John KampfeHome, In the News, New Jersey Movies

And, Yes, the Film Has Jersey Ties



How do you celebrate the 150th anniversary of a Hudson County institution? If you are the historic Loew’s Jersey Theatre in the heart of Journal Square in Jersey City, you show a movie.

The Friends of the Loew’s, the non-profit group restoring the movie palace, will offer a free showing of the 1940 comedy classic His Girl Friday on Saturday, April 29, at 7:30 PM in honor of the sesquicentennial of The Jersey Journal.

The Howard Hawks-directed film stars Cary Grant as, appropriate to the anniversary celebration, a New York City newspaper editor. Grant plans an elaborate scheme to stop his star reporter — and ex-wife —played by Rosalind Russell from leaving the business to marry a milquetoast insurance agent (Ralph Bellamy).

The Loew’s Jersey and The Jersey Journal have a long history together. The Friends of the Loew’s had this to say about the relationship between the theater and newspaper over the years:

“In today’s world of blogs and other electronic media, for a newspaper to survive at all is, frankly, a big deal. But for The Jersey Journal to be able to mark 150 years of continuous service to its community is a REALLY big deal. It makes the Loew’s, coming up for 88 years old, seem almost a youngster in comparison. “That means, of course, that the JJ was there when plans for the Loew’s were first announced. The paper covered the Theatre’s grand opening, and its big First Anniversary bash during which legendary Mayor Frank Hague cut a huge cake on stage. The JJ offered reviews of all the live shows that performed on the Loew’s stage in the Theatre’s first years, and carried ads for the hundreds and hundreds of movies that were shown on the Theatre’s screen through the decades. “In other words, The Jersey Journal and the Loew’s Jersey go way back. So it’s wholly fitting that the JJ will celebrate its sesquicentennial in the grand old Theatre that still stands in the Square that bears the paper’s name.”

If you haven’t seen a movie at the Loew’s yet it’s a must-do. There still is a lot of work to be done but the Friends of the Loew’s has done a magnificent job thus far in renovating the theater with limited resources. And there’s nothing like watching a classic film in the format for which it was made — on a big screen in 35mm.

Now about those New Jersey connections in His Girl Friday …

Ernest Truex, who played “Bensinger,” wasn’t from the Garden State — he was a Kansas City native — but he worked here. Truex, who cut his acting teeth on Broadway in the early 20th Century, made his film debut in one of silent screen legend Mary Pickford’s first movies, Caprice, in 1913. According to IMDb, Red Bank was one of locations in which Caprice was filmed.

Truex spent much of his early movie career among the New York-New Jersey film community. His ties to the area lasted into the 1930s. According to Richard Koszarski in his book Fort Lee: The Film Town, Truex co-starred in what was the last sound “B” movie made in Fort Lee and New Jersey, 1933’s Get That Venus. Also starring in the picture was Jean Arthur, who had not yet achieved Hollywood stardom and was working on Broadway while trying to make her mark in movies.

His Girl Friday also featured character actor Wheaton Chambers, who grew up in Freehold in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Chambers made a brief appearance as an elevator passenger in the film. It was roles such as this that enabled Chambers to carve out a career that produced more than 200 movie and TV credits up until his death in 1958 at age 70. He was laid to rest in Maplewood Cemetary in Freehold.