By Lee Pfeiffer
Last Saturday night's screening of F.W. Murnau's classic 1922 horror film Nosferatu may have set an attendance record for the Loew's Theatre in Jersey City, New Jersey. The legendary movie palace had been saved from destruction by dedicated volunteers and has been showing classic films again for the last decade. The day began with a well-attended screening of Son of Frankenstein, certainly among the best of the Universal horror classics. However, it was the evening screening of Nosferatu that brought out the masses. The theater management expected a good turnout but admitted they were stunned. The lines of people patiently waiting to buy tickets extended all the way down the street and the show time was delayed by forty minutes just to accomodate the crowds. The draw was not only the opporunity to see the film in one of the great American theaters, but to enjoy the original musical score played on the magnificent Wonder Morton organ by Wayne Zimmerman, who came in from Pennsylvania to perform. He was masterful, to say the least. The jovial Zimmerman not only played non-stop as a warm up while the audience took their seats in the cavernous theater, but then went on to play the film's score in perfect synchronization. The feat earned him several thunderous ovations. Best of all is the fact that so many young people come out to see classic films at the Loew's. For many, this was their first experience with a silent movie. The audiences are always reverent and there are absolutely no cell phones ringing or text messages being sent. It's good to know that there are still so many sophisticated moviegoers to support such ventures. Click here to sign up for the Loew's newsletter.
The Loew's has just been named Best Movie Theatre by the Village Voice. Here is their review:
[As printed in The Village Voice] "Pee-wee's back and all the rage right now, but how many of us who grew up on his Saturday-morning wackiness remember seeing him on the big screen? Fortunately, a drop-dead gorgeous historic movie palace on Journal Square in Jersey City has taken an eclectic approach to programming films. Earlier this year, the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre revisited the decades, the monthly series culminating in a 1990s night that featured Pee-wee's Big Adventure in all its celluloid glory, introduced by a Wonder Morton Organ and all. Then the fall season kicked off with "Three of the Best Films Hitchcock DIDN'T Make"; also, all of October's selections are Halloween-themed. Besides the obvious reason to head to Jersey for a film here ('cause Jersey rules, duh), there are the gilded ceilings, red-velvet tapestries, $6 tickets, and a reminder that movies, when shown in the right place, can be all-out magical—even when they're about a man-child discovering that there's no basement in the Alamo."