Bad sound sync and projector jitter put a crimp on my show. Now the film breaks. More passes are issued, for what TWO WEEEKS again? I hadn’t been to the Ziegfeld in years and I had good memories of it. This is what I get presented with, the same old shit presentation problems I expect at the run-of-the-mill multiplex. This was a SPECIAL presentation, in a SPECIAL format. They should have been prepared. While I enjoyed the 70mm presentation in spite of the flaws, there should have been no flaws. To their credit the film was in perfect focus and brightly lit, but the print should have been run in rehersal to check for problems and the sound issue could have been addressed, the jitter could have been looked into. It’s inexcusable. What Bob Furmanek and Pete Appruzzese say are correct, it is bad showmanship, and trust me, both those fellows know what showmanship is.
I was at the Zeigfeld last night with Bill. I found the sound problems to be most disturbing, and the image instability to be very annoying. However, like Bill said, the 70mm presentation was awesome. I can’t remember when I’ve seen an image this sharp with that much clarity. The print quality was excellent with great color/contrast and onyy minor lines on the base side. Taking the good with the bad, I would have preferred the sound were in sync, and I do find the theater at fault for that because there are ways to correct for that. The instability was probably print related as a projector with problems like this tends to do it all the time. The manager gave me a pair of passes for future shows as an apology for the faults, but I then found out they were only good for 2 weeks.
Sorry about those dead image links. I forgot they were on a personal server I took down. These links are on an image service, and hopefully you should have no trouble viewing them.
These are old photos of Main Street, Passaic NJ, looking north from the sound end of Main.
I don’t think you’d find a single theater in the area that didn’t go through a period of crappy movies either before it closed and was demolished (like the Central), or reborn like the Lafayette.
I found that picture of Main Street Passaic. it doesn’t show any of the theaters, but it does give you an idea of what it looked like with the tracks down the center.
I’ve presented it as several shots, the first is the whole image, reduced so you can see everything. Then I took several sub-sections and presented them at full (or close to full) resolution so you can see the details.
This picture was probably taken sometime in the 1930’s, and is at the south end of main street, just north of the Prospect St Station. You can see the Bank Building (the skyscraper) in the photo. That building is still there today.
So in this picture which side of the building was the railroad on? Bob, the 1950 ticket stub you gave me says “Across the street from the Erie RR station”. I have a 1912 picture of the Passaic RR station, but that pre-dates this building (and many other buildings). I had a more recent photo of Main St Passaic showing the tracks down the middle, but I can’t seem to find it (I’m still looking). Maybe this shot will show the theater.
I’m trying to visualize where the Central theater was, since I never actually saw it. Downtown Passaic as we know it today has a very different face from what it looked like 50 years ago. Many don’t know that the really wide section from the McDonalds at the north end, to where it narrows again at the south, was because the mainline of the Erie railroad ran up the middle of main street. Looking at the map provided by the link above (an excellent map by Google I must admit) it would appear that the central was situatued with the railroad tracks at it’s back. Can anyone confirm this?
I have to agree with your opinion on the use of color. You also have to remember that color in the 1935-1950’s period was an era when photography was more or less considered a black & white medium, so the use of rich Technicolor made the film all the more special. Few people even realize that Technicolor was in reality a black & white photography process (shooting the three primary colors on three b&W negatives) and actually ‘printing’ the positive release print much the same way a printing press does the Sunday comics. It really isn’t color film at all, and was truly an amazing process. And while the single negative color film that Kodak developed also revolutionized the industry (and positive print stock), Kodak really should be embarassed at how badly their Eastmancolor stock has performed. Even Kodacolor 35mm photo negatives I have from 40 years ago have turned, as well as early Ektachrome slides. What a shame they did not know how bad it would be. Fortunately Kodachrome held up through the test of time, but noting was really made in motion pictures using Kodachrome except some 16mm stuff, it’s mostly home 35mm slides.
Today, I think of certain directors like Tim Burton who try to banish all color from his films with shades of tinted greys. The look and style of the old Technicolor musicals and films is gone. They look that way because the were designed to look that way. Bright, colorful, and garish. When projected onto a silvered screen, with very bright arc or xenon light, they really do shine (and that’s no pun).
No loss at all. The effect is there when the lights are out. Twinkling stars and floating clouds. The use of white for the current use makes complete sense and does not detract from the beauty.
The cartoon was LPP? That’s one up on me Pete! I could have sworn it was IB Tech, as I thought most of those cartoons floating around the collector circuit are.
Easter Parade wasn’t IB Technicolor. That was an LPP print on polyestar. Pete will give you more details when he see’s your message. The cartoon was IB Tech I believe. The Easter Greeting snipe was sepia tinted acetate stock, and is 50 years old.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the echo. That same warm, soft echo like the Loews across the street. You’ll hear it when they play the video presentation because they use the theatre’s sound system (a modern sound system, whose speakers have been placed in the ceiling above the stage).
TC, wait till you see the auditorium. It’s a sight to behold! The stars come out, and the clouds float by. So cool! I’m told the cieling was once painted sky blue, and not the white color it’s painted now (maybe Bill can verify that since he went there alot when he was younger). Even so, the effect isn’t really lost in the dark.
Bill: the tourguides were learning as much from you, as we were from them. They only knew the place as it looked when they first walked in: a dump. Not as it was previously.
Wow! What a theater. I just got back from the tour, and I see my friend Bill has already commented on it. You can’t describe the beauty of this theatre. You really must see it for yourself. I congradulate the Jehovah Witnesses for the splended job of restoration they did on this building. They have preserved a gem of a building for all to marvel at.
What is even more amazing is that TWO architectural marvels stand together just across the street from each other. I’m of course referring to the Loews Jersey, which is another amazing building you MUST see.
Stephen, The Lafayette is truly an ‘event’ theatre. Jeff Barker regularly gets spontaneous applause from the audience after his great organ performances and I believe he got standing ovations after ‘The General’ and ‘Phantom’. The audience also regularly applaudes after the shorts, and the features. This is so unlike the typical first run movie experience. These retrospect performances are fun to attend, and Nelson and Pete do their best to draw the audience into the experiance and make it the ‘event’ it is. Next week’s show of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is going to be a perfect example of this. A great mix of movie, shorts, and other fun stuff!
I grew up in Ridgewood, and remember the Warner before they split it into a quad. It had a huge auditorium and I seem to remember a overhanging balcony. At that time the large vertical “Warner” sign was still out in front. I knew several people that worked there so I got to see a number of the back rooms and out-of-the-way places. I remmeber touring the projection booth where the two machines were aimed down at a steep angle. I remember a room above the marquee where there was a huge motorized switching unit that used to drive the animated chase lights on the marquee and Warner sign. I also rememeber the area above the ceiling where there were catwalks to access the ceiling lights when they needed changing. It was a grand theatre, but ultimately fell to the ‘multiplex’ craze.
Last night (Saturday 9/18) my daughter and her friend wanted to see a movie, so I decided to take them to the Lafayette for “Sky Captain”. We went to the late show, and unfortunately Jeff doesn’t play the organ for the last show, so they were a bit disappointed they wouldn’t get to hear it, but before we went in, we had a nice talk with the manager who was very open about sharing the past and current history or the Lafayete with us. You can tell he’s proud of the place, and their accomplisments. The best part was when we walked into the auditorium. Her jaw just dropped open, she could not believe how beautiful the place was. Now mind you, she’s 21, and has never been in anything other than a multiplex or split up palace (like the Ridgewood NJ Warner) where you’d never know it once looked like anything else. I told her that they all used to look like this (excepting the current multiplex complexes of course). Before TV, going to a movies was once a weekly affair of entertainment and there was more to going to the movies than sitting in a room with square black walls. I know she wants to return with me for a future performance and hear the organ. Perhaps we’ll take in the Phantom in October (I know I’m going!).
I want to personally thank Nelson, Peter, all the staff of the Lafayette, and the guest stars for putting on the most enjoyable film experience I have had in many many years. As the previous commentors have mentioned, you won’t find a better setting for these types of films. The original movie palace experience is here. It’s not a replica of what it used to be, this is it, for real. Not only will I be attending future performances, but I’ll make sure to consider the Lafayette for any first run films I want to see before heading off to the multiplex. If I’m going to pay the same amount, I might as well get some atmosphere and extra entertainment for the price of admission.
Tonight was my first visit to the Lafayette, and the first night of the Sci-Fi Festival. Wow, what an outstanding theatre! The organ performance was wonderful, and the film was great. A co-worker of mine has been bugging me for several years to go to this theatre and see a film, and I always shrugged it off as a dumpy little local place. “In Suffern, are you kidding?” Boy, was I ever wrong! I’ll will be going back for the classics series, and other films. I was especially pleased with the quality of the print, the brightness of the image, and the perfect focus (something hard to find lately). I’m looking forward to the next two days!
Bad sound sync and projector jitter put a crimp on my show. Now the film breaks. More passes are issued, for what TWO WEEEKS again? I hadn’t been to the Ziegfeld in years and I had good memories of it. This is what I get presented with, the same old shit presentation problems I expect at the run-of-the-mill multiplex. This was a SPECIAL presentation, in a SPECIAL format. They should have been prepared. While I enjoyed the 70mm presentation in spite of the flaws, there should have been no flaws. To their credit the film was in perfect focus and brightly lit, but the print should have been run in rehersal to check for problems and the sound issue could have been addressed, the jitter could have been looked into. It’s inexcusable. What Bob Furmanek and Pete Appruzzese say are correct, it is bad showmanship, and trust me, both those fellows know what showmanship is.
I was at the Zeigfeld last night with Bill. I found the sound problems to be most disturbing, and the image instability to be very annoying. However, like Bill said, the 70mm presentation was awesome. I can’t remember when I’ve seen an image this sharp with that much clarity. The print quality was excellent with great color/contrast and onyy minor lines on the base side. Taking the good with the bad, I would have preferred the sound were in sync, and I do find the theater at fault for that because there are ways to correct for that. The instability was probably print related as a projector with problems like this tends to do it all the time. The manager gave me a pair of passes for future shows as an apology for the faults, but I then found out they were only good for 2 weeks.
Sorry about those dead image links. I forgot they were on a personal server I took down. These links are on an image service, and hopefully you should have no trouble viewing them.
These are old photos of Main Street, Passaic NJ, looking north from the sound end of Main.
View link
View link
View link
View link
It’s posted already:
http://www.bigscreenclassics.com/newschedule.htm
Ain’t it the truth!
I don’t think you’d find a single theater in the area that didn’t go through a period of crappy movies either before it closed and was demolished (like the Central), or reborn like the Lafayette.
Well, I’m looking forward to the Fall season starting this Saturday. Can’t wait to see ON THE TOWN! See ya there.
I found that picture of Main Street Passaic. it doesn’t show any of the theaters, but it does give you an idea of what it looked like with the tracks down the center.
I’ve presented it as several shots, the first is the whole image, reduced so you can see everything. Then I took several sub-sections and presented them at full (or close to full) resolution so you can see the details.
This picture was probably taken sometime in the 1930’s, and is at the south end of main street, just north of the Prospect St Station. You can see the Bank Building (the skyscraper) in the photo. That building is still there today.
http://presario.webhop.org/epicture/passaic1.jpg
http://presario.webhop.org/epicture/passaic2.jpg
http://presario.webhop.org/epicture/passaic3.jpg
http://presario.webhop.org/epicture/passaic4.jpg
OK, now that picture puts things in perspective for me. The tracks would be at the rear of the building.
So in this picture which side of the building was the railroad on? Bob, the 1950 ticket stub you gave me says “Across the street from the Erie RR station”. I have a 1912 picture of the Passaic RR station, but that pre-dates this building (and many other buildings). I had a more recent photo of Main St Passaic showing the tracks down the middle, but I can’t seem to find it (I’m still looking). Maybe this shot will show the theater.
I’m trying to visualize where the Central theater was, since I never actually saw it. Downtown Passaic as we know it today has a very different face from what it looked like 50 years ago. Many don’t know that the really wide section from the McDonalds at the north end, to where it narrows again at the south, was because the mainline of the Erie railroad ran up the middle of main street. Looking at the map provided by the link above (an excellent map by Google I must admit) it would appear that the central was situatued with the railroad tracks at it’s back. Can anyone confirm this?
I have to agree with your opinion on the use of color. You also have to remember that color in the 1935-1950’s period was an era when photography was more or less considered a black & white medium, so the use of rich Technicolor made the film all the more special. Few people even realize that Technicolor was in reality a black & white photography process (shooting the three primary colors on three b&W negatives) and actually ‘printing’ the positive release print much the same way a printing press does the Sunday comics. It really isn’t color film at all, and was truly an amazing process. And while the single negative color film that Kodak developed also revolutionized the industry (and positive print stock), Kodak really should be embarassed at how badly their Eastmancolor stock has performed. Even Kodacolor 35mm photo negatives I have from 40 years ago have turned, as well as early Ektachrome slides. What a shame they did not know how bad it would be. Fortunately Kodachrome held up through the test of time, but noting was really made in motion pictures using Kodachrome except some 16mm stuff, it’s mostly home 35mm slides.
Today, I think of certain directors like Tim Burton who try to banish all color from his films with shades of tinted greys. The look and style of the old Technicolor musicals and films is gone. They look that way because the were designed to look that way. Bright, colorful, and garish. When projected onto a silvered screen, with very bright arc or xenon light, they really do shine (and that’s no pun).
No loss at all. The effect is there when the lights are out. Twinkling stars and floating clouds. The use of white for the current use makes complete sense and does not detract from the beauty.
The cartoon was LPP? That’s one up on me Pete! I could have sworn it was IB Tech, as I thought most of those cartoons floating around the collector circuit are.
Easter Parade wasn’t IB Technicolor. That was an LPP print on polyestar. Pete will give you more details when he see’s your message. The cartoon was IB Tech I believe. The Easter Greeting snipe was sepia tinted acetate stock, and is 50 years old.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the echo. That same warm, soft echo like the Loews across the street. You’ll hear it when they play the video presentation because they use the theatre’s sound system (a modern sound system, whose speakers have been placed in the ceiling above the stage).
TC, wait till you see the auditorium. It’s a sight to behold! The stars come out, and the clouds float by. So cool! I’m told the cieling was once painted sky blue, and not the white color it’s painted now (maybe Bill can verify that since he went there alot when he was younger). Even so, the effect isn’t really lost in the dark.
Bill: the tourguides were learning as much from you, as we were from them. They only knew the place as it looked when they first walked in: a dump. Not as it was previously.
I wish I had remembered to bring my camera.
Wow! What a theater. I just got back from the tour, and I see my friend Bill has already commented on it. You can’t describe the beauty of this theatre. You really must see it for yourself. I congradulate the Jehovah Witnesses for the splended job of restoration they did on this building. They have preserved a gem of a building for all to marvel at.
What is even more amazing is that TWO architectural marvels stand together just across the street from each other. I’m of course referring to the Loews Jersey, which is another amazing building you MUST see.
Hats off to Pete & the Lafayette management. It was a great show Yesterday. The best of the season. The entire day was a fun film day!
And Bob, let’s not forget about a rare pair of Christmas and New Year’s greetings from the early 1950’s. Don’t forget to sing along!
This is a show not to miss!
Stephen, The Lafayette is truly an ‘event’ theatre. Jeff Barker regularly gets spontaneous applause from the audience after his great organ performances and I believe he got standing ovations after ‘The General’ and ‘Phantom’. The audience also regularly applaudes after the shorts, and the features. This is so unlike the typical first run movie experience. These retrospect performances are fun to attend, and Nelson and Pete do their best to draw the audience into the experiance and make it the ‘event’ it is. Next week’s show of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is going to be a perfect example of this. A great mix of movie, shorts, and other fun stuff!
I grew up in Ridgewood, and remember the Warner before they split it into a quad. It had a huge auditorium and I seem to remember a overhanging balcony. At that time the large vertical “Warner” sign was still out in front. I knew several people that worked there so I got to see a number of the back rooms and out-of-the-way places. I remmeber touring the projection booth where the two machines were aimed down at a steep angle. I remember a room above the marquee where there was a huge motorized switching unit that used to drive the animated chase lights on the marquee and Warner sign. I also rememeber the area above the ceiling where there were catwalks to access the ceiling lights when they needed changing. It was a grand theatre, but ultimately fell to the ‘multiplex’ craze.
Last night (Saturday 9/18) my daughter and her friend wanted to see a movie, so I decided to take them to the Lafayette for “Sky Captain”. We went to the late show, and unfortunately Jeff doesn’t play the organ for the last show, so they were a bit disappointed they wouldn’t get to hear it, but before we went in, we had a nice talk with the manager who was very open about sharing the past and current history or the Lafayete with us. You can tell he’s proud of the place, and their accomplisments. The best part was when we walked into the auditorium. Her jaw just dropped open, she could not believe how beautiful the place was. Now mind you, she’s 21, and has never been in anything other than a multiplex or split up palace (like the Ridgewood NJ Warner) where you’d never know it once looked like anything else. I told her that they all used to look like this (excepting the current multiplex complexes of course). Before TV, going to a movies was once a weekly affair of entertainment and there was more to going to the movies than sitting in a room with square black walls. I know she wants to return with me for a future performance and hear the organ. Perhaps we’ll take in the Phantom in October (I know I’m going!).
Oh yea, Sky Captain was good too!
I want to personally thank Nelson, Peter, all the staff of the Lafayette, and the guest stars for putting on the most enjoyable film experience I have had in many many years. As the previous commentors have mentioned, you won’t find a better setting for these types of films. The original movie palace experience is here. It’s not a replica of what it used to be, this is it, for real. Not only will I be attending future performances, but I’ll make sure to consider the Lafayette for any first run films I want to see before heading off to the multiplex. If I’m going to pay the same amount, I might as well get some atmosphere and extra entertainment for the price of admission.
Great job guys, THANK YOU.
Tonight was my first visit to the Lafayette, and the first night of the Sci-Fi Festival. Wow, what an outstanding theatre! The organ performance was wonderful, and the film was great. A co-worker of mine has been bugging me for several years to go to this theatre and see a film, and I always shrugged it off as a dumpy little local place. “In Suffern, are you kidding?” Boy, was I ever wrong! I’ll will be going back for the classics series, and other films. I was especially pleased with the quality of the print, the brightness of the image, and the perfect focus (something hard to find lately). I’m looking forward to the next two days!