The Loew’s State Theatre was a first-run house. The original Wurlitzer pipe organ installation featured 1,400 pipes. The first talkie to be shown at Loew’s State was The Broadway Melody (1929) beginning 30 March 1929.

After years of declining business, staffing and maintenance, the original Wurlitzer theatre organ was removed circa 1964 to be reinstalled at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, California. In 1967, the current corporate owners of Loew’s assets announced that the theatre was closing and was likely scheduled for demolition.

After a number of private and civic moves, and under Loew operation, the theatre briefly resumed low-budget film presentations, but the theater was again announced to be finally closed on 22 May 1975 and possibly demolished.

On 9 July 1975, the Syracuse Area Landmark Theater (SALT) group was officially designated to be the entity to attempt to purchase the theatre, restore it and run it as a landmark in the city. On 14 July 1975 the theatre reopened under SALT direction, and volunteer restoration efforts began. On 3 May 1976, the U.S. Department of the Interior officially registered the theatre on the National Register of Historic Places. In August 1977, the SALT group made conditional arrangements to purchase the theatre section of the building (it is attached to an eight-story office tower which was purchased by Sutton Real Estate) and the name was changed to the Landmark Theatre. Ownership of the theatre was transferred to the SALT group on 29 June 1979.

References: Landmark Theatre website : with additional information supplied by Kestrel, Dennis Salenski and Steve Ziemba.