Mike I only wish I had the photos I saw in a family encyclopedia I had as a boy which were under the heading of ballet. I believe you bought them volume by volume from the A and P.
Also the company Impact Photos I believe it was called had photos in one of the outside vetrines of the Music Hall of past stage shows(by the 70s this was far in the past)which were pretty impressive.
The most spectacular stage show I saw was the ‘69 Christmas show which started with The Nativity(very Catholic Renaissance unlike today’s more reformed Christian take)and ended with I kid you not the launch of Apollo 11 and its’ landing on the moon with a guy as Neil Armstrong coming out of the spacecraft and planting the American flag on the lunar surface.
How they managed to tie this into a grand Christmas finale was ingenious. Such was the theatrical showmanship of the old days.
City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill offered a statement later calling the judge’s decision “a loss for residents.”
“Instead of the possibility of daily events with global talent coming to Jersey City, this instead guarantees the theater will sit as is with only sporadic silent movies, even less frequent concerts, no air conditioning and no ability of the group to complete the restoration,” Morrill said. “It is upsetting because the most important thing to the FOL was protecting their own personal salaries and fiefdom, despite the fact they can’t complete the repairs after 25 years.”
Her lack of knowledge(to put it very very kindly indeed) about what the Friends of the Loew’s has meant to Jersey City and her ugly swipe concerning those running it is appalling.
This woman owes a big apology to those who have a commitment to this city and this theater which is beyond her comprehension. The fact that she would accuse anyone else of protecting their own salary is beyond rich.
That seems curious as the Music Hall disbanded its' ballet company 4 years earlier and it was not in existence when the Music Hall ended its' film/stage show format.
This was especially unfortunate as the ballet company was the ensemble on which the Music Halls spectacles were built such as Rhapsody in Blue, Bolero and the Undersea Ballet.
I remember many years ago seeing color photos of Music Hall stage shows from the 50s and they really were something. I wish somebody would find them and post them.
By the 70s when I was going and especially after the ballet company was dismissed the stage shows were incredibly amateurish, cheap looking and embarrassing. The curtain opening kept getting smaller and smaller doing little to disguise the fact that the sets were puny and there were few people on stage. Even the Rockettes were reduced to 30!
Even when films still had limited engagements the Music Hall got the leftovers which were from hunger. Why didn’t the Hall get films like The Way We Were, Murder on the Orient Express or That’s Entertainment? Because the studios no longer wanted their films to open there. Seeing stuff on the great screen like The Girl from Petrovka and Hennesy was mortifying.
I would like to know the name of the spokesperson who questions the motives of the paid staff of the Loew’s while earning their salary off the taxpayers as a government flunkey who is so ill informed that at best they are repeating the party line and at worst questioning the ethics of individuals who with great dedication have fought for many years to save this jewel in the New Jersey crown.
This is a person who knows nothing of their struggles and achievements yet with the typical hot air of one who claims authority while knowing little of their subject speaks only for those who wish to exploit the efforts of so many years of the Friends of the Loew’s for personal financial gain.
This same individual 25 years ago would have happily witnessed the destruction of this great building crowing eagerly about what a great boon to the economy a large, ugly, soulless office building would be.
I’d like to thank the individual who posted the covers of the souvenir programs of the roadshow attractions that played at The Criterion during its' heyday in the 50s and 60s. Unfortunately I was too young to go Times Square during this era. By the time I was old enough this great prestigious movie house was reduced to showing horror and exploitation films. All the more astonishing because the nearby Loew’s State and Astor Plaza were still getting top Hollywood films. I would be curious to know why the management of this beautiful theater couldn’t get top product and drove it into the ground. Its multiplexing was horribly done and heartbreaking.
Mike I only wish I had the photos I saw in a family encyclopedia I had as a boy which were under the heading of ballet. I believe you bought them volume by volume from the A and P.
Also the company Impact Photos I believe it was called had photos in one of the outside vetrines of the Music Hall of past stage shows(by the 70s this was far in the past)which were pretty impressive.
The most spectacular stage show I saw was the ‘69 Christmas show which started with The Nativity(very Catholic Renaissance unlike today’s more reformed Christian take)and ended with I kid you not the launch of Apollo 11 and its’ landing on the moon with a guy as Neil Armstrong coming out of the spacecraft and planting the American flag on the lunar surface. How they managed to tie this into a grand Christmas finale was ingenious. Such was the theatrical showmanship of the old days.
City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill offered a statement later calling the judge’s decision “a loss for residents.”
“Instead of the possibility of daily events with global talent coming to Jersey City, this instead guarantees the theater will sit as is with only sporadic silent movies, even less frequent concerts, no air conditioning and no ability of the group to complete the restoration,” Morrill said. “It is upsetting because the most important thing to the FOL was protecting their own personal salaries and fiefdom, despite the fact they can’t complete the repairs after 25 years.”
Her lack of knowledge(to put it very very kindly indeed) about what the Friends of the Loew’s has meant to Jersey City and her ugly swipe concerning those running it is appalling.
This woman owes a big apology to those who have a commitment to this city and this theater which is beyond her comprehension. The fact that she would accuse anyone else of protecting their own salary is beyond rich.
That seems curious as the Music Hall disbanded its' ballet company 4 years earlier and it was not in existence when the Music Hall ended its' film/stage show format.
This was especially unfortunate as the ballet company was the ensemble on which the Music Halls spectacles were built such as Rhapsody in Blue, Bolero and the Undersea Ballet.
I remember many years ago seeing color photos of Music Hall stage shows from the 50s and they really were something. I wish somebody would find them and post them.
By the 70s when I was going and especially after the ballet company was dismissed the stage shows were incredibly amateurish, cheap looking and embarrassing. The curtain opening kept getting smaller and smaller doing little to disguise the fact that the sets were puny and there were few people on stage. Even the Rockettes were reduced to 30!
Even when films still had limited engagements the Music Hall got the leftovers which were from hunger. Why didn’t the Hall get films like The Way We Were, Murder on the Orient Express or That’s Entertainment? Because the studios no longer wanted their films to open there. Seeing stuff on the great screen like The Girl from Petrovka and Hennesy was mortifying.
I would like to know the name of the spokesperson who questions the motives of the paid staff of the Loew’s while earning their salary off the taxpayers as a government flunkey who is so ill informed that at best they are repeating the party line and at worst questioning the ethics of individuals who with great dedication have fought for many years to save this jewel in the New Jersey crown.
This is a person who knows nothing of their struggles and achievements yet with the typical hot air of one who claims authority while knowing little of their subject speaks only for those who wish to exploit the efforts of so many years of the Friends of the Loew’s for personal financial gain. This same individual 25 years ago would have happily witnessed the destruction of this great building crowing eagerly about what a great boon to the economy a large, ugly, soulless office building would be.
I’d like to thank the individual who posted the covers of the souvenir programs of the roadshow attractions that played at The Criterion during its' heyday in the 50s and 60s. Unfortunately I was too young to go Times Square during this era. By the time I was old enough this great prestigious movie house was reduced to showing horror and exploitation films. All the more astonishing because the nearby Loew’s State and Astor Plaza were still getting top Hollywood films. I would be curious to know why the management of this beautiful theater couldn’t get top product and drove it into the ground. Its multiplexing was horribly done and heartbreaking.