Loew's Jersey Theatre
54 Journal Square,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
54 Journal Square,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
98 people
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This coming weekend, May 15th and 16th, The Landmark Loews Jersey Theatre located on Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey will be presenting 3 more classic films from the golden age of motion pictures.
The Landmark Loews Jersey was the last of the five Loews Wonder Theatres built in the New York City metro area. Opened in 1929, it has been entertaining area movie goers ever since. The theatre is currently being operated and restored by the volunteer organization Friends Of The Loews. Located directly across from the PATH subway station connecting Manhattan with Jersey City, it is also easy to reach from most area highways.
All Show Are Presented In 35mm With Genuine Carbon Arc Projection.
Friday May 15th at 8pm – It Happened One Night (1934) â€" Frank Capra’s screwball comedy featuring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.
Saturday May 15th at 6:00pm – Dinner At Eight (1933) â€" Staring John and Lionel Barrymore along with Jean Harlow.
Saturday May 15th at 8:30pm – The General (1927) â€" Buster Keaton’s silent comedy classic with live organ accompaniment on the Loews Jersey Theatre’s Morton Wonder Pipe Organ.
Visit The Landmark Loews Jersey web site for details.
[size=1]The Landmark Loews Jersey Theatre[/size]
More “spring chills” – Saturday evening, May 30th – “bonus” May films:
6:00 PM: The Uninvited (1944, 1:39) – starred Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp.
(“make-up” screening for March 27th – yes, it will be the correct print!)
8:15 PM: Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940, 2:10) – starred Sir Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders.
Thanks MBD,
Great to hear that “The Uninvited” has been scheduled for the end of May !
I can’t think of a better venue for this terrific ghost story than the grand, old Loews Jersey. What a perfect match.
Bob
“The Uninvited” is scheduled for Saturday May 30th, tentatively paired with “Rebeca” on the same evening.
The weekend of May 15-16 we will be presenting “It Happened One Night”, “Dinner At 8”, and silent film “The General”. See the theatre’s web page for more info on this show.
Does anyone know if they will be showing “The Uninvited” at the end of May? I know they said they were tentatively aiming to have a new print by that time. Thanks.
Great clip! Thanks. Wish I could have seen the film at the Loew’s.
Thanks, Gabe, for that Jack Benny/Groucho clip. YouTube is such a wonderful source for old ‘50s TV clips. Here’s another one: Arlene Dahl as the mystery guest on “What’s My Line?” in 1959, plugging “Journey to the Center of the Earth”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTbcvphPWv4
The GREAT Loew’s Jersey Wonder Organ does it again (in full stereo hi-fi)…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgfA9_BEuSg&fmt=18
with a band in the pit—yet (with an orchestra lift that goes up and down).
My understanding is that the Loew’s Jersey is the 10th largest remaining theater in America (give or take a few); and I think its future is very bright.
Well, I’m sure these are enough posts for one night. I hope my love for the place comes through my writing.
Folks, this was the wonderful theatrical reality of the Loew’s Jersey at one time. In addition to being a “Temple of the Motion Picture Art” is was also a grand old vaudeville house (for a very few and much too short number of years):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_efvfxmJDGQ
It was New York vaudeville, only better and a little looser.
“Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby, Jean Harlow, Burns and Allen, Bing Crosby, Bill Robinson, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Cab Calloway, to name just a few” were regulars at the Loew’s. Today, this boggles the mind.
Jack Benny was often the MC at the Loew’s Jersey in the early 1930s. At that time this theatre was “classy” and not the somewhat dusty though wonderful place we know today. The place deserved and got an elegant and urbane and very funny announcer.
Typical Loew’s Jersey entertainment from the middle 20th Century. The LJ was as smart and as bright and as mainstream as you could get in America in the mid-20th Century:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wNK1Jt4JLg
Back then the ushers said, “no standing in the aisles, please stand behind the ropes, there are plenty of seats in the upper balcony.” They even had a coat check room.
Lewis’s work at the NY Paramount was sheer brilliance, the like of which we will never see again.
Thanks for sharing your story of Jerry Lewis and the Loew’s. I’m so glad to hear that he supported the theatre in those difficult days. The Jersey may be the “Best Remaining” road show house left in America. It is steeped in 1930s vaudeville (and popcorn).
One of the best fairly recent live acts I saw at the Jersey was Uncle Floyd’s 30 minute “program.” People forget (I should talk, I’m 47) just how clever and funny old vaudeville could be. It was often absolutely brilliant. After all, “Who’s On First?” was a vaudeville act, performed live at the State Theatre in Journal Square many times by some comedy named Abbott and Costello. The Three Stooges were often found live at the Stanley, and of course Bing was live at the Loew’s.
In any case, Floyd’s show was never to be forgotten. As I watched it, I said to myself, “so this is what vaudeville was like.”
Jerry Lewis is one of the very last vaudeville stars, and a native Newark-ite, I believe. So glad to learn he doesn’t forget his roots.
I think I told this story before, probably on the Paramount page, but Jerry showed off his old ushering skills when my mom went to see “My Friend Irma” at the Paramount in 1949, and he took her ticket. I guess he and Dean were part of the live stage show.
Thanks to Bob Furmanek. Note my entry above. Search for “New York Paramount and the Loew’s Jersey”. It’s about ¾ from the bottom — since this Loew’s Jersey page could make a nice book on its own! The Loew’s Jersey and NY (Times Square) Paramount were very similar theatres, designed by the same firm.
I was criticized by some for leaving “negative” commentary regarding the programming incident involving “The Uninvited” in March. Credibility to those or any other comments on this site is only earned when they are objective and balanced. It is important to report when things go smoothly as well as when there are mishaps. So to be fair, I too want to acknowledge the excellent presentation this past weekend with “The Lion In Winter” and “Journey to The Center of The Earth”. The weekend featured quality prints and gracious guests. The weekend film series was executed extremely well.
*Did anybody see “The Lion in Winter”? How was the print, especially the color? *
The print was in excellent condition, the color perfect.
Did anybody see “The Lion in Winter”? How was the print, especially the color?
Here’s one more:
View link
Look for the small print at the very bottom: Late Film 11:45 PM. How I would’ve loved to see “Journey” at the Paramount and get out at 2 in the morning!
Some more “Journey” stuff:
The New York Daily News review – a positive one, but I would have given it one more star:
View link
The ad for the Paramount Theatre engagement:
View link
The ad for the State Theatre engagement in Jersey City, around the corner from the Loew’s … and the only one of the three great Journal Square showplaces that did not survive in some form. It’s now an apartment building.
View link
I was thinking about it and I believe Miss Dahl’s memory might also be a little hazy as to the length of the shooting schedule. I doubt they shot in Carlsbad for three months, probably more like three weeks. I’ve watched this movie many times and very little of the interior of the earth stuff is Carlsbad, most is actually the sound stages at Fox, with many of rock sets reused in THE STORY OF RUTH and THE LOST WORLD the following year. However, the shooting at Carlsbad may have been longer as I’ve read that Alexander Scourby started shooting there as Count Saknussem, but was replaced by Thayer David. By the way, JTTCOTE was Fox’s Christmas release for December 1959 and opened at the Paramount Theatre in NYC. Go to the page for that theatre and there’s a couple comments by people who remember seeing it there back then. Pretty cool.
Amen!
WHATEVER ! It was a thrill to have a real, live movie star right before our eyes at a real, live movie palace ! Yes, you CAN go home again ! Thank you, Loew’s Jersey !!!
I think her memory is a little hazy there. Some of the dialogue was looped, but most was not. I suspect that Zanuck ordered the accent change shortly after the start of production.
I think Arlene said about 6 months. The real shocker was her saying that Darryl Zanuck made them re-dub the entire film because he thought the American audience wouldn’t understand the accents. Nowadays, it’d be just dandy since no one in America speaks English anymore !!!!!
Thanks Bill for the further details of what Arlene Dahl had to say. Too bad the interviewer hadn’t done his research. I’ve often wondered how long the shoot was on JOURNEY. I know that the “underground ocean” stuff on the beach was shot at Leo Carrillo State Beach, and you can tell in the film that the cave there is extended by the use of Emil Kosa Jr. matte paintings. Other locations around southern California were used such as the Amboy Crater National Landmark and “Little Lake and Fossil Falls” near Lone Pine, but for the most only stand-ins for the principal actors were used, as was a stand-in for Mason for the shots actually taken in Edinburgh, Scotland. Anyway, both this film and I turn fifty this year. I didn’t see JTTCOTE until it was shown on WABC in New York in the late sixties.
Thanks, Bill, for those sensational photos ! I was there with my grade school friend on his maiden voyage to the Loew’s, and he was predictably dazzled by it and the lovely Miss Dahl. She autographed my CD of the 1989 concert she did with Jane Russell and the fabulous Dottie Lamour ! My friend was put off by the idea that there was a $20.00 fee which provided access for “special people.” Those of us who support the Loew’s are rather special, too !
Another funny thing Arlene told us: she only had one stand-in, but Gertrude the Duck had three!