For some reason, I thought the Jersey did have mag capability. Thanks Peter for the heads up.
That echo….. When I first went to the Jersey during their first annual Comedy Fest, I was struck by two things. First, the decor of the auditorium which immediately reminded me of the UA Ridgewood where I spent most of my movie going youth (this was waaaaaay before they first triplexed, and from what I hear now, five plexed the place). Of course, the Jersey was more intricate and much larger, but the style was the same. Even down to the “fake” boxes.
The second was that echo! Warm, almost tangible feelings of being transported back to my youth immediately overtook me. This was how movies sounded when I was growing up! I had become so used to the modern acoustically “dead” room sound of modern cinemas, I had forgotten how things used to sound in a grand old palace.
Of course that echo was there in the Ridgewood because, like the Lowes Jersey, their balcony was never open, so the theater never reached full capacity, and the sound just bounced around all that open space.
Saps is right, if the Jersey was full, that echo would be greatly diminished. Then you would hear how wonderful acoustically the old place really is.
It’s quite possible. I remember being very young when seeing it and for me the late 60’s and early 70’s kind of blend together. ;)
It is quite possible it wasn’t a wide re-release and I saw it as a “one-off” matinee at my local theater (The UA Ridgewood in Brooklyn) They used to do that quite a bit back then. I do remember it was during the afternoon when I came out pretending I was riding that cahriot.
I do know I saw The Ten Commnadments on it’s last go round in about ‘73 or '74 in Downtown Brooklyn. I was about 10 and was sick, but my folks thought I should see it on the big screen at least once. To show you where my head was at cinematically at the time…when Vincent Price came on screen I blurted out “Mom, you didn’t tell me this was a Vincent Price movie!!” lol
And…IB prints are available. Archives and private collectors are in posession of many, many treasured titles. And that ties into one of Bob’s biggest strengths in that he is well known and respected by both sides. He can get things done in respect to getting good, accurate prints. His rep in both camps is something that is extraordinarily hard to achieve in the celluloid jungle.
It’s good to see I’m not the only one who felt the showing was off!
As far as the color goes, it’s a resolution issue. The tone of the colors was close, but the shades and nuances were obliterated. A classic case of poor quality control, rushed Eastmancolor processing. I saw Ben-Her in it’s last go round as a kid in the early 70’s and it looked rich. It left an impression on me the way the earth tone color scheme of much of the movie was so vivid and opulent.
I was thinking about that last night, and it did dawn on me that some of the faults I found with the print may not have been faults as such. One thing that bears mentioning that I forgot and no one seems to have picked up on, is the issue of “horses for courses” (if I can make the pun)
Up a ways in this discussion forum you’ll note entries from Bob Furmanek about his departure from being programmer at the theater.
Now, the one thing that Bob did there more than any other that contributed to the wonderful success of his screenings was his attention to the prints used.
The carbon arc lighting that the Jersey uses forms a synergistic match to the old dense IB tech and black and white prints that he would book for showings. It’s a bright, bright, light, and much less “blue” illumination than modern Xenon lamps. Modern prints just don’t look good with that type of projection. That may explain the washed out look and off color of the film last Saturday. I think it can even affect preception of focus.
This is why it is so sad they parted ways. I know he would have scored an archive IB Tech print with Mag tracks for Ben-Hur if he were still affiliated with them. And he would have also scored a true archive IB tech print of “Gone With The Wind” as well.
It’s a shame when these “factions” develop and cause misery. I can only hope one day the wounds will heal and the “family” that started the Lowe’s Jersey ressurection will be whole again.
And Andyc, I hear ya on the sightlines issue. I always wondered why they built theaters with such a subtle angle to the floor back then. I’m only 5'4", and it would be very unfortunate to have sat behind you last Saturday! LOL!! I mean…that issue had to exist back then, no? :P
That is an issue that has been kind of a hot potato for a while. I think a lot of the myth of super saturated Technicolor stems from reissue prints that weren’t as carefully timed as opposed to first run issues. According to the book “Glorious Technicolor” the whole goal of Technicolor was natural looking color, not gaudy eye popping hues.
The magazine “The Perfect Vision” used to debate this very topic many years ago, and examination of actual premiere IB tech prints (or remnants of them) showed much more subdued color than reissue copies of the same films. Gone with the Wind in particular seemed to have wildly fluctuating color levels and schemes depending on what reissue print one examined and what process was used. (1939, 1954, technicolr and 1960’s MetroColor etc…)
Another point was IB tech prints don’t make for accurate video transfers. The prints are too dense for most telecine machines and the colors get screwed up there as well. So most of the “technicolor” DVDs out today aren’t from IB prints at all.
Early Techniclor was quite subtle as it was found audiences complained that strong color hurt their eyes. Films like “The Wizard of Oz” had bold colors, but that was a fantasy film. And all the expressionistic films like “The Red Shoes” or the later Gene Kelly and Stanley Donan musicals also featured bold and vivid colors.
So, I’d have to say the answer is its not so much toned down, but the goal of natural looking color is being restored to films that in the past were being seen in an artifically pumped up state.
I was at the Ben-Hur screening and I was actually disappointed by the print used. I thought it was pretty bad! It looked very dupey and washed out to me, with poor color consistency between reels, and a lack of razor sharp detail that a good 65mm to 35mm reduction usually provides. The sound also wasn’t that great; it sounded like a standard Dolby optical matrix track instead of a discrete 4 channel source, which meant separation was pretty poor. The music score sounded like it was underwater most of the time. That was no fault of the Lowe’s though. I’ve seen other stereo films there that looked and sounded spectacular.
What was a problem theater wise, seemed to be a faulty projector which caused considerable “wow” whenever the music score swelled. I blame the projector since it happened only in every other reel. Maybe those new projectors came just in time! Side note, will the new projectors use the carbon arc illumination now in place? I sure hope so.
It’s a shame a true IB Tech archival 35mm ‘Scope print wasn’t utilized as this title is one of the most visually spectacular films ever made. A true achivement from the heyday of widescreen photography.
Even with all that though, the sheer spectacle of the film kept one entranced for the almost four hour running time. They really don’t know how to make ‘em like that anymore!
For some reason, I thought the Jersey did have mag capability. Thanks Peter for the heads up.
That echo….. When I first went to the Jersey during their first annual Comedy Fest, I was struck by two things. First, the decor of the auditorium which immediately reminded me of the UA Ridgewood where I spent most of my movie going youth (this was waaaaaay before they first triplexed, and from what I hear now, five plexed the place). Of course, the Jersey was more intricate and much larger, but the style was the same. Even down to the “fake” boxes.
The second was that echo! Warm, almost tangible feelings of being transported back to my youth immediately overtook me. This was how movies sounded when I was growing up! I had become so used to the modern acoustically “dead” room sound of modern cinemas, I had forgotten how things used to sound in a grand old palace.
Of course that echo was there in the Ridgewood because, like the Lowes Jersey, their balcony was never open, so the theater never reached full capacity, and the sound just bounced around all that open space.
Saps is right, if the Jersey was full, that echo would be greatly diminished. Then you would hear how wonderful acoustically the old place really is.
Vincent,
It’s quite possible. I remember being very young when seeing it and for me the late 60’s and early 70’s kind of blend together. ;)
It is quite possible it wasn’t a wide re-release and I saw it as a “one-off” matinee at my local theater (The UA Ridgewood in Brooklyn) They used to do that quite a bit back then. I do remember it was during the afternoon when I came out pretending I was riding that cahriot.
I do know I saw The Ten Commnadments on it’s last go round in about ‘73 or '74 in Downtown Brooklyn. I was about 10 and was sick, but my folks thought I should see it on the big screen at least once. To show you where my head was at cinematically at the time…when Vincent Price came on screen I blurted out “Mom, you didn’t tell me this was a Vincent Price movie!!” lol
And…IB prints are available. Archives and private collectors are in posession of many, many treasured titles. And that ties into one of Bob’s biggest strengths in that he is well known and respected by both sides. He can get things done in respect to getting good, accurate prints. His rep in both camps is something that is extraordinarily hard to achieve in the celluloid jungle.
It’s good to see I’m not the only one who felt the showing was off!
As far as the color goes, it’s a resolution issue. The tone of the colors was close, but the shades and nuances were obliterated. A classic case of poor quality control, rushed Eastmancolor processing. I saw Ben-Her in it’s last go round as a kid in the early 70’s and it looked rich. It left an impression on me the way the earth tone color scheme of much of the movie was so vivid and opulent.
I was thinking about that last night, and it did dawn on me that some of the faults I found with the print may not have been faults as such. One thing that bears mentioning that I forgot and no one seems to have picked up on, is the issue of “horses for courses” (if I can make the pun)
Up a ways in this discussion forum you’ll note entries from Bob Furmanek about his departure from being programmer at the theater.
Now, the one thing that Bob did there more than any other that contributed to the wonderful success of his screenings was his attention to the prints used.
The carbon arc lighting that the Jersey uses forms a synergistic match to the old dense IB tech and black and white prints that he would book for showings. It’s a bright, bright, light, and much less “blue” illumination than modern Xenon lamps. Modern prints just don’t look good with that type of projection. That may explain the washed out look and off color of the film last Saturday. I think it can even affect preception of focus.
This is why it is so sad they parted ways. I know he would have scored an archive IB Tech print with Mag tracks for Ben-Hur if he were still affiliated with them. And he would have also scored a true archive IB tech print of “Gone With The Wind” as well.
It’s a shame when these “factions” develop and cause misery. I can only hope one day the wounds will heal and the “family” that started the Lowe’s Jersey ressurection will be whole again.
And Andyc, I hear ya on the sightlines issue. I always wondered why they built theaters with such a subtle angle to the floor back then. I’m only 5'4", and it would be very unfortunate to have sat behind you last Saturday! LOL!! I mean…that issue had to exist back then, no? :P
Hi Robert
That is an issue that has been kind of a hot potato for a while. I think a lot of the myth of super saturated Technicolor stems from reissue prints that weren’t as carefully timed as opposed to first run issues. According to the book “Glorious Technicolor” the whole goal of Technicolor was natural looking color, not gaudy eye popping hues.
The magazine “The Perfect Vision” used to debate this very topic many years ago, and examination of actual premiere IB tech prints (or remnants of them) showed much more subdued color than reissue copies of the same films. Gone with the Wind in particular seemed to have wildly fluctuating color levels and schemes depending on what reissue print one examined and what process was used. (1939, 1954, technicolr and 1960’s MetroColor etc…)
Another point was IB tech prints don’t make for accurate video transfers. The prints are too dense for most telecine machines and the colors get screwed up there as well. So most of the “technicolor” DVDs out today aren’t from IB prints at all.
Early Techniclor was quite subtle as it was found audiences complained that strong color hurt their eyes. Films like “The Wizard of Oz” had bold colors, but that was a fantasy film. And all the expressionistic films like “The Red Shoes” or the later Gene Kelly and Stanley Donan musicals also featured bold and vivid colors.
So, I’d have to say the answer is its not so much toned down, but the goal of natural looking color is being restored to films that in the past were being seen in an artifically pumped up state.
I was at the Ben-Hur screening and I was actually disappointed by the print used. I thought it was pretty bad! It looked very dupey and washed out to me, with poor color consistency between reels, and a lack of razor sharp detail that a good 65mm to 35mm reduction usually provides. The sound also wasn’t that great; it sounded like a standard Dolby optical matrix track instead of a discrete 4 channel source, which meant separation was pretty poor. The music score sounded like it was underwater most of the time. That was no fault of the Lowe’s though. I’ve seen other stereo films there that looked and sounded spectacular.
What was a problem theater wise, seemed to be a faulty projector which caused considerable “wow” whenever the music score swelled. I blame the projector since it happened only in every other reel. Maybe those new projectors came just in time! Side note, will the new projectors use the carbon arc illumination now in place? I sure hope so.
It’s a shame a true IB Tech archival 35mm ‘Scope print wasn’t utilized as this title is one of the most visually spectacular films ever made. A true achivement from the heyday of widescreen photography.
Even with all that though, the sheer spectacle of the film kept one entranced for the almost four hour running time. They really don’t know how to make ‘em like that anymore!