Loew’s Litter

Litter from the throwaway culture that preceded our own disposable culture at the Landmark Loew’s Theatre in Jersey City. What looks like white mucus is actually faux cobwebs. It’s the Halloween season. Hudson County’s only revival movie theater had a weekend of scary flicks. I caught Rosemary’s Baby, which I never saw on the big screen. I still think the movie is over-rated, but the dream-sequence when Mia Farrow is raped by the incubus loses just about all its intensity on the small screen. That was edge of your seat, intelligent film making. Loew’s presents cinema (and a growing number of other entertainments) during the un-air conditioned months. Air Conditioning was unable to be restored so far during the restoration of the Movie Palace. I hadn’t noticed this display case before, obviously of the litter found during the extensive refurbishment of the theater, an entirely volunteer effort. I love the old packaging, the pop culture debris as evidence of actual lives.

This lobby picture isn’t so great but it does reveal a contrast in time. The grandeur of going to the movies, back when the place was first built, when people dressed up for the cinema and smoking was allowed in doors. The immense chandelier hovers over the space made even more expansive by the large mirrors on the walls. Now, everyone is casual and they line up at a make shift snack bar for pop corn, candy, water in bottles, soda in cans. Bicycles are alongside the wall. I wonder, if 50 years from now, will a post-apocalyptical Newport Mall Cineplex feature a similar contrast.