The Most Lavish Temple of Entertainment in New Jersey

The Loew’s Jersey opened its polished brass doors on September 28, 1929. Journal Square, Jersey City was a regional crossroads with a stop on the “Tubes” subway line that ran between New York and Newark; scores of regional bus and trolley lines also converged there. Two other theatres were already doing business in Journal Square, along with some of the area’s finest shops and restaurants.

Built at what was then the impressive sum of $2 million dollars, the Loew’s was accurately called as “the most lavish temple of entertainment in New Jersey”. It was also one of the state’s biggest theatres, with just under 3,100 seats. And the Loew’s was also one of the best equipped theatres of its day. It was fitted with an arbor and metal cable counter-weight rigging system in its 80 foot high rigging loft, the same kind of system still in use in Broadway’s older houses. The stage lighting equipment was state of the art for 1929, having ten pre-sets. The Theatre’s stage was large for its day, measuring an average 35 feet deep by 82 feet wide, with a proscenium opening of an amazingly wide 50 feet. The orchestra pit included a main elevator plus a second one dedicated exclusively to the piano; overall, it was large enough for 40 musicians. The Loew’s backstage area included ten dressing rooms and a large rehearsal space. And of course, there was the projection booth, originally equipped with VitaPhone sound-on-disk projectors -- the first commercially successful “talking picture” equipment.