The Life and Death of a Movie Theater is the story of the State Theater, a neighborhood movie house in Woodbridge, NJ. The story of the State is the story of many theaters across the United States and around the world. For over 40 years the State was the place to go. Many generations grew up with the State Theater and its staff as a major part of their lives. As Humphrey Bogart once said, it was "the stuff that dreams are made of." Stories of five competing theaters and three drive-ins are also documented to put the State's story into perspective. See what an exhibitor had to do to keep a theater operating through the depression, the war years, the television years and beyond.