The Paramus Drive-in was open well into the 1980’s. The problem in it’s later years was that the land was owned by The Garden State Plaza, which wanted to build an office building on the site. The town would not give the a variance to build, so while they squabbled with the town, the leased the theatre to various operators on a year by year basis. Because of the short term leases, nobody was willing to spend the money to keep the place up, and it quickly became a dump.
The Bergen Mall was originally built with 2 theatres, one live, and one for movies. This was by the choice of the builder, who wanted to recreate a downtown fell. There was even a little kiddie amusement park in the middle of the mall. At the time, the mall was not enclosed. The movie theatre, the Mall Theatre, was located towards spring valley road at the east end of the mall, the entrance was outside toward the parking lot. The Playhouse On The Mall’s entrance was on the inside walkway, at the west end of the mall. There was never a theatre across from the Bergen Mall. E.J. Korvette’s department store was located directly across, taking up all of what is now a strip mall. The bridge across the highway at that time extended all the way to a second floor entrance to Korvette’s.
The Stanley Warner, as the marquee called it, was a magnificent theatre as a single with marble walls and art deco wall sconces in the lobby. The last film I saw there as a single was The Godfather. In the early 1970’s, they built The Route 4 Cinema next to it. Although there was no space between the buildings, The Route 4 was a seperate building with it’s own marquee, boxoffice, etc. It had a magnificient waterfall curtain. A few years later, the Stanley Warner was twined by extending and walling up the balcony. The original projection room became the upstairs projection room, and a new projection room was built behind the consession stand on the main level for the “big” theatre. Then, at some point, they split the balcony theatre into 2 theatres, and the big theatre got split into 3 theatres by putting a wall down the middle, with one long hallway theatre on the left, and 2 small theatres (one in front of the other) on the right. Sometime in the late 1980’s, they finished destroying the theatre by ripping out most of the original lobby, and building the rest of the 10-plex.
At the top of the building, front side, is a stone block indicating Lyon’s Butler Theatre, 1926. I was inside the building about 15 years ago, all trace of the theatre is gone except for the metal frame from the domed ceiling in what was the auditorium.
The lobby structure is indeed still standing. The theatre was operated by Skorus Theatres. Accoring to the 1949 Film Daily Yearbook, it had 850 seats and was closed. I know that the auditorium was gone by the time I was growing up in Dumont in the 1960’s.
From the summer of 1991 to the end, this theatre was operated by the Galaxy Theatre Corporation. They cleaned it up, and tried various programming and pricing policies, none of which were successfull. Shop-Right wanted the space for expansion, so the mall bought out the lease.
Speaking as a Jew, I also have never found this film to be any any way demeaning to Jews. I will be projecting it on Friday, and would not be doing so if it were otherwise. It was/is a satire, and should be viewed in that context.
Patton will indeed be a standard Panavision 35mm print. It is my understanding that the print has some issues with scratches and some occasional minor jump splices, but the color is good.
As of now, Great Escape will be on Saturday afternoon, Patton Saturday evening April 30th. I’ll post an announcement when it is finalized and on the web site.
Where Eagles Dare is one of my favorite movies, but here are no good prints available (red, splicy, scratched). We looked into it.
Don’t give up hope for MGM musicals at the Loews, I haven’t.
You know, sometimes memory plays tricks on you. A few years ago (3 to be exact), I got to see an original release 35mm British IB Tech print of Ben Hur. Let me tell you, the color quality, both in intensity and shading, on the new print is not significantly different.
The issue with using private prints is a complicated one. Some of the studios will allow you to run a privately owned collector print if you pay the licensing fee, and other will not. Both Ben Hur and GWTW are distributed by Warner, which will not. It would not be responsible for us to risk someones print, and our good relationship with Warner Brothers, to run a private print when they specifically do not approve.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
PS.
As Pete has stated, the Loews Jersey does not have mag stereo capabilities.
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.
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.
I ran the chariot race reel from Ben Hur last night, and wow, the print is stunning and in Dolby Stereo.
The Gone With The Wind print is from the 1999 re-issue, which unfortunately, are all “side letterboxed” in a widescreen image. What this means to those watching it at the Loews Jersey is that the picture size will be somewhat smaller than the normal huge picture we normally present.
If the studio sends the print of Ben Hur I expect they are going to send, the sound will be Dolby Stereo. GWTW will be the restored print from a few years ago, the only one currently distribution.
Hopefully if all goes well, you will see 70mm at the Loews next fall. As to a larger screen, it probably won’t happen since the theatre is also used for live performances. The current screen is the largest that can fit into the arch, and going outside the arch would make it impossible to raise the screen up into the stage loft. 60 to 70 foot portable screens are not really a viable option.
The Paramus Drive-in was open well into the 1980’s. The problem in it’s later years was that the land was owned by The Garden State Plaza, which wanted to build an office building on the site. The town would not give the a variance to build, so while they squabbled with the town, the leased the theatre to various operators on a year by year basis. Because of the short term leases, nobody was willing to spend the money to keep the place up, and it quickly became a dump.
The Bergen Mall was originally built with 2 theatres, one live, and one for movies. This was by the choice of the builder, who wanted to recreate a downtown fell. There was even a little kiddie amusement park in the middle of the mall. At the time, the mall was not enclosed. The movie theatre, the Mall Theatre, was located towards spring valley road at the east end of the mall, the entrance was outside toward the parking lot. The Playhouse On The Mall’s entrance was on the inside walkway, at the west end of the mall. There was never a theatre across from the Bergen Mall. E.J. Korvette’s department store was located directly across, taking up all of what is now a strip mall. The bridge across the highway at that time extended all the way to a second floor entrance to Korvette’s.
The Stanley Warner, as the marquee called it, was a magnificent theatre as a single with marble walls and art deco wall sconces in the lobby. The last film I saw there as a single was The Godfather. In the early 1970’s, they built The Route 4 Cinema next to it. Although there was no space between the buildings, The Route 4 was a seperate building with it’s own marquee, boxoffice, etc. It had a magnificient waterfall curtain. A few years later, the Stanley Warner was twined by extending and walling up the balcony. The original projection room became the upstairs projection room, and a new projection room was built behind the consession stand on the main level for the “big” theatre. Then, at some point, they split the balcony theatre into 2 theatres, and the big theatre got split into 3 theatres by putting a wall down the middle, with one long hallway theatre on the left, and 2 small theatres (one in front of the other) on the right. Sometime in the late 1980’s, they finished destroying the theatre by ripping out most of the original lobby, and building the rest of the 10-plex.
At the top of the building, front side, is a stone block indicating Lyon’s Butler Theatre, 1926. I was inside the building about 15 years ago, all trace of the theatre is gone except for the metal frame from the domed ceiling in what was the auditorium.
The lobby structure is indeed still standing. The theatre was operated by Skorus Theatres. Accoring to the 1949 Film Daily Yearbook, it had 850 seats and was closed. I know that the auditorium was gone by the time I was growing up in Dumont in the 1960’s.
From the summer of 1991 to the end, this theatre was operated by the Galaxy Theatre Corporation. They cleaned it up, and tried various programming and pricing policies, none of which were successfull. Shop-Right wanted the space for expansion, so the mall bought out the lease.
The Loews Jersey’s next movie weekend is now online.
Friday 6/3/2005 Double Feature
Saturday 6/4/2005
Check out http://www.loewsjersey.org for more info.
Speaking as a Jew, I also have never found this film to be any any way demeaning to Jews. I will be projecting it on Friday, and would not be doing so if it were otherwise. It was/is a satire, and should be viewed in that context.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
Patton will indeed be a standard Panavision 35mm print. It is my understanding that the print has some issues with scratches and some occasional minor jump splices, but the color is good.
Great Escape in a newly struck restored print.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
Our next film weekend (April 29 – May 1) is now on-line.
Surf over to http://www.loewsjersey.org for more information.
As of now, Great Escape will be on Saturday afternoon, Patton Saturday evening April 30th. I’ll post an announcement when it is finalized and on the web site.
Where Eagles Dare is one of my favorite movies, but here are no good prints available (red, splicy, scratched). We looked into it.
Don’t give up hope for MGM musicals at the Loews, I haven’t.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
The Loews Jersey’s next film weekend (April 1 & 2) is now on-line, all black & white wide screen films.
Click on http://www.loewsjersey.org for more information and show dates and times.
/Mitchell
You know, sometimes memory plays tricks on you. A few years ago (3 to be exact), I got to see an original release 35mm British IB Tech print of Ben Hur. Let me tell you, the color quality, both in intensity and shading, on the new print is not significantly different.
The issue with using private prints is a complicated one. Some of the studios will allow you to run a privately owned collector print if you pay the licensing fee, and other will not. Both Ben Hur and GWTW are distributed by Warner, which will not. It would not be responsible for us to risk someones print, and our good relationship with Warner Brothers, to run a private print when they specifically do not approve.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
PS.
As Pete has stated, the Loews Jersey does not have mag stereo capabilities.
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
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
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
Thank you Pete.
As to the picture, as William posted above:
You will have a full 1.37 aspect ratio picture within the scope 2.35 frame, with black on the sides.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
I ran the chariot race reel from Ben Hur last night, and wow, the print is stunning and in Dolby Stereo.
The Gone With The Wind print is from the 1999 re-issue, which unfortunately, are all “side letterboxed” in a widescreen image. What this means to those watching it at the Loews Jersey is that the picture size will be somewhat smaller than the normal huge picture we normally present.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
If the studio sends the print of Ben Hur I expect they are going to send, the sound will be Dolby Stereo. GWTW will be the restored print from a few years ago, the only one currently distribution.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
The Loews Jersey’s next film weekend will be March 4-6, and is now on-line.
http://www.loewsjersey.org
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
Hopefully if all goes well, you will see 70mm at the Loews next fall. As to a larger screen, it probably won’t happen since the theatre is also used for live performances. The current screen is the largest that can fit into the arch, and going outside the arch would make it impossible to raise the screen up into the stage loft. 60 to 70 foot portable screens are not really a viable option.
/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff