Loew's Jersey Theatre
54 Journal Square,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
54 Journal Square,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
98 people
favorited this theater
Showing 551 - 575 of 1,501 comments
I was out at the Loew’s for the FLESH AND THE DEVIL and things went pretty well. I’ve attended screenings here, off an on, since ‘01. I hadn’t been to a screening since November '06 and this screening seemed to be the most well-attended that I’ve been at. There was a big crowd on hand. Part of the reason for the big crowd, in addition to people like me tbere to see the film, were people affiliated with the Organ Society of New Jersey.
The bad news was the lime rickey machine at the luncheonette next was out of commission and I couldn’t get my lime rickey fix.
At the end of the month, the silent PHANTOM OF THE OPERA will also be screening.
How did the Wonder Weekend go? I know Dennis James was playing the Saturday night movie (we had him at the Lafayette a few years ago and he was terrific).
Ralph Ringstadt is at it again! Some more great videos of his performances at the Jersey are on YouTube. Just search on “ralph ringstadt” at Youtube to find five more video performances.
Loew’s Wonder Weekend…
http://loewsjersey.org/content/view/57/
http://www.gstos.org/ww/
The Loew’s Jersey organ will be rededicated from October 3 through 5.
As a part of the Weekend, “Flesh and the Devil” with Greta Garbo will be shown on the 50 foot wide screen with theatre organ accompaniment.
So be there or be square (Journal “Square”… Get it? Groan…“).
Seriously, this will be a truly historical musical event, and a great show. Don’t miss it.
The 2008-2009 classic film season opens with a weekend featuring one of my personal favorites – sultry cabaret singer and glam actress Marlene Dietrich!
26 Sept. (Friday)
8 p.m.: “Der Blaue Engel†(“The Blue Angelâ€) (1930, 1:46)
27 Sept. (Saturday)
7 p.m.: “Shanghai Express†(1932, 1:20)
9 p.m.: “Destry Rides Again†(1939, 1:34)
Gee, I wonder who was there at 9 A.M. for the first showing?!? Thanks.
I think in this instance the A & C is for Abbott & Costello. “A & C meet Frankenstein” sort of gives it away.
Based on swampdevil’s comment I gather that Bob Furmanek is an Abbott & Costello buff.
Swampdevil, what’s “A & C”? arthouse & classic films? or perhaps you’d explain what the abbreviation stands for………
What theatre in NYC was it that “A&C meet Frankenstein” premiered at back in, I think, 1948? I believe I’ve seen a photo of Karloff outside the theatre pointing at the poster.
Bobs knowledge and contributions to cinema treasures are second to none.Plus, being a A & C buff automatically certifies him as a cool guy.But…he never lets a chance go by to take a dig at the FOL!!
Let it go…….
Yep, that’s the room I was wondering about. Thanks for all of your great answers.
A little commentary on what it used to be like to go to the movies (and still is at the Loew’s Jersey)…
“It was a beautiful thing” and it was (warning: just a little off color language here and he sounds like my Dad; but this gentleman expresses exactly how I feel about it). I’m sure we can all agree with him…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJHIsRW42m4
GabeDF: Hmmm…. the left front space? Do you mean the office that’s tucked away behind the left ticket booth in the outer lobby that Friends of the Loews now uses? If so, it was a store originally. Most movie palaces has retail stores on the outside theatre frontage to generate additional income. Being that it was on such an odd shaped lot, the architects could only fit one little corner store in. It was a little luncheonette that sold cigars. (I think United was the brand???) Actually, if you look up in the photo of the Jersey at the top of this page… you can JUST BARELY see the word “United” above the storefront in the picture. Next to it is the word (which you can’t see) “Cigars”. The letters and frames, as well as the double doors to this store are down in the Female Usher’s Room, in the never-built lounge section.
The store, after it closed, has had a change-around. The area is split by a wall, and the Jersey city Police have a little substation there. The Friends of the Loews share the side closest to the theatre, and for access, they made an accessway through one of the little ticket booths, which is to the left as you walk in. The “management office” is quite tiny with 5 computer stations… one of those cubicle-type affairs.
And now… the “Has-To-Be-Said” Department:
Some of you have read comments posted by Bob Furmanek regarding the Loew’s Jersey, and may be wondering why, since his first post on Sept 24, 2004 (!!), it seems like he is poo-pooing the theatre with trivial posts, such as “when I was in charge of programming… things were SO MUCH BETTER…” Take some time to look back and check out all of the posts. As you can imagine, there WAS a disagreement between the Friends of the Loews and Mr. Furmanek. The latter chose to leave on his own accord. (Hey, these things happen in life, don’t they?) In the time that Mr. Furmanek has left, much work has been accomplished on the theatre, mostly backstage to bring in concert performers. (revamped dressing rooms, and the installation of two showers. Can you believe the Loews Jersey was built with one… ONE…. shower for all the performers???) Now, mind you… I’ve been a good boy for the past FOUR years, quietly reading Mr. Furmanek’s posts, but it DOES get tiring, reading how… “he doesn’t know how many people were in attendance at the movie this past Friday… but when HE was in charge… WOO-HOO… there just HAD to be more people there.
Now, to be fair, not ALL of his posts contain something negative, and some don’t even contain the letter “I”, as in referring to how “he did something” when he was there. This is refreshing… a nice POSITIVE contribution to these boards. Nothing political in nature, or one-sided.
We still love Bob, and think he’s a great guy… Will he ever be placed back in charge of film programming…. most likely not. Why? The easiest way to describe the reason can be summed up in his own words. His posting here on December 10th, 2004 at 9:54 AM can be taken BOTH ways.
Love ya, Bob… but it’s been almost 5 years now. Let it go, huh?
Really, a sink isn’t too much to ask for.
Maharmusic: thanks for looking at the blueprints. You’re right, that was the Assistant Manager’s Office on the 1st floor.
I suppose that the people of the 1920s were in better shape than we generally are today. Or at least they developed the stamina of a mountain climber by climbing up all those steps every day.
Speaking of the fancy office on the left front side, orchestra floor — what was in that space originally? I’m going to guess and say a lounge for the ticket booth girls? or was the Assistant Manager’s office a suite?
God bless that wife of the Hartz executive in giving something back to the theatre. Some people have a conscience.
I clearly remember the theatre before 1974. It was in remarkably good condition and still felt and looked completely/totally like a 1920s movie palace. Yes, it was a little dusty in the higher reaches and somewhat dimly lit, but it was cared for. Someone really cared about that place in the 1960s/early 1970s — much as we do today.
And folk’s if you took something from the theatre in 1974 or 1986, please have the decency to return it to where it belongs.
Has there every been any thought to decorating the theatre with new or reproduction items? It’s just a thought of mine, but why can’t they put a cheap, fake, yet convincing painting in that place against the lobby wall with a red sheet over it (the middle wall between the two auditorium entrances)? It would look better than a red sheet.
Are there any plans to restore the plasterwork and the to paint the interior. It has always been my feeling, that if they just restored one section of the lobby wall (between a set of columns) that it would “sell” complete restoration of the theatre; because I suspect that most people are unaware of just how beautiful it originally was. Yet one red and worn damask wall panel should be left as it is now, in remembrance of the theatre’s long history.
I’m sorry, but if they can afford a nice management office, surely they can afford to do a little more decorating in the public rooms? In my opinion, of course.
Mahermusic said “I hate going down two flights to the mezzanine bathroom to wash up after working up there!”
Boy, in 2001 when we got the booth operating and presented the first 35mm shows, management promised they would replace the broken sink in the booth level bathroom – the one at the end of the hall.
It’s 7 years later and management still hasn’t replaced that sink??!! You get dirty working with carbon arc. Tell ‘em to stop spending money on their comfy office downstairs and take care of the poor volunteer film operators! :)
Nope… no elevator. Never mind the people walking up there… think of the poor kids that had to schlep the film cans up to the projection room! And the projectors… when they came in, had to be CARRIED up to the projection room up the grand staircase. Insane? Yes!… but it had to be done.
The elevator wasn’t something that was originally planned, and then slashed due to cost-cutting in May of 1928…. (we’d know because it would be in the blueprints…) it was just never planned.
More neat Jersey trivia: it was the Assistant Manager’s office on the Orchestra floor, right next to the grand staircase, that was turned into an ADA restroom. The Manager’s office was on the 2nd floor promenade. Behind the wall in the Assistant Manager’s office, a large walk-in safe was covered over with sheetrock. That’s where all the 35-cent admissions were kept until a run to the bank!
Whoops… I believe I made a mistake. I think it was the St. George that was brazenly stolen from the Paradise tower clock… is this correct?
Pjacyk: You’d almost think there would have to be an elevator. Did you every try to climb from the main lobby floor all the way up to the top level of the balcony? Even more so when you consider that a lower level lounge was planned but never built. That’s close to 100 feet of stair climbing. There must have been an elevator. Last time I was there I remember seeing the 1929 telephone booths (with glass inlaid wooden doors) and what looks to me like a 2nd coat check room on the mezzanine level. They’re on the right (next to the only restrooms—except for that new one on the orchestra floor, in the old Manager’s Office, which is just wonderful) as you come up the grand staircase on the left. It’s hard to describe the place in writing or even in photos. It is best to see it in person.
Nope, no elevator was ever built in the Jersey, but there are elevators in some of the other Wonder Theatres. (BTW – no luck on the heights. The blueprints I have don’t show that info.)
I believe there were possibly two times when decorative items were moved from the theatre. The first was when they triplexed the theatre in the 70’s. I believe we lost the three chandeliers in the Musician’s Gallery, and possibly water fountains, among other items…
The second was when Hartz Mountain (the owners of the Jersey when it closed in 1986) readied the theatre for demolition, and some higher-level employees (so the story goes) removed light fixtures, the two giant mirrors in frames that were alongside the entrance to the orchestra sections, original lighting fixtures in the auditorium, paintings, etc.
Colin Egan, the DIrector of the theatre, actually received a fixture back from the wife of a Hartz Executive, who, after reading that the theatre WASN’T falling to the wrecking ball, wanted to give it back, and had it dropped off at the theatre one day!
Now, if the REST of the items could find their way back… that would be great!
(Think of the Loews Paradise, and their St. George and the Dragon mechanical tower clock, identical to the one installed here at the Jersey. Someone actually got up to the Paradise clock cupola and STOLE the dragon!!!. Folks, this would not have been an easy thing to do… a sculpted copper dragon… some people are so brazen.)
GabeDF,
Brenographs are still there, and film vault as well.
The whole Projection “suite” has 5 rooms: Projection room, Battery room, Rewind room, Supply room and the Rheostat room.
I don’t know where the splicing was done. On the actual blueprints, there is a “rewind table” in the rewind room.
Let me pull down the blueprints (they’re quite large and unwieldy.) I’ll see if I can find out the heights on the Grand Lobby and Auditorium… gimme a few minutes.
Do the blueprints show anything about an elevator? I thought I saw one in there someplace once.
I guesstimate that the auditorium is about 80 feet tall, but I could be wrong. The lobby looks to be about 60 feet tall and the columns in the lobby are probably somewhere around 45 feet tall. The Music Gallery is about 30 feet tall, I think. Just a guess. Come to think of it, my childhood theatre is a full-fledged movie palace, isn’t it? One tends to forget things like that when they are so familiar with the place.
I do remember the days when the lobby promenade was cut off by walls and you were restricted to just the mezzanine lobby. I also remember how hard they tried to keep the place up in the 1970s/1980s before it closed.
I also clearly remember an oil painting just before the right side staircase on the right side wall. It was of a maiden. The painting always fascinated me. If I’m not mistaken it was one of the items that was kept after the 1974 “renovation.” It’s gone now. Don’t know where it went.
AND there was an exquisite bronze dome above the ticket booth outside the theatre. That got stripped off at some time after it closed. I wonder who has it? Anyway, wouldn’t it be fairly easy to create a fake bronze dome above the ticket booth (kind of like the new fake bronze tickets booths in Radio City?)
Mahermusic. I remember seeing that sink, on the way up to the projection room. I always thought it worked. Hmm, getting it to work could take some time. How many miles of pipe would need to be looked at?! (–; I know just how much of a climb it is up to that projection booth—two flights from the mezzanine (2nd level?, I called that floor the main balcony floor. I think that the mezzanine (loges) floor is a whole level below that 2nd balcony level). Anyway, how hard could that be to climb a few stairs? Don’t ask until you’ve tried it! (–; I’ve been up there three times so far—twice on my own, and once with a friend from Texas who had to see the Vitaphone projector. Very glad to hear that the window was repaired. The Brenographs are still there I assume; and the film vault on the right side? Isn’t there a separate splicing room as well, or was that done in the vault? It’s been awhile since I’ve been up there.
“The Apartment” played by Tom Hoehn, on the Balfour/Martin Morton “Wonder” Organ (inside the Loew’s Jersey) — a minor earthquake, but a beautiful one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmbJZ5JGgjg
I’m sure it can be heard from every single room in the theatre? and even outside of it too!
No worries about broken windows in the Publicity Room… it was repaired going on two years now… All is good now, and the room has been clean! (Now, if we could only get that sink down at the end of the room to work!!! I hate going down two flights to the mezzanine bathroom to wash up after working up there!)
Thanks so much, Mahermusic. Your answers make me love the Loew’s Jersey even more (if that’s possible). It upsets me that there is a broken window and that the birds are getting in again. I hope they aren’t getting into the projection room. So I’m not nuts for thinking that the Lower Lounge could one day be built?! I love the idea of the big compressors being dumped in the depths of the building. Even backstage, it is quite a building. I have been backstage, but didn’t see much of it. I remember seeing the organ blower room, as well as maze of corridors and doors going who knows where. Bob deserves the honor of having the 1,000th comment for this truly great American theatre.
Ahh… yes, Bob is correct. “Publicity Room” is on the actual blueprints.