Inside the new Barrymore Film Center, a $16M tribute to N.J.’s movie past
By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
There’s a sprawling family tree on the wall of the new Barrymore Film Center.
In a red box at the center: John Barrymore, the vaunted actor of stage and screen. Born in 1882, he would become one of the pillars of America’s first Hollywood — Fort Lee.
In a golden box off to the left: John’s granddaughter Drew Barrymore. The actor, born in 1975, is now a talk show host and social media sensation known for taking great joy in the little things, like running into the rain.
The $16 million Barrymore Film Center, a new 21,500-square-foot cultural space in Fort Lee with a 260-seat movie theater and museum that opened Friday, is a tribute to the borough’s status as the birthplace of the United States film industry.
New Jersey’s place in movie history is often overlooked, but stands as a point of pride. Now we have a gleaming repository for that pride, named for Fort Lee’s “royal” film family.
Major film studios like Fox, Universal, Goldwyn Pictures and World Pictures once called Fort Lee home, as did Alicé Guy-Blache, the first woman director, who owned Solax Studios.
By 1915, the town’s 17 bustling film studios meant that Fort Lee was populated by movie industry figures.
“The livelihoods of hundreds and hundreds of people were all about making movies,” says Nelson Page, executive director of the Barrymore.
The nonprofit Friends of the Barrymore Film Center runs the Main Street institution, which was funded by the borough of Fort Lee.
“They took a big risk in building this, and that’s why I say nobody does it better than Fort Lee,” Page says.
The ‘royal’ family of Fort Lee
The Barrymore’s airy, Hollywood feel sets it apart from imposing Fort Lee high-rises and the rest of Main Street.
It’s all silver and white, adorned with a bold splash of that unmistakable signal of celebrity, both in the lobby and up a cascading staircase:
Red carpet.
So, will Drew Barrymore be walking this red carpet anytime soon?
So far there are no appearances from the actor on the books, Page says. But she would be a most welcome guest.
After all, these are her people — and acting is certainly the family business.
The Barrymore, which had a grand opening gala fundraiser Oct. 15, launches with a museum exhibit celebrating the Barrymore family, that “royal” family of the early film scene.
John Barrymore’s father (and Drew’s great-grandfather), actor Maurice Barrymore, had a house in town where John lived with his older brother, Lionel, and older sister, Ethel — all actors (their mother was actor Georgiana Drew).
“What made the Barrymores so amazing is that they had developed this wonderful theatrical career in New York City,” Page says. “Then what happened was they made the transition to film, and that transition made them mega-famous. And so they were famous for two different sets of audiences.”
The movies they filmed in Fort Lee were in black-and-white, but the exhibit, open at the 2,500-square-foot museum through the end of April, is in full color. It’s a collection replete with large, vivid move posters and props from Broadway shows, like John Barrymore’s throne and dagger from his successful 1922 run in “Hamlet.” (A Broadway theater has borne Ethel Barrymore’s name since 1928; her grandson was expected to visit the center.)
Films opening the Barrymore included the John Barrymore comedy “Twentieth Century” (1934), the Barrymore drama “Counsellor at Law” (1933), the Barrymore romance “Don Juan” (1926) — the first feature film with synchronized sound (not dialogue) — and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1920), a silent film starring the actor, with live organ at the Barrymore Center from John Baratta.
The Barrymore will be a home to film retrospectives, film festivals and regular movie screenings — including more silent films, sometimes with live musical accompaniment.
It is a big draw of the new theater, whose curved, cavern-like walls were designed for optimal acoustics. It’s a throwback to Page’s days running theaters, when he would host live organ performances when screening silent films.
The Barrymore also boasts an orchestra pit, which will be christened Oct. 29 when the center screens the 1925 silent film classic “The Phantom of the Opera,” starring Lon Chaney. The New Jersey Festival Orchestra and soprano Sydney Anderson will perform live.
Keeping the movies alive
Page worked in theatrical exhibition for 33 years, starting in 1979.
He owned movie theaters in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Now the 68-year-old finds himself opening another theater at a time when the very act of going to the movies is in danger of disappearing.
Page sees his role as not just being an executive, but also a steward of something precious to him — the legacy of the moviegoing experience.
“Everything I know in my life, I learned by going to the movies,” Page says. “And I think a lot of people feel the same way.”
The center’s director has been heartened by people’s passion for those early movies.
“There is a tremendous wave of rediscovery of cinematic roots,” says Page, who lives in Hamburg. (”I got to be in love to drive 120 miles a day,” he says).
“Silent films get a bad rap because they’re improperly timed and they’re jumpy, but then again I dare anybody to see ‘City Lights’ (1931) and not cry. I dare anybody to see ‘The Last Laugh’ (1924) and not be totally heartbroken. I dare anybody to see ‘The Big Parade’ (1925) and not be amazed at the cruelty of World War I. These films were incredibly perceptive and amazingly intuitive ... if you want to see raw cinema, you see silent.”
Page got his first movie theater gig in the ’70s after working as a media specialist at his alma mater, Dumont High School, when he was 17. He started as a doorman at Fairview Cinema.
“I was there two days before I decided, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life,’” Page says. “I was a doorman for three days, then I was the assistant manager. And I just fell in love with the business.”
In less than two years, he had his own theater — Cedar Lane Cinemas in Teaneck.
He calls it his “film school in reverse.” He wasn’t going to make movies, but he could appreciate them and share them with others.
It was not an easy business. But Page stuck with it after leaving the Teaneck theater, later operating the Galaxy Theatre in Guttenberg and returning to Cedar Lane. Eventually, though, remaining in the business became “economically impossible,” he says.
“A Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night, even in a 250-seat theater, if there are 10 people there, it’s a lot,” Page says. “You’re holding your breath for the whole week to get to Saturday night. And if it snows, you’re dead.”
He can wax nostalgic all day about the years when movie theater companies owned film studios, but the sobering reality is that today’s theaters are eclipsed by the massive variety of entertainment options that don’t require people to go anywhere.
“You step on the threshold of grave peril if you don’t look at this as a business,” Page says.
Motion picture capital of the world
Fort Lee has seen the consequences of competing interests.
By the ’20s and ’30s, many of the town’s 17 movie studios had burned down or been destroyed. By the end of World War II, most physical evidence of them was gone.
“When you tell people that Fort Lee, New Jersey, was the motion picture capital of the world, everybody laughed,” Page says. “They just thought it was the funniest thing in the world, but it’s absolutely true.”
Pioneering Black director Oscar Micheaux made his films in Fort Lee. So did D.W. Griffith.
“In fact, where the film center now stands is in a shot of a Mack Sennett film called, ‘The Curtain Pole’ (1909),” Page says. “You can see clear as day, right on Main Street there, where the film center now stands. So I mean there’s movie history all around us.”
If the first film directors wanted a Western look, a wilderness scene, a waterside setting or a city, New Jersey had it, along with those famous action-ready cliffs above the Hudson River — which forever became associated with the term “cliffhanger” and silent serial star Pearl White.
The Barrymore Center calls on us to remember.
Sitting just outside the George Washington Bridge, the theater and museum are what Page thinks can be their own bridge from film past to film future.
As much as it is a tribute to Jersey’s place in the early days of the movie business, the Barrymore places Fort Lee firmly in the still-twinkling cinematic firmament. Twin triangles on the exterior of the center intentionally point westward, toward Hollywood.
Page has his own family connection to Fort Lee — his maternal grandfather was a riveter from Guatemala who worked on the George Washington Bridge for four years.
“Knowing that there was a project that he worked on 300 yards away, it kind of is an amazing thing,” he says. “Every time I walk out of the building, I always look at the New Jersey tower, and I’m thinking, ‘I hope he’s proud.’”
A home for cinephiles
Page has been chairman of the Fort Lee Film Commission since 2000.
“This is the culmination of all my experience,” he told NJ Advance Media on a recent tour of the light-filled, windowed Barrymore, lined with more movie posters down the halls.
“People often have asked me the question, ‘Why did all the studios move out of Fort Lee?’ Because of greed.”
It helped that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce beckoned with land and sunny weather. And New Jersey’s Thomas Edison, who founded the first film studio, Black Maria in West Orange, put a crimp in filmmakers’ plans when his trust with George Eastman charged licensing fees to use cameras made by Edison and film from Eastman Kodak.
The original idea for the Barrymore, hatched in partnership with Mayor Mark Sokolich, was to build a commercial theater. But it evolved into a repertory theater, Page says — a venue with red curtains and seats to match the red carpet, one that would recognize the Jersey roots of the movie business as well as emerging filmmakers.
It’s been seven years since the conception of the project, and the opening comes four years after the groundbreaking.
“We figured it would take 18 months to get the building built,” Page says.
The COVID-19 pandemic froze that timeline, but now he’s proud to throw the doors open every weekend.
“This is built for regional appeal,” Page says. “We want people from all over to participate.”
The building’s design is intended to be modern with a nod to the past — with art deco influences and references to famous venues like Radio City Music Hall and the Metropolitan Opera House, he says.
This will be cinema presented with care, Page promises.
“Motion picture exhibition is an art form,” he says. “It’s all about the lights. It’s all about the smell. It’s all about the popcorn. It’s all about presentation and creating an atmosphere where people want to come back.”
Many films will be shown in their original format on the Barrymore’s 20-by-40-foot screen. November brings “Patton” (1970) in 35 mm.
“We want to give them a taste of what this was like through the director’s eye,” Page says.
That also means valuing black-and-white movies for the rich contrasts they bring to the screen.
“These films were crafted specifically to be shadowed and textured,” he says. “That’s where you get these wonderful film noir movies. Film noir is all in light and dark shadows and gray tones. If you made those films color, they would lose the impact and importance.”
The center’s walk of fame includes the Barrymores, Mary Pickford and silent film stars Theda Bara, Pearl White and Lon Chaney.
“These are the people who made films in Fort Lee and left their mark in cinema history,” Page says.
But the Barrymore isn’t just trying to appeal to fans of early film. Programming will span 120 years of moviemaking.
“Especially contemporary filmmakers,” Page says, “because that’s the future of all this. Ultimately, we are who we were. We want to continue that rich film tradition.”
There’s a full lineup of movies embracing the Halloween spirit, like Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow” (1999), Jim Harman’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975), Tobe Hooper’s “Poltergeist” (1982) and Ivan Reitman’s “Ghostbusters” (1984). You can catch a doubleheader of “The Thing” — the 1951 version and the 1982 version.
On the schedule next summer: A boot camp for high school filmmakers.
“We want to try to entertain. We want to educate. And we want to certainly enthrall,” Page says.
He sees the center’s invitation to cinema from all eras as an alternative to the often solitary experience of streaming via mobile device.
“That’s what we’re providing in a very big way ... that movies can still be a shared experience,” Page says.
Though Fort Lee paid for the construction of the center, its $1 million annual operating budget now passes to the nonprofit Friends of the Barrymore to manage. Admission to the museum, which is open on days of screenings, is free, while film tickets go for $15 a pop ($9 for members).
Before the opening of the building, the Barrymore hosted a virtual short film festival for two years. This April, the event will be in person in Fort Lee.
So far, more than 600 people have joined the Friends of the Barrymore. They live in New Jersey, but also California, Florida, Canada and the United Kingdom, Page says.
“These people want to support film,” he says. “They want to support the idea of movies and make sure that it lasts forever.”
