Sinatra On Screen November 19, 2010

Remembering . . .

Sinatra
On
Screen
At the Historic Theatre Where He Decided To Become A Singing Star
The Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre
A Not-For-Profit Performing Arts Center in a Historic Movie Palace
54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel: (201) 798-6055 Fax: (201) 798-4020 Web: www.loewsjersey.org

On a March night in 1933 (during the week that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in as President) a young and unknown Frank Sinatra took the trolley from Hoboken to Journal Square in Jersey City to go the Loew's Jersey Theatre. There, while watching Bing Crosby perform live on stage, Sinatra had an epiphany that would change his life and popular entertainment forever: he decided he wanted to become a singing star just like Crosby.
(This episode is recounted by Nancy Sinatra in her "Frank Sinatra - An American Legend")

He went on to become the prototype music superstar, whose popularity spread like electricity through radio and records to millions of bobby soxer fans in the 1940s and set the mold for the mass adulation of Elvis and the Beatles in future generations. Of course, Sinatra's singing career continued for decades, taking him from the Big Band era, through Jazz to a sound all his own, and even continued unfazed well into the Rock era. But Sinatra also parlayed his musical popularity into movie making. And though he would be followed in this, too, by later singers, few came close in terms of quantity, diversity and quality to the roles Sinatra played.
In tribute to the upcoming 95th Anniversary of Sinatra's birth, the Landmark Loew's Jersey remembers its patron who "made good" with three of his best films.
-- All Screenings In 35mm --

Friday, November 19 8PM
"The Man With the Golden Arm" Starring Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker, Darren McGavin. Directed by Otto Preminger (1955, 119 mins., B&W) Unrated, but may not be suitable for very young children.
$6 for Adults, $4 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Sinatra is riveting as a two-bit card shark and drug addict trying to go straight in this deep, very dark noir that features razor sharp characters, great acting, a crisp jazz soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein and a stylish rendering of the post-war hipster milieu. Sinatra's depiction of the agony of drug withdrawal remains one of the most chilling yet powerful scenes ever filmed. Director Otto Preminger released this groundbreaking drama without the sanction of a Production Code seal, and helped break the stranglehold the censorial Code held over American cinema. A rare big screen presentation of this title; it will be shown in a restoration print.
This film was restored by the Film Archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences with funding from the Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Saturday, November 20 6PM
"On the Town" Starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garret, Anne Miller, Vera-Ellen, Jules Munshin. Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. (1949, 98mins, Color) Not rated, but suitable for all ages.
$6 for Adults, $4 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

The kind of movie they don't make anymore -- great music, great dancing, fun, romantic, exhilarating. Three sailors go on a whirlwind 24 hour leave in New York City. Sinatra is great as the one more interested in seeing the sites than chasing girls -- but who winds up being chased by one. Dazzling on-location scenes of mid-century New York, including the now iconic "New York, New York" opening. Choreography by Kelly, music and story by Adolph Greene & Betty Comden, score co-written by Leonard Bernstein.

Saturday, November 20 8:20PM
"From Here to Eternity" Starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Ernest Borgnine. Directed by Fred Zinnemann. (1953, 118mins., B&W). Not rated, but may not be suitable for young children.
$6 for Adults, $4 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Extraordinary cast playing complex, engrossing characters, including Sinatra in an Academy-Award wining role that proved his power as a dramatic actor and revitalized his career. The story broke American cinematic ground -- and taboos -- with its frank depiction of ambitions, frustrations, personal conflicts, deliberate cruelty, sexual desire and adultery on a Honolulu Army base in the languid months leading up to Pearl Harbor. The scene of Lancaster and Kerr in erotic embrace on the beach is legendary.
(Film descriptions compiled from various sources.)

- - - Combo discounts available for multiple screenings in a weekend. - - -

The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, and is minutes from the NJ Turnpike, Rts 3 and 1&9 and the Holland & Lincoln Tunnels. We're easy to reach by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Region.

Discount off-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's at the foot of Magnolia Avenue off of Tonnelle Avenue, behind the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Theatre.

What’s Special About Seeing A Movie At The Loew’s? The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is one of America’s grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting – on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew’s runs reel-to-reel -- not platter -- projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title.

PLUS – Live organ entrance music (from the Loew’s magnificently restored pipe organ) before most screenings.

The Loew’s Jersey is managed by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc. as a non-profit, multi-discipline performing arts center.

Classic Film Weekends are presented by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc.

The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre receives support from the City of Jersey City, Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy and the Municipal Council, and the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund, administered by the Hudson County Division of Planning, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Official Website: http://www.loewsjersey.org