Loew's Jersey Theatre
54 Journal Square,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
54 Journal Square,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
98 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1,326 - 1,350 of 1,501 comments
The Loew’s Jersey closed on Thursday, August 21, 1986.
I don’t have the latest GWTW DVD, I keep meaning to buy it. What I was basing my post on was the latest Meet Me In St Louis. Does anyone who has worked with real IB Tech prints knopw what Im referring to?
I was Head Projectionist at Radio City in 1989 when we did the 50th Anniversary screenings of GWTW. The two prints we had were full 1.37 aspect ratio prints, one of which had been pulled two points lighter (as was common) for Radio City projection. Unfortunately, that print had an optical stereo track, and everyone from MOMA and the West Coast felt the mono track simply sounded better than the stereo track run in mono, which we decided to do for the sake of authenticity. The color balance was slightly different on that print as it was done for a video transfer, but we put the same reel up from both prints and ran them together with “split” aperture plates, so the pictures could be compared directly side by side. They actually were very close, and of course used the full 1.37 frame without the necessity for deanamorphosis.
I saw GWTW at Radio City in 1989 when they had a special 50th anniversary event. I could swear that print looked better then this 1999 “restored” print.
This site which says its the official GWTW makes a big deal that the film is being re-released (1999) in the best color in the last 35 years.
View link
Mike: the Loew’s officially closed in 1986. Here is the theater history page from their website:
http://www.loewsjersey.org/history/index.php
The Stanley no longer shows movies but you can take a tour of the theater, which has been fully restored by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The State, sadly, no longer exists. In its place is a high-rise apartment/office building which hasn’t opened yet. The State is the one I went to the most when I was a kid in the 1960’s (they got all the Disney movies).
When did this theater close? I lived in Jersey City for about a month in May of 77. That was the time that the RKO Stanley closed. I never got to go to either theater. The only theater I went to was the State.
Is that true? Color is being toned down in
DVD’s? That would be insane!
It’s sad that Gone With the Wind the greatest film of all time(in my humble opinion anyways) has to be shown in less them 100% form. With so many of the Technicolor films even the DVD, the color tends to be adjusted to look more realistic. The trouble is they were made to have that dreamy saturated look. A perfect example is Meet Me In St Louis. The new DVD transfer is pristine but the colors have been toned down to a more modern look.
Ben Hur was a perfect Saurday night film. Thank God Rocky was shown in the afternoon. One of those what was Oscar thinking best pictures.
Pete’s right – there’s no exit music in “Ben-Hur”. Besides, the exultant music Miklos Rozsa composed for the final shots and the end title card couldn’t be topped anyway. Better to let the audience go out having just heard that.
Another problem with the GWTW print was there were several spots were the film must have had splicing because the sound would skip a line of dialogue here and there. I would have wanted to see Ben-Hur but it was not listed to start until 7:30 and the Loews has a habit of starting the films 5-10 minutes later then they say. This happened on Sunday. I wish they had played Ben-Hur Staurday afternoon and Rocky (a shorter film) at night.
Pete, you may be right. I left after the chariot race, it was a long day. I don’t remember if there was any exit music or not.
/Mitchell
From what I remember, Ben-Hur has no exit music. I think it’s probably the only one of the major epics of that era not to have exit music.
Dye Transfer Technicolor was discontinued in 1974 in the USA and 1977 in England (A Few Dye Transfer Star Wars prints were struck back then). The process was again resumed in the late 1990’s, but now discontinued again. Technicolor had a lot of problems getting the dyes to stick to the new polyester film stock base.
Kodak’s current line of Vision Film Stock can look as good as Technicolor, but very few modern films are made with that look as an artistic decision. I personally like the old studio look of films, as a opposed to the grainy washed out look of many modern films.
65mm was a camera format, NOT a release format, 70mm was how it was sent to theatres (65mm picture + magnetic stereo sound areas). Very few theatres had the capabilities to run 70mm, most of them located in and around big cities. The prints were much heavier to ship, more costly to manufacture, etc.
All Hollywood 70mm films were printed down to 35mm (usually scope and 4 track magnetic stereo). In fact, in the 1950’s, stereo was a requirement, as 20th Century Fox did not put an optical soundtrack on the film. The stereo requirment disappeared by the early 1960’s.
The 35mm prints of Ben Hur always had the overture, intro music to part 2, and exit music. Many small town theatres would trim them off to cut running time, but they were always on the prints.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
Trivia question for Mitchell. This was obviously a road show length print with overture and entracte. If there had been a curtain and reserved seating we could have been in Loew’s State in ‘59. So did prints that were reduced from 65 to 35mm include all road show elements. Was this for first run engagements in small cities where MGM did not want to spring for a 65mm print?
Mitchell
I never projected fim in such a huge theatre, it must require good eyes to keep everything focused and framed properly. Do you happen to remember the trailer for the 1999 re-release of GWTW? They showed the initial scene of Scarlett and the twins in front of Tara before and after the restoration. I remember everyone saying they saw no difference. I wonder if the one lab capable of striking real 3 strip tech prints is still open in England? I remember in the early 90’s we played a film at the Cinema Village that was actually filmed and printed in real 3-strip technicolor. It was a dumb throw away picture but the look was unreal. It was so rich and color drenched. I have to look through my files for the name of it. I also recall in the 70’s the Recency ran a print of The Gangs All Here that had been newly struck in that lab. The color was like nothing I had ever seen before. When Carmen Miranda did that number in the banana hat you got dizzy from the richness of what was on the screen.
To answer some questions from above…
Yes, Ben Hur was printed down to 35mm CinemaScope, even back in the 1950’s.
Yes, we raise the bottom and lower the top masking for CinemaScope.
Yes, one projector seems to be aimed slightly higher than the other when running CinemaScope. I hope to have that straighened out before the Black & Wide series next month. I was a spectator for Ben Hur, and I think it is the first time I was down in the audience for a scope film. You can not see a lot of these little imperfections from up in the booth.
Yes, the GWTW print sucked (scroll up, I warned everyone). These 1999 prints were indeed dye transfer technicolor, but they did a very poor job at the lab. The focus was soft (prints fault), and the sound seemed overcompressed.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
Yes it was a scope print, another thing I noticed is either the light or lenses varied from projector to projector and changed the look of the color slightly.
I am confused by the posts,was Ben Hur shown in cinemascope? I wasn’t sure if the theater had the capability to show it in this format.
Was at the Ben Hur(avoided GWTW after initial postings about the print.) Absolutely sensational. The projectionist was on top of the print at all times and the print itself was terrific. Movie palace heaven.
One small point. the angle of one of the projectors is slightly off so that a bit of the top of image is cut off with a strip of empty space at the bottom of the screen.
So now I will look a gift horse in the mouth and ask for more movie palace movies. With summer coming up how about a 60’s teenage weekend with Where the Boys Are, Bye Bye Birdie and Beach Party. Or a Broadway musical weekend with Music Man, Oliver and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Speaking of CCBB how about a Broadway inspired by movies weekend with Producers(10 times better on the screen than on TV) Monty Python and the Holy Grail and CCBB for a matinee?
Great job guys.
The Ben Hur print was incredible, bright rich colors and the sound was top notch. I had forgotten about how wonderful sounds booms in those great old theatres. I went Sunday to see Gone With The Wind and was very disapointed in the print. Those prints they made in 1999, in my opinion were horrible. I have seen GWTW three times in old IB tech prints and the richness of the color was so breathtaking. This print looks so pale and faded. There isn a certain Kodak film stock that has real gaudy viberant color almost as good ad Technicolor, I wonder how it would look if the printed it on that. Also I thought the sound was very poor and flat. This was no fault of the Loews Jersey since the presentation of Ben Hur was top notch. They announced from the stage that next month they are doing a festival of B&W Cinemascope called “Black & Wide” and would have Woody Allens Manhatten as one of the features. One of the people at the candy stand said they are also trying for Hud and The Haunting.
was Ben Hur itself.Although I have seen it many times on tv and video, it just cannot be appreciated until you see it on the big screen.Awesome,in a word. This was worth the trip from Brooklyn.Parking was easy and cheap . My mother who I took with me probably enjoyed the experience even more than I.All I can say is that any movie and theater fan who does not come here at least once is missing the movie experience as it should be experienced.Theaterat 3 6 06
was Ben Hur itself.Although I have seen it many times on tv and video, it just cannot be appreciated until you see it on the big screen.Awesome,in a word. This was worth the trip from Brooklyn.Parking was easy and cheap . My mother who I took with me probably enjoyed the experience even more than I.All I can say is that any movie and theater fan who does not come here at least once is missing the movie experience as it should be experienced.Theaterat 3 6 06
was Ben Hur itself.Although I have seen it many times on tv and video, it just cannot be appreciated until you see it on the big screen.Awesome,in a word. This was worth the trip from Brooklyn.Parking was easy and cheap . My mother who I took with me probably enjoyed the experience even more than I.All I can say is that any movie and theater fan who does not come here at least once is missing the movie experience as it should be experienced.Theaterat 3 6 06