to the movies for 40 years and I know when it’s out of focus!
You beat me to it Peter. I remember in the late 70’s, some of the old grindhouses I worked at did not cut the apertures on the keystone, and wow, our image would be 3 feet over on the bottom of the side maskings. If the Ritz in Elizabeth ever gets sold, and gets going, that is one place that will have a heck of a keystone.
It’s an illusion. The screen masking is a correct rectangle, but the aperture plates in the projector are cut in a keystoned pattern which would project as a perfect rectangle from that high angle. You can see that the image is actually wider at the bottom when the end credits roll, especially if they go from side to side. The image is actually being cropped slightly on left and rights sides, varying from a tiny bit at the top to a bit more at the bottom. Most of the time, it’s not noticeable.
Question about projection: The projectors in the Loew’s Jersey are set at about a 20 degree angle in order to reach the screen properly (180 feet away and I would guess about 70 feet lower). Why is it that the image on the screen isn’t distorted? One would think it would be wider at the bottom than the top—is that correct? The current projectionist said they do nothing to correct for distortion, and I haven’t seen a mention of it on this website—out of focus, problems with the reels—yes; but nothing about angle distortion. What am I missing if anything?
Agreed! However, on another issue that I see commented on regularly on CT: I went to see Bill Maher’s Religulous last Saturday night. It was virtually a full house. The commercials had ended and the lights went down and then the screen went blank.
In the old days, when there was a projectionist, the audience would know that the someone was aware of it since there WAS a projectionist. Not today. The screen sat there for at least 5 minutes. Everyone in the theater was waiting for someone (preferably close to the exit) to go tell the ticket take (or someone) that there was a problem. Eventually, someone did. Net result: No previews……It went direct to the film! WooHoo!
You know LuisV, its also true that what one sees, another may not. I know in the multiplex I work in, sometimes the manager comes up and says “the picture in theatre 7 is blurry.” I’ll go take a look only to find its in focus. So whos right, and whos wrong. No one.
You’re right Macbear, I don’t believe 99% of the public have any issue with focus at the theater. I have been going to the movies for about 40 years and I have NEVER sat in a theater and said to myself “this is out of focus”! Yet, many posters on CT complain about it. Since you are in the business, you obviously have a much more exacting eye (as you should) and, as professionals, we should all try to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. Having said that, my untrained eye doesn’t have a problem with focussing at the theaters that I attend and that makes me happy because otherwise it would drive me bananas!
In response to you macbear, and I am not picking on you or anything, but you must realize this, in the case of Loew’s Jersey, they use volunteers, some of which learned to operate projectors on the job, not from a trained person like me. In the case of the Ziegfeld, lets just say its cablevision, and leave it at that. As far as BAM, I have never been there. You also must remember that the projection equipment in use is old, and in some cases parts are not even made anymore. I know this was the case when I was attempting to restore the booth at the Ritz in Elizabeth, N.J. And as you said, film companies are not striking any new 35MM prints, because they all want digital, and this is how they will force everyone to get it.
Not to be a shrill male harpie- I’ve posted about focus at this theater before- I always find this theater fascinating and I attended several films here several years ago like Great Escape, Patton, Godfather 2, American Graffiti, Mad Mad World. Unfortunately they did tend to be a little or more than a bit out of focus, I politely told the lobby volunteers a number of times but the focus never improved. I also find this to be a problem at the Ziegfeld. After noticing focus in the last 5 or 10 yrs I’ve come to the conclusion that most projectionists in the NY area, or maybe everywhere, either can’t tell or aren’t bothered that they’re projecting at least slightly out of focus. (true also at Suffern’s Lafayette when they showed The Haunting a year ago). BAM Cinematek is the worst imo. Most people are just blessed that they don’t notice (audience members that is). Also, more often than not the prints I saw at the Jersey were faded or beat up, no offense intended.
Following the Loew’s Wonder Weekend…
~~EPIPHANY~~
Please, dear lord, take me back to the 1920’s. The 2000’s are far to barbaric for me.
Re: Marquee underlighting
Those were installed sometime in late spring 2008, I believe for a Verizon commercial shoot. The company was gracious enough to provide funding for the restoration, and the theatre got to keep them as a permanent fixture. They really are a beautiful enhancement.
Hopefully, some other generous party will come along to help complete the marquee’s restoration, returning it to its original pre-1949 appearance.