This post is long overdue, P and I watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? back in March, as you see in the first photo. That weekend they had a Great Depression theme and all movies shown fell in that category. I left the theater with a song from the movie stuck in my ear. But enough about the movie this is a post about the theater we watched it in and because I took so many photos of the interior I decided to split it in two posts, one just for the exterior of this old movie theater and one post for the interior.
The Loew's Jersey theater was build in the roaring twenties and opened its doors on September 28, 1929. In its heyday it was considered “the most lavish temple of entertainment
in New Jersey”, with a price tag of $2 million dollars it had state of the art equipment, a large stage, an orchestra pit that provided space for 40 musicians, dressing rooms and a large rehearsal space.While the theater managed to stay open into the 80ies, in 1986 it was sold to a developer. In August of 1986 after a last installment of Friday the 13th the theater closed its doors and was scheduled for demolition in April of the following year. Since the theater is obviously still here its fate was not not sealed by being sold to a developer and being slated for demolition. I will tell you all about what happened in my second post about this theater next month. Hope I made you a little curious about what you will discover inside...
Have a great weekend everybody! Do you have any plans? There is an estate sale around the corner from where I live tomorrow that I want to check out and on Sunday I am having brunch with friends...
PS. Check out my guest post over on Ana's blog Fluxi On Tour. I wrote about some of my favorite spots in NYC...
I love this old movie theaters. And I'm so glad some are still alive. :) Thanks for mentioning me. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! I am so glad it wasn't demolished as well.
Deleteoh my gosh that is insane. it looks like the temple of all theaters, it's so beautiful! i cannot believe that was ever slated for demolition, shame! but i am so glad they obviously didn't go through with. now i can't wait for part two, if the box office looks like that, what does the inside look like?
ReplyDeletegood luck at your estate sale! i am hoping to just put the finishing touches on getting things organized around. and reading :)
I didn't leave the estate sale empty handed. Of course ;) Ended up buying a cool metal table and a mid century modern looking bench, that needs some tlc. The inside of the theater is amazing, that much I can already tell you, will be posting part two soon...
DeleteOH that is grand! Amazing details, what a palace.
ReplyDeleteIt really is a movie palace! Can't believe somebody wanted to tear it down...
DeleteWhere exactly is this I can't believe it was going to be demolished (so glad it wasn't). The details are amazing.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your brunch!
It sits right across the street from the Journal Square path stop. I noticed it all the time and was so happy when I found out that they are still showing movies there on the weekends...
DeleteTwo million dollars back then?? WHOA! That's a lot of money! And it shows, the theater is so opulent and wonderfully art deco. I love that you can still see movies there! So much history swirling around that place. How was your weekend brunch? Did you score anything at the estate sale? Going to hop over to your newest post to find out...
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a crazy amount of money back then. It would be interesting how much the two million would be worth now. The brunch was fun, it was a all you can eat and drink event ;) And of course I didn't leave the estate sale empty handed, there is always something asking me to be taken home...
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