Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll go inside a movie palace from the Roaring Twenties that has been given a top-to-bottom renovation. And you can see how you do on our Monday quiz.
Is this a wonderful time to be a “Wonder Theater”?
Mayor James Solomon of Jersey City says it is. So does Colin Egan, who has worked toward this moment for 40 years.
Both are talking about Loew’s Jersey, a movie theater from the 1920s that was one of five so-called Wonder Theaters in the New York area in the days when silent films were giving way to talkies. A $130 million renovation has restored the over-the-top look it was born with.
But Solomon and Egan say there are details that still need to be hashed out after a ribbon-cutting ceremony today, including the role to be played by the nonprofit group that Egan founded, which has led the preservation and restoration of the theater since the mid-1980s.
Other Wonder Theaters are thriving: At the one in the Bronx, the Paradise Theater, a new nonprofit has just signed a long lease and is working to fund-raise for a $50 million renovation. The one in Brooklyn, Kings Theater in Flatbush, was renovated in the 2010s and now hosts more than 200 productions a year.
In Jersey City, the particulars involving Egan’s nonprofit, Friends of the Loew’s, are somewhat complicated.
The organization had tangled with Solomon’s predecessor, Steven Fulop, who left office in January. In 2020, the city sought a commercial entertainment company to schedule programs. The company would share the calendar with Friends, which was to get 55 dates a year.
Then, in 2024 — after Friends’ nonprofit status lapsed for a few months, Egan said — the city replaced the organization, making the city-run Jersey City Redevelopment Agency the theater’s nonprofit community programmer.
The city also brought in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the N.H.L.’s New Jersey Devils and the N.B.A.’s Philadelphia 76ers and operates the Prudential Center in Newark. The company has booked a slate of performers for the next few weeks, beginning with the Trey Anastasio Band on Friday, the rock band The War on Drugs on Saturday, and the R&B and hip-hop quartet Jodeci next Wednesday.
The prices for the concerts are higher than what Friends of the Loew’s charged when it held movie screenings. Egan said the organization sold tickets for $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and children, with popcorn available for $1 a box.
General admission tickets for the Trey Anastasio show started at $93.15 on Ticketmaster on Sunday, with loge seats as high as $227.15. Seats for Jodeci started at $42.85 on Ticketmaster and went as high as $343.70
That difference points to how Jersey City has changed since construction exploded during Fulop’s tenure. Rents, which initially rose, began to flatten in 2023 and 2024. The rental listings platform Zumper said the median rent in October was $2,826 a month, $79 a month less than last year.
The stock market crashed a month after the theater first opened in 1929, making Loew’s Jersey a grand — or grandiose — relic, even when it was still new.
Now, just beyond the refurbished marquee and the spit-and-polish shine of the old ticket booth, lies the colossal foyer, lined with acres of red-and-gold carpet made to match what was there nearly a century ago. In the theater itself, the murals on the ceiling had to be repainted, and the seats were restored based on photographs of the originals. An elevator to the balcony has been added to comply with building codes and federal requirements.
Outside, the towers atop the facade needed major work.
“Originally the idea was to fix the towers,” said Doug Phelps, the chief executive of the construction company overseeing the project. But, he said, “we ended up having to actually take them down and rebuild them.”
Egan said a full schedule of major commercial shows like Harris Blitzer is planning “is a good thing.” But he said he was concerned about losing “what Friends of the Loew’s did — film screenings, community programming, the sense of fun.”
A spokesman for Harris Blitzer said that it had worked closely with the mayor and the redevelopment agency “on plans to make the theater available to the community.”
The organization had “nothing but respect and admiration,” for the work that the Friends of the Loew’s had done to preserve the theater, he said, adding that Harris Blitzer was looking to “continue to work with many different community groups, including Friends of the Loew’s.”
Solomon said he was committed to determining how to incorporate Friends of the Loew’s into the programming, as well as working out a schedule for the community days.
Egan said he was “guardedly optimistic.”
“Right now,” he said, “it looks like it’s going to be OK.”
Weather
Sunny skies are expected today as temperatures near 59. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 46.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Wednesday (Veterans Day).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This is not my car.” — Carole Blank Brown, who unknowingly racked up $40,000 in parking tickets.
The Monday quiz
Our question comes from an item that appeared in New York Today last week. Click on an answer to see if you’re right. The link is free.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York finalized a settlement with 1,300 people who said they had been sexually abused by its clergy and lay leaders. How much was the dollar value of the settlement?
The latest Metro news
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The text messages at the center of the Cornell case: After a Cornell student said she was sexually assaulted, university investigators amassed a trove of communications from the student and the men she accused. The New York Times obtained the messages.
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Maduro’s prison life: Former President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela is studying religious and philosophical texts from his prison cell in Brooklyn. He has also met with prison chaplains, including a priest and a rabbi.
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Hochul’s future: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s re-election victory is the kind of win that can get people talking about higher office. Yet as Democratic leaders discuss potential options for the 2028 presidential election, she has been largely left out of the discourse. Hochul seems more interested in winning a third full term, and in building a legacy in New York.
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Sherrill to appoint second in command: Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey is expected to appoint Shirley Emehelu, a former federal and state prosecutor, as her lieutenant governor.
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Connecticut prep school head resigns: Charlie Cahn III, who earned more than $1 million a year leading Suffield Academy, was placed on leave last month after the school learned that he was the subject of an I.R.S. investigation. He resigned on Sunday.
METROPOLITAN diary
Two lives
Dear Diary:
Three days before Christmas 1977, I joined a holiday gathering on the top floor at Bellevue Hospital, where I was on call as chief resident in the trauma service.
The evening was uncharacteristically quiet. Then my pager beeped.
“They’re bringing in a man who jumped off the top of the Empire State Building,” I was told. “He’s alive!”
I raced down to the ground floor, where I found the emergency room empty save for a disheveled young man in handcuffs who was in the custody of two policemen. Aside from having a few scratches, he was uninjured, and I transferred him to the psychiatry service.
I soon learned that his name was Thomas Helms, that he was a 26-year-old artist and that he had leaped over the spiked fence on the building’s 86th floor only to be deposited by an updraft onto a three-foot ledge one story down.
He landed outside the window of NBC’s transmission control room. Thirty minutes later, William Steckman, a broadcast engineer, was startled by a tap on his shoulder.
Turning around, he confronted an agitated young man who, when asked how he had gotten into the office, said: “Through the window!”
The engineer restrained and calmed the man and delivered him to the police.
What became of Mr. Helms is unclear. But in 1980, Mr. Steckman moved to NBC’s new control room on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower, and on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he agreed to stay on after his shift ended at 6 a.m. He died at 10:28 a.m. He was 56.
He had saved a life and lost his life where he worked — at the top of New York City.
— John Reilly
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post Loew’s Jersey Theater Shines Again After $130 Million Renovation appeared first on New York Times.
