Not necessarily.

FOL will continue to be the non-profi arm of Loew's operation. There's a lot this means specifically, and a lot that Mayor Fulop and the RFP which is the basis for DAE's proposal guarantees FOL to ensure this is so.

But fundamentally, FOL's mission is to make sure that EVERYONE can enjoy and benefit from the Loew's. And that means we will make sure there's affordable programming. We'll have more than fifty days a year to do just that.

Friends of the Loew's IS a non-profit arts center organization. The difference between us and NJPAC or BergenPAC, for example, is that both entities have benefited from considerable support by their local governments (& in NJPAC's case, much state support as well).

But in the case of the Loew's, it's unfortunately a matter of record that Jersey City has just not provided the support it agreed to when FOL took the lease of the Theatre. That difference is huge, and it has meant that FOL can't operate the Loew's like any other arts center.

The City's failure to be supportive has been crippling, denying funding for important repairs specified in the lease as necessary before FOL can greatly increase programming, and more broadly has undercut FOL's credibility with private funders.

But hopefully, these problems are behind us. Since the first of the year, we've been working with the City to define a plan that will bring in major commercial shows -- as FOL has always said is necessary -- but within a structure that will allow FOL to pursue broader programming and ensure that some of the proceeds from the commercial shows will help support that programming.

Stay tuned as we continue to work towards this goal with the City.

With summer's end, monthly classic film weekends return to the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, starting the end of this month.

The theme for September? Movies with famous lines:

Friday, September 30 at 8PM: "Dirty Harry" Starring Clint Eastwood. 102min, 1971, Color. Rated R. Screened in 35mm.

Saturday, October 1 at 6PM: "What's Up, Doc?" Starring Barbara Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn. 1972, 94mins, Color. Rated G. Screened in 35mm.

Saturday, October 1 at 8PM: "Casablanca" Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henrei, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet. 1942, 102mins, B&W. Screened in 35mm.

Each film is $8 Adults / $6 Seniors & Kids. Discount for seeing more than one film in a series.

The Loew's is very easy to get to: right across JFK Blvd from the JSQ PATH, and discoutn parking in Square Ramp Garage behind the Theatre.

For more info go to www.loewsjersey.org

Thanks!

Before we talk about FOL holding back the Loew's, let's consider this:

What the City tried to do with the Hudson County grant was take away grant money that was earmarked to help bring the City's own building up to the City's own building codes.

In point of fact, more than ten years ago the City committed to finding funding for these code related repairs, but never did.

Instead, FOL cooperated with the City in asking the County to allow the grant, which was originally meant for another project at the Loew's, to instead be used to make some of the important code repairs that the City was not funding.

Since at least 2012, the City was supposed to design, bid and contract for the work of this grant. But in 2014, the Fulop Administration ordered the City's Division of Architecture to stop all work on Loew's projects.

Then last year, after FOL beat-back the City's attempt to break our Lease, the Fulop Administration told the County that it wanted the grant money taken away from the Loew's.

How does this make any sense?

Whether you like FOL or not, and no matter whether FOL is at the Loew's or not, these are basic repairs that need to be made -- and the City is responsible for them.

To understand how absurd the City's action regarding the Grant was, consider what would happen if the City ordered any other property owner to make code repairs, but instead the property owner refused and said he wanted to spend his money on other things.

And interestingly, thought FOL and the City are co-grantees, neither the City nor the County seemed to think that FOL should have any say in what happened grant funding we had won for the Loew's.

FOL has not held the Loew's back. Instead, we've spent years having to find ways to work around the City's inability to provide the cooperation it supposed to.

By the way, for the sake of full disclosure, I am one of the two employees of FOL. I make $45,000 a year, no benefits.

As to the question of whether my salary would be better spent on other things, I can only point out that many non-profit corporations pay staff members to perform work that is essential to being able to pursue their charitable purposes, even though they also make great use of volunteers. FOL is far from alone in this.

The story of the Loew?s Jersey Theatre, including what?s happening now, is very much a study in progressive urbanism and the struggle for the arts in our cities . . . but not necessarily in the way Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop wants you to think.

In his eagerness to be seen as a progressive reformer, the Mayor wrote an article that repeated many of the points that were first defined 27 years ago by Friends of the Loew?s when we launched our grass-roots effort to save the then-shuttered landmark Loew?s from official City policy that said tearing the Theatre down would be good for Jersey City?s redevelopment. At the time, we explained that the arts are a pivotal force in transforming a mere locality into a community. We spoke of the importance of giving residents, especially young people, the opportunity to discover the joy and vitality of the arts in their hometown and of the need to provide diverse and affordable programming for all. And we pointed to cities such as Columbus, Atlanta and Cleveland, to name just a few, that had sparked urban renaissance by restoring their old theatres as non-profit arts centers.


The power of our arguments proved persuasive with Jersey City?s people, and so we eventually were able to convince the City government to buy the Theatre it once condemned, purportedly with the goal of reopening it as an arts center. In the long years since, FOL has determinedly pursued the vision of the Loew?s as a locally managed arts center serving our community and region, but often with little help and sometimes the outright opposition from past Jersey City Administrations. Fortunately, we have been able to draw on community spirit, grass-roots-type initiative and an extraordinary display of volunteerism to forge a unique path to reopen and operate the Loew?s.

It?s certainly a good thing when politicians like Mayor Fulop adopt the initiatives of community-based groups like FOL. But it is something else when a political leader uses long-stated goals to promote a decidedly different objective. What the Mayor doesn?t say is that while he touts as his own the forward looking-ideas for the arts in Jersey City that we first laid out, since coming to office in a campaign in which he criticized the failings and shortsightedness of his predecessor, he has been downplaying or outright denigrating the work FOL did for years to overcome some of those very same failings and pursue the goal of the Loew?s as a nonprofit arts center.

Fulop?s predecessor simply failed to keep commitments the City had made under his predecessor in 2004 ? which are a matter of public record ? to find a modest amount of funding to make some basic safety and fire code repairs to the Loew?s that the City itself acknowledged as absolutely necessary to allow for greater use of the Theatre. Similarly, the administration that Fulop ousted never provided the help the City had promised to ensure FOL could avail independent, professional arts management expertise in planning its own professional development and the further growth of the Loew?s as a non-profit arts center.

The idea wasn?t that the City would provide all the money needed to renovate the Loew?s or grow FOL. Far from it. Rather, the City?s help ? both in terms of what it would buy and the commitment it would demonstrate ? was to put FOL in the position to begin the long process that other non-profit arts centers have undergone of professional growth, master planning and seeking programming partners, as well as fundraising and grantsmanship to pay both for additional programming and even more building upgrades. Conversely, the City?s failure to keep its modest commitments to FOL and the Theatre it owns has badly undercut FOL?s case for funding from major donors and grants makers.

In spite of the failures by the City, FOL has kept the Theatre open, albeit in a more limited way than if the City had kept its commitments. Over the years, we?ve presented local arts, student programming, community service events, multi-cultural programs, classic and independent film, and a limited number of popular concerts, plus revenue generating private functions . As a matter of fact, just a few months ago, ?TimeOut NY?, a major A&E publication in our region, called going to the Loew?s Jersey one of the best things to do in New Jersey.

Now that he?s Mayor, instead of seizing the opportunity to build on what FOL has already accomplished with so little help by trying to harness the power of government to work with us ? as one might have expected from a progressive leader ? or, at the least, merely agreeing to keep the City?s long-standing commitments to FOL that his predecessor broke, Steve Fulop is trying mightily to make people believe that the vision of a locally managed, non-profit arts center can?t work. Instead, he wants people to think he is demonstrating leadership by abandoning that ideal and proposing to hand control of the Loew?s over to a for-profit consortium along with up to $40 million in public-sourced funding for renovations to support that consortium.

This is not a LaGuardia-esque government approach to promoting the arts in the lives of Jersey City residents by ensuring access to diverse, affordable arts programming. It can?t be: The lead partner in the consortium is AEG, one of the nation?s biggest commercial, for-profit promoters. Another partner is a privately owned for-profit art gallery that specializes in very high end, expensive fine art shows and private events. Their main objective is to make money ? it has to be, because they are organized on a for-profit basis.

To try to attach a non-commercial element to this primarily for-profit structure, the Mayor?s plan purports to require 30 ?community/local performances/events? a year, although no dates, times or lengths are prescribed. To accomplish this, the for-profit consortium has involved a local university, which is a fine school but which, over the years, has had only limited involvement in the larger Jersey City arts scene (one exception being, ironically, the annual student film showcase FOL co-presents with the university at the Loew?s). Let?s be clear: Programming and internships from the university in a nonprofit-led arts center would be very welcome indeed, but the university?s focus must quite properly be on its distinct mission. But the mission of supporting the local arts scene and providing diverse, affordable arts programming to our wider community is something quite different. That is the mission of a nonprofit arts center .

I should note that the Mayor?s plan also suggests it will allow 20 performances a year by FOL. But this just shows how little his approach understands arts management: FOL is a non-profit corporation whose mission is the management and growth of the Loew?s as arts center in a landmark theater. Like other non-profit art center managements, we support ourselves though donations solicited for this larger purpose (including large amounts of volunteered time), and by presenting some events which do earn income (including sponsorships) to help support other programming that does not, as well as providing some support for the overall operation.

It doesn?t take an expert in arts management to anticipate that even under the best of circumstances, the for-profit imperative of the consortium Mayor Fulop wants will inexorably push all other kinds of events to the margins, especially if, as the Mayor has suggested, the consortium will be under pressure to give the City money to pay back the tens of millions he anticipates providing.

Artistic diversity, affordability, support for local arts, community interest are all goals that spring from something other than the profit motive. Put simply, it?s the difference between public TV and commercial TV, between the Beacon Theatre and BAM. And it?s why so many of America?s most vibrant arts centers are run as non-profits.

Which is not to say that many of those non-profit arts centers do not partner with commercial promoters like AEG to provide a certain amount of their kind of programing. Most ? including FOL ? do, but in the larger context of our broader mission.

In his article, the Mayor talks about wanting to foster vibrant arts opportunities, create a hub focused on broad community programming for our diverse city, and give everyone, especially those less-well off, the joy of taking in concerts, shows, exhibits. Interestingly, those are pretty much the objectives outlined in the plan to run the Loew?s as a non-profit arts center that are contained in the lease between FOL and the City.

Mayor Fulop?s excuse for abandoning the plan of operating the Loew?s as a non-profit arts center is his claim that FOL has not done what we were supposed to do. But frankly, the record does not support this. At the least, in the light of the City?s failure to uphold its end of the plan, our work has shown the strong potential for the goal of a nonprofit arts center to succeed if the City works with us. And there?s even a safety net in the plan for the City. In the 63 months after the City finally provides the support it is supposed to, FOL is expected to meet a variety of benchmarks; if we do not, the City can look to another approach.

FOL asked Mayor Fulop why he isn?t willing to at least try the ideal of City government helping a locally rooted non-profit develop our iconic landmark Loew?s as a nonprofit arts center with strong local management and programming that ranges from local arts to major concerts. His answer to us was that he didn?t have the time. Perhaps that?s because the Mayor is trying to attract developers to Journal Square, and thinks that being able to talk about such a marquee name as AEG will help his cause. But the Mayor should look to cities such as Cleveland, Columbus, Providence and even Newark, where urban revitalization has been sparked around successful nonprofit arts centers. Because such centers offer the greatest diversity of programming, they attract the widest diversity of people to the areas around them, and this creates the most vitality. And as noted, a company such as AEG can certainly be a part of that larger mission. A more progressive approach, therefore, would be for Jersey City to introduce FOL to interested developers, and encourage those developers to find ways to support our work to make the Loew?s the world-class nonprofit arts center, attracting even more people to Journal Square and therefore further assisting the area?s revitalization.

Colin Egan, Director, Loew?s Jersey City / FOL

(Full disclosure: I am a founder of FOL and one of two paid employees FOL currently has; my salary is $45,000 a year; no benefits. The other employee has the same compensation.)

We want to check in and clarify additional points being discussed in this message forum.

Please see our blog post which addresses the following concerns:

- Does FOL Do Everything With Just Two People? The answer is very much NO.

- ?Professional? vs. ?Paid?: To begin with, ?volunteer? doesn?t equate to ?amateur?. ?Experienced? doesn?t necessarily mean ?commercial?. And ?professional? isn?t just a synonym for ?highly paid?.

- The Truth About FOL's Grants: There?s been some confusion about the grants Friends of the Loew?s won from the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund: wrong dates, inaccurate descriptions and disjointed histories. We want to clear that up, so here?s detailed information.

- FOL, Garden State Theatre Organ Society and The Loew?s Organ: A recent post implying that Friends of the Loew?s claims credit for the restoration of the magnificent Wonder Morton Pipe Organ in the Loew?s is wrong? and frankly dishonors the close working relationship FOL has with our sister non-profit organization the Garden State Theatre Organ Society.

- FOL Over The Years: A few posts show confusion about what FOL has done at different times in the course of the Loew?s project, and why. FOL literally came into being, and has since been shaped by the need to deal with the extraordinary short-sightedness of successive Jersey City governments in regard to the Loew?s.


Throughout its history, FOL has mobilized to overcome the various effects of City neglect, inaction or sometimes even hostility to the Loew?s and FOL.

But what will happen if the City FINALLY keeps it commitment? We?ll be able to increase the size and number of shows. From a practical standpoint, that will require more paid staff. But the additional income from the shows will make that possible. The critical code-related work the City will fund will have to be done by contractors. In fact, a lot of the additional work the Theatre eventually needs will have to be done by contractors either because of its complexity or scale ? such as scaffolding the entire auditorium to repair and repaint the high ceilings. FOL will have to fundraise and seek grant for this ? but that will be possible if the city has finally kept its commitments, since we will finally be in a position to credibly explain to other funders why they should consider supporting the Loew?s. But in such a major undertaking and big building, there will always be the need for volunteer construction projects. And since the Loew?s has such a successful volunteer usher and show staff program, FOL would be foolish not to continue it for some programs, at least, as the Loew?s grows. FOL?s volunteer program may have begun as the only available means to try to accomplish our goal for the Loew?s, but it?s become an important way for FOL to keep the Loew?s connected to its community.

We invite you to learn more about the Friends of the Loew's and our initiative. As always, please do not hesitate to e-mail us at loewsjersey@gmail.com or call us at (201) 798-6055 if we can answer any questions or concerns directly.

How You Can Help:
- Sign this petition to share your support of FOL
- Get the word out by sharing our Facebook updates via FOL
- Follow us on Twitter: @loewsjersey
- Follow us on Instagram: @loewsjersey

(Edited to include link to Grant History)

Thank you to those who have voiced their support here on JCList. We will do our best to check in and address questions and comments to this post, but the best way to reach us is to e-mail loewsjersey@gmail.com or call 201-798-6055.

If you already know about the struggle Friends of the Loew?s is waging to uphold our vision of the Landmark Loew?s Jersey Theater as an arts center that?s rooted in our community while also serving our region, we?d like to ask you to consider signing our petition: http://goo.gl/GX67wN

If you?d like to learn more about FOL and the Loew?s, please visit our friendsofloews.org website or read our summary within the petition.

Status of Legal Proceedings:

Friends of the Loew?s has decided to continue the legal defense of our Lease of the Loew?s from Jersey City because not to do so would allow the City Administration to turn away from Jersey City?s long-standing commitment and take the Loew?s in a different direction that is neither acceptable nor necessary.

So FOL?s attorney will be asking the Court to review a recent decision that threatened our Lease and the future of the Loew?s.

We posted an update as to last night's meeting with AEG, Ace Theatrical, and the JCRA: http://friendsofloews.com/update-on-aeg-friends-of-the-loews/

And to answer some of the most concerned calls we've gotten: Last night's meeting certainly does NOT mean that the City's attempt to oust FOL is a done deal. All that was done at the meeting was to approve the process to negotiate contracts with ACE and AEG. The contracts have NOT been written, and certainly have not been executed. It would be reckless for JCRA or the City to try to sign contracts as our legal process continues. And we are continuing that process by appealing the Court's decision.

A Regional Arts Center With Local Roots:
The Loew?s Jersey Theatre was saved by a grassroots effort that understood the Loew?s importance not just as an iconic local landmark but also as a place where a wide variety of programming would create a special destination for our community and region: A place for major concerts as well as local arts, film, community service, and more; some expensive shows mingled with more affordable programs.

The idea was to combine the best aspects of historic theatres-turned arts centers around the country, from the Count Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey; to the Fox in Atlanta, Georgia; to Proctor?s in Schenectady, New York, and add a spin unique to our area by building local management rooted in our community.

A Plan Is In Place:
Ten years ago, Friends of the Loew?s and the City of Jersey City committed to working together in a public/non-profit partnership with a detailed plan to fulfill this vision. You can read the Lease in its entirety here: http://friendsofloews.com/landmarkloewslease/

Unfortunately, the City has simply not kept most of the commitments it made ? specifically, to find the fairly modest funding for the most important remaining repairs the Loew?s needs to host bigger, income-generating shows and also for independent, expert planning to assure the best programming and successful fundraising. This money, it should be noted, was to be paid back to the City through a ticket surcharge.

Despite the City?s failure, FOL has kept its commitment by keeping the Loew?s open and growing for ten years. In just the last year we hosted over 80 events that ranged from a major pop concert to local arts to free community events. While the repairs the City is supposed to pay for go unfunded, the Loew's can't operate on a regular, self-sustaining basis such as other theatres can. But we've been able to achieve so much thanks in large part to our use of our corp of volunteers to help run shows as well as carry out more repairs and maintenance work. Obviously, we would have done much more had our partner the City kept its part of the plan.

The Current Challenges:
What the Jersey City Administration is trying to do now is to use the limitations that the City?s own failure to keep its commitments has caused to justify a claim that the vision for the Loew?s can?t be achieved. But this is just not the case:
What FOL has done WITHOUT the City?s help is proof that much more is, at the very least, possible if not likely with the promised help.

When FOL asked Jersey City?s Mayor point blank why, since he campaigned on a promise of fixing mistakes made by the previous Administration, he wasn?t willing to keep the City?s commitment and try to achieve the longstanding goal for the Loew?s, he said simply he didn?t want to have to wait to see if it would work.

Instead, the Administration is pushing its own idea that it thinks sounds faster and easier: to turn the Theatre over to a consortium led by commercial promoters, and give this group far more public funding than the City ever committed (but never delivered) in its partnership with FOL. At best, the result of this would be to reduce the Loew?s to being just another commercial concert venue as for profit management strives to maximize its income and possibly struggles to make large loan payments. But there really is no guarantee even as to how much programming that arrangement will bring. Across the U.S., commercial managements come and go from venues when they fail to meet their own business plans.

The Bottom Line:
If the City Administration gets its way, the result will be a far diminished resource than what the Loew?s can and should be for Jersey City ? and the region. And if the City can get away with incorrectly diminishing and dismissing what civic spirit and activism has already accomplished with so little at the Loew?s, it will be a rebuke of the kind of grass roots, civic activism that has led not just the effort to save, restore and operate the Loew?s but also many other important civic projects in Jersey City. And it would be a slap in the face to all those who have donated funds or given more than 122,000 volunteer hours to FOL in pursuit of the goal of the Loew?s as a true, community arts center.

It?s for these reasons that Friends of the Loew?s will continue the defense of the better plan for the Loew?s Jersey Theatre.
Arts centers are part business, for sure. But they are also missions driven by the even more important imperative to serve their communities. So the Loew?s needs to keep its locally-rooted stewardship intact.

How You Can Help:
- Sign this petition to share your support of FOL
- Get the word out by sharing our Facebook updates via FOL
- Follow us on Twitter: @loewsjersey
- Follow us on Instagram: @loewsjersey

Join us this Friday & Saturday at the Landmark Loew's Jersey, at Journal Square

> "Taxi Driver", Friday, 5/21, 8pm

>> "Blazing Saddles", Saturday, 5/22, 6:15pm

>>> "Saturday Night Fever", Saturday May 22, 8:40pm

www.loewsjersey.org -- 201-798-6055

Hope you can join us!

The '70s On The Big Screen At The Landmark Loew?s Jersey Theatre

A Not-For-Profit Arts Center in a Historic Movie Palace 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306

email: loewsjersey@gmail.com tel: 201-798-6055 web: www.loewsjersey.org

As the Loew's Jersey continues to celebrate its 80th Anniversary Year, we present three landmark films of the 1970s

All in 35mm

*TAXI DRIVER -- Friday, May 21 8PM
*BLAZING SADDLES -- Saturday, May 22 6:15PM
*SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER -- Saturday, May 22 8:40PM
Combo discounts available
for multiple film screenings


-->Friday, May 21, 8pm
-->"Taxi Driver"
Starring Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel.
Directed by Martin Scorsese. Score by Bernard Herrmann. (1976, 113mins, Color)

$6 for adults; $4 for seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger)

"I'm God's lonely man," says Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro in one of his finest and most memorable performances. He?s an insomniac, ex-Marine and chronic loner who, even when he tries, can?t seem to relate to the world around him. He drives a cab at night in the decaying New York City of the mid-1970s, which director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader depict as a grimly stylized hell on Earth, where noise, filth, directionless rage, and dirty sex (both morally and literally) surround him at all turns. Lost in this toxic milieu, chronically isolated and potentially volatile, Bickle is a bomb waiting to explode, like the proverbial gun which, when produced in the first act, must go off in the third.

After an encounter with a malevolent fare (played by Scorsese), the increasingly paranoid Bickle begins to condition (and arm) himself for his imagined destiny, a mission that mutates from assassinating a Presidential candidate to violently "saving" a teenage hooker (played by Jodie Foster) from her pimp. De Niro's masterful performance brings Travis vividly to life; Scorsese's dynamic, idiosyncratic visual storytelling (given an invaluable assist by cinematographer Michael Chapman) provides the perfect narrative context; and Bernard Herrmann's eerie final score (finished the day he died) provides perfect punctuation.

The work is a timeless, noir-ishly dystopian rumination on the mythology of American heroism that emphasizes the myth?s sometimes obsessively violent underpinnings. But "Taxi Driver" is also very much a distillation of the fears and fixations of its time. Released in the Bicentennial year, after the socially turbulent years of the late 1960s and early ?70s, Vietnam, Watergate, and attention-getting attempts on President Gerald Ford's life, Taxi Driver's intense portrait of a man and a society unhinged spoke resonantly to audiences of its era. It remains a striking milestone of both Scorsese's career and 1970s Hollywood.


---> Saturday, May 22 6:15PM
---> "Blazing Saddles"
Starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Mel Brooks. Written & Directed by Mel Brooks. (1974, 93mins, Color)

$6 for adults; $4 for seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger)

"Blazing Saddles" is vulgar, crude and sometimes scandalous ? and is one of the funniest and most successful film spoofs of all time. It is also writer-director Mel Brooks at his ribald best, with further outrageous hilarity added in by co-writer Richard Pryor. Cleavon Little plays the first African-American sheriff of a stunned Western town scheduled for demolition by an encroaching railroad. If that plot sounds, at least in part, like a through-back to the movies of an earlier time, it?s because Brooks was, in his own manic, Borscht Belt way, a central figure in revising classic film genres to reflect 1970s? values and attitudes ? an effort more often associates with such directors as Robert Altman and Peter Bogdanovich.

"Blazing Saddles" is a work that truly could have only been made in the ?70s ? the idiom of the classic American western hijacked into an over-the-top comedy that purposely and relentlessly shredded the popular conception of ?good taste? while making merciless fun of EVERYONE, regardless of skin color or religious persuasion. If blacks came off as stereotypical, whites were shown as just plain stupid and ignorant. The result was one of the funniest films of all time ? which, ironically, could probably not be made today in our more politically correct, up-tight time. Beyond its over-the-top humor, "Blazing Saddles" boasts some great performances: Little and Gene Wilder have great chemistry; Madeline Kahn is wonderful as a chanteuse modeled on Marlene Dietrich; and Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman and even Brooks himself turn in great supporting roles.


--> Saturday, May 22 8:40PM
--> "Saturday Night Fever"
Starring John Travolta, Karen Gorney, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pope. (1977, 119mins, Color)

$6 for adults; $4 for seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger)

From the moment John Travolta sauntered down a Brooklyn street to the Bee Gees? "Stayin' Alive" at the beginning of "Saturday Night Fever", music, movies and all of pop culture were irrevocably changed, and the 1970s gained what is perhaps the decade's single most recognizable celluloid imagery. Travolta plays Tony Manero, a Brooklyn paint-store clerk who?s trapped in a dead-end existence ? except at night on the disco dance floor, where, when he struts his stuff amidst flashing lights and sweaty, undulating bodies, he?s a king. Part of the film?s success owes to how astutely it balanced a gritty sense of 1970s economic and social malaise with galvanizing dance numbers. But of course, the hallmark of the film is Travolata?s star-making performance ? especially the scenes in his iconic white suite ? and the Bee Gee?s soundtrack.

During the first half of 1978, the movie's disco songs saturated the singles charts, occupying up to four positions at a time, prompting more and more people to see the movie -- just as, in turn, the movie's vast popularity prompted more and more record sales. This powerful marketing synergy between movies and music set a new standard, with the film eventually grossing over $100 million and the soundtrack becoming one of the best selling albums of all time.

For many young people at the time, the movie marked their generation's coming of age and was an indelible movie-going experience. By any measure, "Saturday Night Fever" is the definitive evocation of the Disco Era, and affirmation of Disco's dominance (however brief) of the pop culture scene.

***Combo discounts available for multiple film screenings

All Tickets available at the Box Office (Cash Only)

The 1940s on the Big Screen
- - - DARKLY

At The Landmark Loew?s Jersey Theatre
A Not-For-Profit Arts Center in a Historic Movie Palace

54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel: (201) 798-6055 Web: www.loewsjersey.org

As the Loew's Jersey continues to celebrate its 80th Anniversary Year, we present three of the greatest -- and darkest -- films from the decade that gave rise to Film Noir:

Friday, February 26 at 8PM
?White Heat? Starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien. Directed by Raoul Walsh. (1949, 114 mins, B&W)
$6 for adults, $4 for seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger).
James Cagney first became a star in the 1930s as a tough criminal in Warner Bros. Studio?s classic gangster melodramas. He went on, of course, to play a great variety of other roles, ranging from George M. Cohan to the great silent star Lon Chaney, Sr., in dramas, musicals and comedies. But in 1949, Cagney returned one last time to the role of tough guy in ?White Heat? ? a crime drama that takes the familiar elements of plot, character and theme from his old ?30s gangster pictures but transforms them into a kind of Film Noir tragedy. Cagney is Cody Jarrett, a deranged criminal prone to headaches and seizures. His molten temper, feral cunning, and mercurial charm are finely calibrated extensions of the doomed gangsters Cagney played a decade before, this time coiled not around a Depression-era impetus of greed or class rivalry, but an Oedipal bond. Cody's beloved, calculating "Ma" (Margaret Wycherly) is the compass for his every move, her iron will and long shadow acknowledged not only by Cody but by his gang, his restless wife (Virginia Mayo, radiating sensuality and guile), and the undercover cop (Edmond O'Brien) planted in Jarrett's path. Cagney?s performance is nothing less than superb as he creates one of the most frighteningly psychotic characters ever seen on screen, a model for the stranger, more brutal outlaws who would dominate crime cinema in the 1960s and 1970s. The fiery, climactic scene has become part of pop culture.

Saturday, February 27 at 6:15PM
?Notorious?Starring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. (1946, 101 mins, B&W)
$6 for adults, $4 for seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger).
?Notorious? is a tightly woven and brilliantly sustained mix of romance and suspense that takes remarkable risks with its main characters. Ingrid Bergman, never more radiant or vulnerable, is a flawed heroine: the beautiful daughter of a notorious Nazi spy who has garnered a notorious reputation for herself by turning to drink and casual affairs to help forget the shame of her father?s infamy. Cary Grant, whose suave screen persona was rarely more hard-edged and even unlikable, is an American agent who uses Bergman?s affection for him to manipulate her into spying on her father?s old Nazi cronies. And Claude Rains is an unlikely villain: a charming Nazi sympathizer who genuinely loves Bergman and seems far more likable than Grant. To this mix, Hitchcock adds some of his most stunning black and white camera work, including a famous tracking shot that begins across a crowded room and ends in a close-up of Bergman's hand while she secretly holds a key. Several scenes are unusually but very effectively shown from Bergman?s point of view. And the ending embrace is considered one of the most erotic ever filmed under the old Production Code. Throughout the script, written by legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht, there is the troubling subtext of love and betrayal. ?Notorious? is one of the most effective Noir, or at least Noir-esque films, and is often considered to be Hitchcock?s finest film of the 1940s.

Saturday, February 27 at 8:30PM
?The Third Man?Starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard. Directed by Carol Reed. Written by Graham Greene. (1949, 104 mins, B&W)
$6 for adults, $4 for seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger).
One of the greatest Noir movies ever filmed, ?The Third Man? sets loyalty, friendship and love against justice and common good in the fractured, cynical setting of defeated and occupied Vienna after World War II. Joseph Cotten is Holly Martins, an alcoholic pulp writer from America who?s traveled to Austria to visit his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). But when Cotton arrives, Lime's funeral is under way. From Lime's girlfriend and an occupying British officer Martins learns of allegations of Lime's involvement in black market racketeering. The idealistic and perhaps na?ve Martins vows to clear his friend's reputation. But as he is drawn deeper into postwar intrigue, Martins finds layer upon layer of deception which he desperately tries to sort out. One of the most remarkable aspects of ?The Third Man? is that Welles is only in the last third of the film, yet seems to dominate it throughout. This is a tribute to how cleverly screenwriter Graham Greene builds anticipation through the contradictory information Martins gathers in his search for info about his old friend. It?s also a tribute to how powerful and widely known Welles? screen persona is. Welles? long-delayed entrance is one of the most memorable scenes in any film. The movie boasts some of the most evocative cinematography ever filmed, with long shadows, stark lighting, cocked camera angles and exaggerated close-ups that perfectly capture the surreal, off-kilter feel of postwar Europe while emphasizing the shadowy nature of the story. The zither music that plays throughout is among the most recognized and haunting of movie themes.
Combo discounts for multiple screenings are available.
(Film descriptions compiled from various sources.)


The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, and is minutes from the NJ Turnpike, Rts 3 and 1&9 and the Holland & Lincoln Tunnels. We're easy to reach by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Region.
Discount of-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's at the foot of Magnolia Avenue off Tonnele Avenue, behind the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Theatre.


What?s Special About Seeing A Move At The Loew?s? The Landmark Loew?s Jersey Theatre is one of America?s grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting ? on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew?s runs reel-to-reel, not platter, projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title.
The Loew?s is managed by Friends of the Loew?s, Inc. as a non-profit. Multi-discipline performing arts center.
Classic Film Weekends are presented by Friends of the Loew?s, Inc.

November To Remember

3 Memorable Movies

Presented In Memory of Bob Eberenz*


(See below for explanation)

November 20 & 21
At the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre
A Not-For-Profit Arts Center In a Historic Movie Palace

54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel: (201) 798-6055
Web: www.loewsjersey.org


Friday, November 20 at 8PM

"Monsieur Verdoux" -- Starring Charlie Chaplin. Also starring Mady Correll, Isobel Elsom, Audrey Betz, Ada May, Martha Ray. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. (1947, 124mins, B&W) Chaplin called this film his "cleverest and most brilliant", but he is certainly not the familiar Tramp in it. He plays a suave serial killer who makes his living marrying and murdering lonely rich women. Chaplin turned this shocking conceit into a black comedy that seems surprisingly modern to us today -- especially in its presentation of the hypocrisy of societies that damn murder by individuals but praise war.

A rare big screen revival.


Saturday, November 21 at 2PM
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" -- Starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Katina Paxinou. Directed by Sam Wood. (1943, 157mins., Color) Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a romantic drama set against the turbulent tapestry of the Spanish Civil War. Though downplaying the extreme ideological aspects of the war (which Hollywood found uncomfortable), the film is otherwise largely faithful to Hemingway's writing and boasts excellent performances, torrid love scenes, and first-rate Technicolor photography.

Screened in a restored, archival print from UCLA.


Saturday, November 21 at 7:30PM
"Forbidden Planet" -- Starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen. Directed by Fred Wilcox. (1956, 98mins, Color, CinemaScope)
One of the most famous science fiction movies ever made. A pre-comedy Leslie Nielsen as a space traveler who discovers the planet where expatriate Earth-man Pidgeon has built a one-man empire with his daughter and the iconic Robby the Robot. Great special effects for the day, the film also boasted lavish use of the wide-screen CinemaScope and MGM's early form of stereo called Perspecta.

A rare chance to enjoy this CinemaScope masterpiece on the Loew's 50 foot W-I-D-E screen.

A VERY rare screening using the ORIGINAL PERSPECTA SOUNDTRACK!



Separate Admission for each screening is just $6 for adults, $4 for seniors (65+), children (12 & younger) and students with ID.

OR -- Combo Discounts available for multiple screenings over the weekend.


NEW FOR PRESS USE


High res images for each film are available for download at http://flickr.com/gp/42829129@N06/7gUpp0. (If this link does not work, copy and paste it in your browser.)

Go to this page, click on the thumbnail image you are interested in, then when it refreshes click on the "All Sizes" icon that appears above the image. This will take you to a page where you can choose the size photo file you want and download it. These images are provided to media outlets courtesy of Photofest, Inc. for use in illustrating listings and features about films at the Loew's Jersey. If you have trouble downloading the image you want, call (201) 798-6055.


The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, is minutes from the NJ Turnpike & easily reached by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Area.

Discount off-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Loew's.

What's Special About Seeing A Movie At The Loew's? The Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre is one of America's grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting -- on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew's runs reel-to-reel, not platter, projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title.

The Loew's Jersey is managed by Friends of the Loew's, Inc. as a non-profit, multi-discipline performing arts center.

For directions or more information: Call (201) 798-6055 or visit www.loewsjersey.org.


Press inquiries call Colin Egan at (201) 798-6055 or CEL (201) 344-7477. Or email loewsjersey@gmail.com.


Classic Film Weekends are presented by Friends of the Loew's, Inc.


Robert Eberenz
Chief Technical Director of the Loew's
1996 - 2008


* Bob Eberenz was an Academy Award winning film and sound engineer who worked on the production of many movies, including "Monsieur Verdoux". Additionally, Bob recorded concerts and performers for some of the greatest albums ever released -- including the Beatles at Shea Stadium -- and worked to design and install cutting-edge equipment for making and presenting movies. Among his many accomplishments in this area, Bob re-built the White House theatre during the Carter Presidency, and was a lead engineer in the development of MGM's "Perspecta Sound", an early form of stereo used in the making of "Forbidden Planet" as well as several hundred other films. Bob was also a very active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, where he worked to advance the techniques and the appreciation of the art of movie making. Bob worked closely on various Academy projects with the daughter of Hollywood great Gary Cooper, who starred in "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

From 1996 until his passing in 2008, Bob was the Chief Technical Director of the Loew's Jersey. When the Loew's was closed and readied for demolition in 1986, ALL of the Theatre's equipment for showing movies was either removed or destroyed. In fact, the Projection Booth was left open to the elements and became a pigeon coop! As a volunteer, Bob took on the Herculean task of completely rebuilding the Loew's capability to show movies. What he did was to give the Loew's an archive-quality projection booth that allows us to screen the best prints available from studio vaults, archives and collectors. Bob also did many other things to help restore the Loew's, including making the Theatre's organ and stage lifts work again, reviving the Theater's historic 1929 stage lighting system, and installing modern sound mixing equipment.

In truth, EVERY time a movie is shown at the Loew's, it is a tribute to Bob Eberenz's skill and dedication. But Friends of the Loew's gratefully dedicates this particular series to Bob's memory. We miss him greatly.

Get In The Mood For Halloween
With Landmark Horror
On the BIG Screen At The

Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre
54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel: (201) 798-6055 Fax: (201) 798-4020 Email: loewsjersey@gmail.com Web: www.loewsjersey.org
A Not-For-Profit Arts Center In A Historic Movie Palace



Friday, October 23 at 8PM
?Carrie? Starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving. Directed by Brian De Palma. (1976, 98 mins., Color)
Shy, unpopular high school girl Carrie White can only take so much humiliation from her peers before she strikes back. Stephen King?s unforgettable story, de Palma?s thrilling direction, and the lead?s moving and chilling performances make this one of the best of New Hollywood?s horror films.

Saturday, October 24 at 4PM
"The Wolf Man? Starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Bela Lugosi. Directed by George Waggner. (1941, 70 mins. B&W)
Larry Talbot suffers the curse of the werewolf and is transformed into a killer by the light of the full moon in this tragic, atmospheric, and spooky classic from Universal, one of the studio's last great monster movies.

Saturday, October 24 at 7:30PM
?Rosemary?s Baby? -- Directed by Roman Polanski. Starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon. (1968, 136 mins., Color)
Expectant young mother Rosemary begins to suspect a plot against her and her unborn child. In his first American film, Polanski deftly mingled the supernatural with the mundane to create incredible suspense and unforgettable horror without gore or gimmicks. Polanski's groundbreaking film ushered in a new generation of horror films, rescuing the genre from B picture status and setting the stage for later blockbusters such as "The Exorcist", "The Omen" and "Carrie".

Separate Admission for each screening is just $6 for adults, $4 for seniors (65+), children (12 & younger) and students with ID.

OR -- Combo Discounts available for multiple screenings over the weekend.


See FILM NOTES below for more info about the films.


The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, is minutes from the NJ Turnpike & easily reached by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Area.

Discount off-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Loew's.

What's Special About Seeing A Movie At The Loew's? The Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre is one of America's grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting -- on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew's runs reel-to-reel, not platter, projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title.

The Loew's Jersey is managed by Friends of the Loew's, Inc. as a non-profit, multi-discipline performing arts center.

For directions or more information: Call (201) 798-6055 or visit www.loewsjersey.org.


Press inquiries call Colin Egan at (201) 798-6055 or CEL (201) 344-7477. Or email loewsjersey@gmail.com.


Classic Film Weekends are presented by Friends of the Loew's, Inc.



FILM NOTES


"Carrie"
Starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, and John Travolta
Directed by Brian De Palma
(98 minutes, 1976, Color, United Artists)

Stephen King?s first novel was a gripping, unforgettable story of a shy high school wallflower, emotionally beaten down by her classmates as well as her overbearing and irrational mother, who gets pushed to the breaking point and strikes back. Brian De Palma?s film adaptation ? which was also the first of a Stephen King work ? tells the story intelligently with well-paced and surprisingly subtle direction. Carries? world is presented as an all-too believable snake pit where all the ?in? females have fangs. The cast is superb, starting with Spacek who brings her character?s misery to painfully vivid life, personifying every high school kid who didn?t fit in. Piper Laurie won an Academy Award for her unsettling and unsympathetic portrayal of Carrie?s mother. De Palma?s visual style adds to the picture?s impact. The direction, acting, cinematography and editing all come together in the climactic prom scene to form one of the most heart-stopping scenes in American cinema. All of this made Carrie a watershed of mainstream horror film. But it is also one of the truest and most painfully perceptive depictions ever filmed of the high school caste system, especially of the brand of cruelty unique to teenage girls. This film is classic King, flavored by Hitchcock and with an extra shot of vivid color and photography to create a striking and tragic supernatural thriller. (Compiled from various sources.)


"The Wolf Man"
Starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Ralph Bellamy, and Bela Lugosi
Directed by George Waggner
(70 minutes, 1941, Black-and-White, Universal Pictures)

In 1931, with the releases of ?Dracula? and ?Frankenstein?, Universal Pictures began what, for the studio, would be a highly successful franchise of monster movies, creating a distinct, expressionistic image of what horror looked like in black and white on the big screen. Along the way, the studio gave birth to an impressive cast of monsters which still dominate our collective imagination, especially at Halloween. In 1941, Universal introduced the last of these iconic characters in what, arguably, was the last of its truly great horror films: The Wolf Man. Scripted by German emigre Curt Siodmak (a legendary author of horror films and novels throughout the 1940s and 1950s), the film is a literate and quite adult fairy tale of love, lust and redemption, with the story of the return of the prodigal son thrown in for good measure. Lon Chaney, Jr. plays a man who dismisses the legend of the werewolf as childish nonsense not to be believed in the 20th century until he is bitten by a beast that turns out to be a werewolf and is himself cursed to suffer the torments of the damned whenever the moon is full. The film boasts an all star cast, that includes Claude Rains, Ralph Bellamy, Evelyn Ankers and Bela Lugosi (as the gypsy-turned-wolf who bites Chaney). As Dracula had done before it for centuries-old folktales about vampires, The Wolf Man drew together various ancient legends to create a single mythology and iconography for the werewolf that would become fixed in the modern mind forever: the gypsy curse, silver bullet, and bipedal half-wolf stalking the fogy soundstage. The iconic look of The Wolf Man was created by Universal?s make-up genius Jack Pierce, who had similarly created the now unmistakable looks of Frankenstein and The Mummy. (Compiled from various sources.)

"Rosemary?s Baby"
Starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, and Ruth Gordon
Directed by Roman Polanski
(136 minutes, 1968, Color, Paramount Pictures)

In his first American film, Roman Polanski re-invented the horror film, rescuing the genre from the schlocky, B-movie status to which it had fallen, and ushering in a new generation of horror films. Ironically, it was legendary schlock-master William Castle, creator of such gimmicky B horror flicks as ?The Tingler? and ?House on Haunted Hill?, who had purchased the rights to Ira Levin?s best-selling horror/thriller and hired the young, newly-immigrated Polanski to helm ?Rosemary?s Baby?. Rosemary Woodhouse is a young wife, played with waif-like perfection by Mia Farrow, who moves into an old New York City apartment building with her struggling actor husband. At first little seems out of order, except that their elderly neighbors are a bit eccentric and a tad nosy. But gradually, a sense begins to build in Rosemary ? and the audience ? that something is wrong not just with her neighbors but also with her unborn child. Polanski?s greatest strength is his subtlety; his pacing and sense of mood are masterful without calling attention to themselves. He avoids the gimmicks and gore that had been conventions of the horror genre, but instead employs Alfred Hitchcock?s propensity to find horror in the utterly mundane. The horror of the film?s underlying supernatural premise sinks its claws in so slowly and unobtrusively that the audience doesn?t notice until too late the enveloping sense of dread and despair. The film is also full of memorable performances, from small roles for iconic 1940s stars like Ralph Bellamy and Elisha Cook, Jr. to the Academy Award-winning performance by Ruth Gordon as the meddling neighbor, to Farrow?s haunting performance. (Compiled from various sources.)

Though it was his first American film, "Rosemary's Baby" is quintessential Polanski -- a brooding, apocalyptic view with hints of dark comedy, that finds menace in the ordinary. The film put Polanski in the top rank of directors.

Come Celebrate the Landmark Loew's Jersey's 80th Year!

Come and enjoy our celebration of the theatre's 1929 opening year with three classic movies either set in or filmed during the "Roaring Twenties."

Friday, October 2, 8:00pm
The Untouchables (1987)
Starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia. Directed by Brian De Palma. (119 mins.)
Chicago of the Prohibition-era is convincingly recreated, and the classic Hollywood gangster picture is brilliantly re-imagined in this modern masterpiece. Connery won Best Supporting Oscar, but all five stars give unforgettable performances.

Sat. Oct. 3 - 4:00pm
The Cocoanuts (1929)
Starring The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico & Zeppo) and Margaret Dumont. Music by Irving Berlin. (96 mins.)
This last great comedy of the 1920?s was also The Marx Brothers' first film. And it was the first great comedy of the talking picture era!

Sat. Oct 3 - 8:00pm
Safety Last!* (1923)
Starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strothers, Noah Young. (78mins.)
Silent, shown with LIVE ORGAN accompaniment by Ralph Ringstad, Jr. on the Loew?s Wonder Morton
One of the greatest comedies of the 1920s, ?Safety Last? includes the iconic scene of Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high atop a building. Don?t miss this RARE chance to see it as it was meant to be enjoyed ? on the BIG screen with live organ accompaniment.

*Special Admission Price for "Safety Last": $7 adults; $5 students, children under 12 & seniors. Admission to this film will not be included in any combo pricing. Admission to "The Untouchables" and "Cocoanuts" will be at our normal prices of $6 for adults and $4 for students, children & seniors.

VISIT http://www.loewsjersey.org/ FOR DIRECTIONS and MORE INFORMATION!