Have a seat

A lot has been happening at the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre. Our first real film festival season was a smashing success. Those of you who attended our film festivals, might have notices the majority of seating in the theatre seemed to resemble original seating, well they are original.

Since attaining theatre functionality was paramount, we've worked on restoring the approximately 2,200 seats in the orchestra section first, deferring work on the balcony section to sometime in the coming year.

Restoring the seats has proven to be an arduous undertaking, consisting of various tasks carried out by small teams of volunteers working simultaneously. Tasks such as:

Dismantling the "Soft Parts"
The first step was to remove the backs and cushions from the seats. Sound easy? Consider the number of seats and that many of the screws and bolts the volunteers had to undo were rusted, stripped and/or just plain broken. Cushions and backs then had to be moved clear of the seating area and stacked up any place we could find room.

Removing Armrests The seats' wooden armrests had to be removed in order to restore them, as well as to facilitate cleaning and painting the seat frames. All of the armrests had to be "tapped free" with a mallet and then relocated to await restoration.

Removing Working Parts
The seat cushions were supported by a pair of swiveling arms, attached to the seat frame by a clamp assembly. These arms and their clamps had to be removed from the frames so that all the parts can be thoroughly cleaned and painted. Accumulated dirt and rusted bolts often complicated this work.

These ornate end-stands needed extra attention.

Cleaning the Frames
Every iron seat frame had to be as clean as possible before being painted. This turned out to be quite a labor-intensive job. Dust, dirt, rust, hardened chewing gum and candy, as well as substances that defied definition had to b e chiseled, scraped and wire-brushed off of each frame. Once the "hard matter" had been removed, the entire floor area around the seats was cleaned to minimize the dirt that could resettle on the frames. Each frame was then hand-washed to remove grease, oils, and residual dirt and rust. This process also had to be performed on the ornate aisle end-plates, which had a lot of deep groves that were also encrusted with dirt, gum and rust.

Cleaning Movable Seat Parts
The seats' iron moving parts required careful cleaning. This job entailed a grinding wheel, an oil-lifting chemical solution, and, finally, lots of good, old-fashioned scrubbing with wire brushes. And with over 4,400 arm and clamp assemblies in the orchestra level alone, that was a lot of scrubbing. Much of the work was done in the basement where an "iron laundromat" had been set up. And when cleaned, they all had to be carried back up to the auditorium for reinstallation. With each arm and clamp weighing about 2.25 pounds, it comes to nearly five tons of metal, all moved by hand!

Restoring Armrests
Our only seat parts made of wood needed special care. Many of the armrests were damaged, not only by age, but by the "personalization" efforts of bygone patrons, either carved or written with heavy marker. A heavy-duty power sander ground away the old varnish and vandalism, as well as the cracking and splitting of age. After the rough sanding, a palm sander smoothed the surface and completed any reshaping needed. Then a fine sanding ensured a hard, "smooth-as-glass" finish on the bare wood.

Meanwhile, extensive research and testing was done to find the right combination of stains, varnishes, and sealers for the armrests that not only most closely matched the original finish but was hard enough to last for years. Sanded armrests were then stained and varnished by hand, a task consisting of several steps. After the basic stain was applied, each unit was put aside to dry before being lightly sanded, wiped clean, and then varnished. Most of these steps were repeated, and followed up with sealer.

The "Easy" Part
That is, someone else's job. Since repairing about 4,400 seat cushions and backs is a too big a job, even for us, we hired a contractor to reupholster them. Easy for us, but not for EDC Loew's Managing Director Colin Egan -- who had to prepare specifications, including materials and precise details for the job, put out bids for contractors, review them, select a contractor, and then negotiate work schedules, change orders and all those precise details .

However, before the contractor could even take them away, volunteers had to put each seat cushion and back into a plastic bag to prevent dust and mildew from being unleashed all over the theatre as the parts were being moved.

Painting, Painting, Painting
While the backs and cushions were out being reupholstered, we had to paint the frames, end-plates, and swivel-arm units. Before work on the frames could begin, the auditorium floor was carefully covered to prevent it from being painted along with the frames. Reliving their elementary school art project days, volunteers hand-cut cardboard masks to fit snugly around the feet of every seat frame, and then put these in place before covering the rest of the floor. The seat frames were then painted by specialist volunteers with a high-volume, low-pressure spray paint system. Meanwhile, the end plates and swivel-arms were painted separately by hand.

Reassembling the Seats
When the metal parts are all painted, volunteers will tackle the final steps of reattaching the swivel-arm assemblies to the frames, and reinstalling the backs, cushions, armrests, and aisle end-plates. But because the seats are not all the same width, the backs and cushions will have to be sorted by size to ensure that each set is matched and installed between a properly spaced pair of frames. The armrests are not all exactly the same size either, and will also have to be sorted before they can be reinstalled.

Restoring the seats has proven to be a long and complex job. Those of us working on it, however, feel a proportionally great sense of satisfaction, which is growing stronger as the whole Loew's Jersey Theatre restoration project draws closer to completion.

So when you come to the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre to see a film, concert or play and you sit on one of the many seats, remember what it took to make you comfortable.