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Health & Fitness

From the Archives: Rambo's Saloon Historic Film Site Saved!

The Fort Lee Film Commission, Fort Lee Historic Committee and the Fort Lee Historical Society are pleased to announce that the Fort Lee Mayor & Council last night approved an ordinance that will allow the Fort Lee Housing Authority to purchase the historic Rambo's Saloon building on First Street in the Coytesville section of Fort Lee.  We  thank those that supported our efforts including those in Fort Lee and around the world via  signatures on our online petition on the Fort Lee Historical Society and Fort Lee Film Commission web sites.  We also thank Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for his leadership on this issue and Councilman Armand Pohan for his creative solution to save the building.  The entire Mayor & Council deserve praise as this is one of the few times in Fort Lee’s long history that a historic building was saved from demolition. 

 

The Fort Lee Historical Society President Donna Brennan, also a long time member of the Fort Lee Film Commission, was our petition leader and through Donna’s hard work and constant efforts we were able to get the word out to those in Fort Lee and across the nation and the world.  We are all astounded as regards the signatures on our petition to save the building as the signers include those from Great Britain, Italy, France, Germany and Israel to name just a few of the locales.  The signers added comments to the petition that display their awareness of the importance of Rambo’s Saloon to the birth of world cinema.

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Thanks of course goes to all my colleagues on the Fort Lee Film Commission.  We knew when we formed the Film Commission via Mayor & Council ordinance 12 years ago that one of our goals was to educate the population of Fort Lee on the role Fort Lee played as America’s first film town.  This education took the form of the 2004 published book “Fort Lee The Film Town” by Film Commission member Richard Koszarski; historic jitney tours organized for the public twice a year and for Fort Lee public school students throughout the school year; winning of a grant to produce a Fort Lee Film History Map which has been distributed free to the public and schools; preservation of films produced in Fort Lee including the 1912  Éclair film “Robin Hood”; working with film archivists  and restorers like Paul Gierucki who generously provided us with the copy of his film,  the only surviving film shot at Rambo’s “A Grocery Clerk’s Romance” shot by Mack Sennett in 1912 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq624ynLmO8; film exhibits in the Fort Lee Museum and the use of the Fort Lee Film Commission archive in that museum by scholars and writers as well as students; outreach to Fort Lee residents past and present via the Facebook sites "I grew up in Fort Lee" and "Coytesville Coytesvillers"; all of these efforts I truly believe led to this amazing victory.

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One coda to all of the thanks – a tip of the hat to the Barrymore family.  The Fort Lee Film Commission was born amidst the struggle to save and preserve the historic Barrymore House on Hammett Avenue, one block from Rambo’s Saloon.  The year was 2001 and despite our efforts the house was demolished.  Though we lost the battle we continued to fight the war, to educate the people of Fort Lee about their history as regards film.  This is not only our local history but a national and international history given Fort Lee’s role as birthplace of the American film industry.  Then Mayor Jack Alter, after the battle was lost, advised us publicly that the Barrymore name is magic in Fort Lee and will one day find a place in this community.  Well Jack could not have been more correct.  Today, as part of the construction of the large, long vacant, property near Main Street and the George Washington Bridge, a three screen cinema and attached film museum will be constructed and will be called “The Barrymore Theatre.”  Each year we celebrate John Barrymore’s February 15th birthday by laying a wreath at the sing post reading “John Barrymore Way” on Main Street and Central Road, the former location of the long gone Buckheister’s Hotel where 18-year-old John Barrymore made his stage debut in a fire house fundraiser play directed by his father Maurice in 1900.  We follow the wreath laying with a trip across the street to In Napoli Restaurant and at the bar we pass our fundraising jug and each year for the past three years we have raised over $1,000 per year for the Fort Lee High School Drama  Department and our high school thespians in Jack Barrymore’s name.  So you see I truly believe the last thanks for saving Rambo’s must go to the Barrymore family and Jack Barrymore in particular.  From the rubble of the Barrymore House we have built awareness and appreciation for our own Fort Lee history and the result is the victory of Rambo’s Saloon.  Something in me tells me that Jack Barrymore pulled some strings for us and those who may doubt my claim just remember it is a saloon we  saved!  Thanks to all your efforts , this small little building at 2423 First Street in the Coytesville section of Fort Lee will live to tell the tale of the birth of the American movie industry to future generations locally, nationally and internationally!.

 

 

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