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Glad to hear that you enjoyed the show on Saturday. But you should have seen the print of The Brides of Dracula on Sunday - holy moly it was amazing! Virtually brand new and with the best color I've ever seen on a Hammer film, and that includes original 35mm IB Technicolor prints of Horror of Dracula, Revenge of Frankenstein, etc. Universal's repertory dep't really came through for me with their two films for the weekend, Son of FRankenstein and Brides of Dracula.
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Posted: |
Nov 17, 2008 - 7:21 AM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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At the same time, it's not a cavernous barn like the perenially-undergoing-restoration Loews Jersey.
from yesterday's NY Times--
Shows, and Renovation, Go On at Film Palace
By HELENE STAPINSKI
IT was a miserable night, but the line at the Loew’s theater snaked around the corner, just as it used to in the old days. Umbrellas blew inside out as scores of people patiently waited beneath the brightly lit marquee in Journal Square.
Once past the antique bronze doors, heads went back and eyes popped to take in the Grand Lobby, which resembles the inside of a Fabergé egg. There is dripping gold leaf, faux-marble Corinthian columns, swirling balconies, red velvet draperies and a Czechoslovakian crystal chandelier hung back in 1929, just a month before the stock market’s Great Crash.
“This place was made in a time of rich robber barons for people who couldn’t be rich robber barons,” said Marie Lyons, 29, a New Yorker who said she was “dragged” to Journal Square by friends from Jersey City two years ago. Ms. Lyons has since revisited the Loew’s for a rock concert and a classic film, but each time she enters, she is still taken aback.
“It’s like: ‘Oh my God. How does this place even exist?’ ” she said.
Amid fears that another depression could be looming, the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theater is enjoying its long-awaited, hard-earned renaissance. On that rainy October night, the silent film “Phantom of the Opera,” with live accompaniment from the newly restored Wonder Morton Organ (which rises, falls and turns on a lift on the stage) drew 860 people — a record for the Loew’s revival house program.
“The Loew’s is really hitting its stride,” said Steve Lipski, the Journal Square ward’s representative on the City Council, who stood on line in the rain. “There’s something magical and mystical about the theater that attracts people to come from Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New York.”
The story of the theater has been long and suspenseful, with a cast of hundreds of volunteers who have put the Loew’s back together, inch by inch. There have been villains and last-minute plot developments, but through it all, the theater has endured.
“Just look over there,” said Vincent K. Guagenti, 42, a horror and science fiction film professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He points to a billowing curtain. “The place is breathing.”
Designed by the architects George and C. W. Rapp to showcase the new “talkies,” the movie palace was created as one of five Loew’s Wonder Theaters. (The theaters in Queens and Harlem are now churches, one in Brooklyn is empty, and another in the Bronx has been the site of a few concerts and boxing matches.) Its first show was “Madame X,” directed by Lionel Barrymore, and included a stage performance by Ben Black and his Rhythm Kings and the Loew’s Symphony Orchestra. All for 35 cents.
Local legend has it that Frank Sinatra came from Hoboken to see Bing Crosby perform live here — and on that night decided to become a crooner himself.
The Loew’s enjoyed a long and successful run. But with the growing popularity of television, and a declining population in Jersey City, the audience started to fall off in the 1960s. By 1974, the theater was divided into a triplex, with cheap wallboard cutting the coffered auditorium ceiling in two. But the lobby retained its old glamour, fueling the movie fantasies of a whole new generation.
“I can’t tell you how many times I snuck in here as a kid,” said Matt Barrett, 51, one of two firemen on duty at a recent showing. Because the theater is not yet up to code, fire marshals must be present at each performance.
In 1986, the Loew’s showed its last first-run film (ominously, “Friday the 13th Part VI”) and sold the building to the developer and pet-supply giant Hartz Mountain Industries, which planned to demolish the theater and replace it with a $10 million office tower.
Within a year, crowds of Jersey City residents began packing City Council and Planning Board meetings, calling for the city to save the Loew’s. Colin Egan, 45, and Pattie Giordan, 56, who now run the theater, were among hundreds of people crowded into City Hall.
“I think the key thing was that the theater hadn’t been closed long enough for people to forget about it,” Mr. Egan said. He and Ms. Giordan helped gather 10,000 petition signatures and formed a nonprofit preservation group called Friends of the Loew’s.
Faced with growing opposition and the bottom falling out of the real estate market, Hartz sold the theater to the city for $325,000 in 1993.
But the battle was just beginning.
After more hearings and negotiations, the city leased the theater to the nonprofit Jersey City Economic Development Corporation. Under the direction of Mr. Egan, who was paid by the corporation, Friends of the Loew’s secured $2.5 million in financing and enlisted hundreds of volunteers.
Over the next decade, they repaired the 35-foot-deep stage, the terra cotta facade, the chandelier, the boiler, 1,500 orchestra seats, the lobby’s columns and the marquee. They knocked down triplex walls and chased pigeons from the projection booth, scrubbing guano from every surface. Then they rehabilitated the orchestra pit with WD-40 and spray paint (the cost to fix it had been estimated at $250,000, Mr. Egan said, but they spent only $37). Each volunteer had his or her specialty: bookkeeping, machine repair, construction, fixing the organ.
Despite concerns that the project was too big for a nonprofit group, the city signed a 15-year lease in 2004 with Friends of the Loew’s, promising nearly $3 million in Urban Enterprise Zone financing. All seemed well. Then two years ago, Jersey City declared the lease illegal and cut Mr. Egan’s salary altogether.
Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said that he would like the theater to be the center of a neighborhood improvement plan and that he would like to see more professional management and regular programming.
“Colin and Pattie are hard working and dedicated,” Mr. Healy said. “But I don’t see them bringing in the level of entertainment we’ll need to make the theater self-sustaining.”
Mr. Egan said that the Friends of the Loew’s had proven its management ability and that he was eager to move to the next level, but without the support the city promised in its lease, he could do only so much.
Despite the volunteer group’s hard work, the theater still lacks some essentials, including sprinklers, smoke alarms and fire escapes. Without them, the balcony cannot be reopened and more ambitious programming cannot be scheduled.
On weekends that the theater is not booked, the volunteers continue the renovation work, refurbishing by hand each original seat cushion and armrest from the 1,800-seat balcony. Once the theater’s 70-millimeter projectors are repaired — in time, it is hoped, for the theater’s 80th anniversary next year — they plan to show films like the epic “Lawrence of Arabia,” which will fill the entire 50- by 25-foot screen.
“You do it out of love,” said Scott Franklin, 51, a computer systems administrator who is a volunteer projectionist. “ ’Cause the money ain’t great.”
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Posted: |
Nov 17, 2008 - 7:34 AM
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By: |
GreatGonzo
(Member)
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I was also in Dayton, Ohio for awhile. The Victoria Theater ran a summer series of classic films, also with a theater organ. Saw Sunset Blvd., Citizen Kane, Giant, Thin Man, bunch of others.
Saw Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Adventures of Robin Hood there. Audience was full of people who had probably seen the movies when they first came out and had brought their kids and grandkids. Great atmosphere in the room, a priceless experience. Does not even begin to compare to watching it at home, pristine DVD print notwithstanding...
Also Dayton New Neon Movies converted to a Cinerama screen to show How The West Was Won,
Sat two rows behind Quentin Tarantino when I saw that one.
Cincinnati is really fantastically lame when it comes to offering older movies on the big screen, the exception being the NK Symphony's occasional showing of a silent movie with live orchestra. The AMC Summer Movie Camp shows older kids' movies, but it's never something cool like The Incredibles, always Dreamworks rubbish.
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Posted: |
Feb 15, 2009 - 5:44 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Seeing vintage movies on the BIG screen, with a large, appreciative audience is definitely the best way to enjoy them to the full.
The annual WideScreen Weekend is coming up in Bradford (U.K.) next month (March).
If you're in the area, this is your chance to catch up with several 70mm goodies, including new prints of: "West Side Story", "The Bible" and "Khartoum".
Also showing in 70mm are: "Where Eagles Dare", "Beckett" and "The Taming of the Shrew".
Bradford, and the Los Angeles area, always seem to come up with new 70mm prints of films that others cannot get. Even the AFI Silver Theater in Washington has trouble getting these new 70mm prints (other than "Lawrence of Arabia" and "2001," which seem to have annual showings there). I recall mention a few years back that a new 70mm print of "Ryan's Daughter" had been struck, But when the AFI showed the film last year, they couldn't even get a 35mm print. They had to project it from the DVD.
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Posted: |
Feb 15, 2009 - 6:53 PM
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By: |
CH-CD
(Member)
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Seeing vintage movies on the BIG screen, with a large, appreciative audience is definitely the best way to enjoy them to the full.
The annual WideScreen Weekend is coming up in Bradford (U.K.) next month (March).
If you're in the area, this is your chance to catch up with several 70mm goodies, including new prints of: "West Side Story", "The Bible" and "Khartoum".
Also showing in 70mm are: "Where Eagles Dare", "Beckett" and "The Taming of the Shrew".
Bradford, and the Los Angeles area, always seem to come up with new 70mm prints of films that others cannot get. Even the AFI Silver Theater in Washington has trouble getting these new 70mm prints (other than "Lawrence of Arabia" and "2001," which seem to have annual showings there). I recall mention a few years back that a new 70mm print of "Ryan's Daughter" had been struck, But when the AFI showed the film last year, they couldn't even get a 35mm print. They had to project it from the DVD.
Well....this being the National Media Museum, I don't know if private benefactors stump up for the new prints?
I mean, when I win the lottery, i've promised them new prints of ALL my favourites! 
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Posted: |
Oct 20, 2023 - 2:40 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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Howard, the Lafayette is absolutely the GREATEST theater in the northeast for seeing classic films. First of all - and most important - they CARE.
Second - it's a gorgeous theater, beautifully restored. Superb presentations and always live organ music before and after the performances (and, when they run silent pictures, during!). And unlike the remaining revival cinemas in NYC, the Lafayette is spacious. At the same time, it's not a cavernous barn like the perenially-undergoing-restoration Loews Jersey.
Seriously, bookmark their website and check it out often for program info. Once you go, you'll be a regular thereafter.
Now this is neat: opened up the latest what’s-on-tap-this-weekend email and it says they’re making what looks like a feature film called Concessions at the Lafayette. And there’s a casting call for extras! Hey Pete, sign me up, I now qualify to play an old geezer complaining about the senior citizen discount not being enough of a discount!
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)