Paradise Theater

BhillH20 on July 25, 2006 at 7:30 pm

Just how are you related to them?

jukingeo on July 25, 2006 at 7:15 pm

Hello LIFE’S TOO SHORT

So you are decendant from the Rapp family huh? I guess that does explain quite a bit. Yes, I guess all business’s have their rosy parts and not so rosy parts. I have ran business’s before, but this is the first one starting from the ground up, so it is pretty scary too. But if it does work, the reward would be tremendous.

JG

jukingeo on July 25, 2006 at 5:21 pm

Hello LIFE’S TOO SHORT

I was being faciscous with my remark up there. I know very well that the Chicago West Side is not what it used to be and none of the Chicago Golden Age Theatres would work out there today. I also know it is very difficult to get and keep a large theatre in operation in general. This is why I am very concerned for the very big theatres like the Uptown. Right now I am looking in to possible purchase of a 900 seat theatre and it is much bigger than what I was looking for. But it is a nice place. It is such a hard building to pass up on so I am going the extra mile to ensure that I can keep it open should I buy it. So I do know what you mean and it is a constant struggle. The artistic side of me is always fighting with the business reality. But for me, if this works, I for one can save a classic theatre and that would be a tremendous achievement in my life. It isn’t the Uptown, but for me it is enough. By the way, I meant to ask you. Do you have a theatre of your own? I been following your posts carefully and you seem to know quite a bit about the industry.

JG

jukingeo on July 25, 2006 at 3:45 pm

Hello MARY L

I have not emailed Dennis DeYoung recently and so far Derek Sutton has not answered my email. I just found and emailed him, but we will see. I will give it a few more days. Yeah, I figured you would get a kick out of the front page on Dennis DeYoung’s site. I dunno, maybe I will try him again.

Oh yeah! When you do get the annual you will see the room with the carousel and other play items. I couldn’t believe that when I first saw it. In addition to my theatre dream I always wanted to get an antique carousel as well so naturally I reasoned why not have both. So when I started to look for a theatre I did hope to find one with a store front in which I could house the carousel and a few games in a building next to the theatre. I would punch a hole through the wall into the lobby so this way the carousel ‘room’ could be accessed through the theatre’s lobby. So naturally I was really taken back when I saw that picture in the Paradise annual. Someone beat me to my idea and it was the Paradise no less! Unbelieveable.

As far as the basement of the Paradise is concerned, I consulted my annual. They built the supermarket right on top of the Paradise’s basement and even retained the original lobby floor. So at that point the lounges and playroom probably still existed. However, I would believe that it has been filled in by now. If not there wouldn’t be much to look at. The supermarket burned in 70’s and the basements filled with water.
There is also a cool arial shot of the Chicago West Side in the annual and it shows the Paradise Theatre, The Paradise Ballroom and even the Marbro Theatre. It is amazing how close these buildings are to each other. Anyway, I looked at the location of the Paradise using LIFES TOO SHORT’s satellite image. I tried to match building for building the area where these theatres were located in relation to each other. If you home in to street level on that satellite photo, scroll down a bit from the Paradise’s site until you find a road with a chicane (s curve) in it. Now scroll left one block by the parking lot(oh that parking lot IS there in the old photo) and now scroll down one block. You will see a building with a red mansard roof then next to it across the street you will see a building in the center of a small parking lot. THAT was where the Marbro was located. Now here is the kicker all the buildings to the left of the Marbro on that block were there when the Marbro still existed. GREAT! Keep the bland office builings, tear down the beautiful theatre!

Here is the Marbro’s reference point in case you didn’t get to it right.

View link

JG

revlowell on July 24, 2006 at 4:36 pm

I was there—not once but many times—as a child and as a teenager. I have written about it in my book, THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD: MEMORIES OF A CHICAGO CHILDHOOD, 1942 TO 1952. Here is an excerpt:
Notify me when someone replies to my comment? Note: Cinema Treasures is not affiliated with PWhen I was quite young, my mother took me one afternoon to the Paradise Theatre on Pulaski Road, about a mile’s walk from our apartment. The Paradise lived up to its name. Built a year before the advent of talking pictures, the huge structure was embellished everywhere with pseudo?classical paintings and statues of gods, goddesses, cupids, angels, and other quasidivine apparitions. This heavenly host wore little other than a few strands of drapery and strategically placed fig leaves. The ceiling was ablaze with tiny stars. The half?bright house lights were left on between shows so that every detail of the theater could be savored.
The scale of everything was palatial. The labyrinthine lower floors, where the rest rooms were hidden, contained a room marked “Menagerie,” containing wondrous mechanical animals on which to ride. The Menagerie was a day care facility where mothers once left their disinterested toddlers during the shows. Unfortunately, my mother explained, the wartime “labor shortage” had forced the theater to close this attractionâ€"never to reopen. (The wonderfully equipped and competently staffed nursery at Marshall Field’s Loop store had also been closed for the same reason.) For years, the beckoning lions and tigers waited secure behind a locked gratingâ€"frustratingly in view but always just out of touch.
Strolling about outside the Paradise was almost as interesting as being inside. Next door was my favorite?in?the-whole?world popcorn and candy store. Across the street was Carl Stockholm’s dry cleaning plant and store. Carl, a former champion bicyclist, was some sort of local hero, and the symbol of his store, an animated abstract logo of a man furiously peddling a cycle held my fascinated interest. Nearby was a marvelously stocked toy storeâ€"a rare emporium at a time when most toys were sold at department stores and five and dimes. If one walked down the street or across the street and looked back at the Paradise, the blinking lights of its massive marquee deluded one into seeing animated black and white boxes running eternally around its periphery.

jukingeo on July 24, 2006 at 2:41 pm

Hello MARY L

I kind of figured that Chris would have CC'ed you as well. Yeah, I just can’t believe I had one piece of the puzzle under my nose all along. I remember Hopkins' name on the back of the album cover, but back in the day there were no home computers, so following up on a lead like that was difficult. But I was foolish for not going back to that lead myself. Even on my CD copy it does mention Hopkins and his organization. Well, as they say two heads are better than one and apparently we attacked this from both angles and met in the middle. At first when I recalled Hopkins when you mentioned him that there must have been some mix up on my end with Addison. But then I had TWO different references to the same piece with one claiming to own the original art work. Then when Hopkins mentioned that he had no prior knowledge of the Chicago theatres…then the cat was out of the bag. I then examined both pieces and realized that while similar, they were very different, especially in the Marquee Area. Hopkins basically custome tailored Addison’s work for the Album. So we were both right. It was great when Hopkings said is memory was jarred into place when he saw that picture. I would like to show everyone the original picture… but one it is small and hard to make out and two, I don’t know how to upload the photo here. BUT what you can do is do a Yahoo IMAGE search for Paradise Theatre (spelled this way) go in to page 5 and look for a small picture of what resembles the rear cover of the Styx album. If you click on the picture you will be taken to that auction site I mentioned above, BUT here is the kicker, the picture doesn’t show up there. So all this time I only have the thumbnail from the image search. An alternative is you could also give me your email address and I can mail you the little picture.

I emailed Derek Sutton (sorry misspelled it up there) this afternoon. I am crossing my fingers that he does respond soon. Music people usually have tight schedules and I am hoping that he does come through, so I think bombarding him with two similar emails may not be a good idea. I tell you I must have sent 5 letters, twice as many emails, and several phone calls trying to get in contact with Dennis DeYoung over the years. I guess I was ignored because I am sure he has been bombarded by that question quite a few times. I just can’t believe after all this time it is FINALLY coming together and hopefully soon I will be able to complete this project.

Mary, it seems like we make a good team on this project. I just got an idea. Maybe Dennis DeYoung would respond to you.

Here is his website http://dennisdeyoung.com …AND you are not going to believe what he has on his homepage!

Off I go!

JG

jukingeo on July 24, 2006 at 10:17 am

Hello:

LIFES TOO SHORT —LOL, it is funny that you mention the Valencia…that was my mom’s ‘other’ favorite theatre.

JAZZLAND— Well, I guess LIFES TOO SHORT wasn’t too far off then. I guess it must be situation on the outside of the complex then as that does look like a working street intersection and nothing that is in a park. But I never been to Universal, so I could be very much wrong on that count.

MARY L— YIPPEE! Chris Hopkins just got back to me with exciting news! I showed him the pictures of the original Paradise, and both the Granada and Marbro Theatres. He was totally amazed that his drawing represented actually buildings that really existed (Granada & Marbro). Then I sent him the small copy of Addison’s drawing I had. Chris said when he saw that little picture, it hit him like a ton of bricks! He remember that it was that picture which was given to him by Derrick Sutton, Styx’s manager at the time. So it is coming around as I theorized! So now the last thing to do is to contact Sutton. Once that last piece is in place I would have finally come full circle on a question that has been nagging me for close to 25 years! (off and on of course).

JG

jazzland on July 24, 2006 at 7:46 am

That Paradise Theatre is located at Universal Studios Florida. It is a take-off on the Times Square Paramount facade and marquee.

jukingeo on July 24, 2006 at 5:08 am

Hello LIFE’S TOO SHORT

Actually I think the picture I posted above for that ‘rogue’ Paradise Theatre is very real. Why? Look at the road. Would Disneyworld have a double yellow line a crosswalk and a traffic light? Nope, this is definately a working intersection. BTW, this is Disneyworld Main Street:

View link

Also for the most part the building ‘looks’ open for business. I checked with all the Cinema Treasure’s theatres under the name Paradise. Thankfully there were only a few and I know half of them. But I never came across this one before. So I do not think it is fake. The big bummer is that I cannot make out the name on the second building to the left. Knowing that could help identify where this theater is located. For one…this Paradise looks like a beauty and I would like to see the inside. Moreover, I would like to see the whole town. If you notice the back street has buildings of the same type and era. So I am gathering that this is probably a small town someplace. As for atmospherics…I would LOVE to get one. There was one in Beaver Falls, PA that I took an interest in…and believe it or not, it was The Granada. It was VERY Ebersonian in style, but it was not one of Eberson’s masterpieces. Alas the theatre required too much work and I had to forgo it as a contender.

JIM I know exactly what you mean by the ‘downgrading’ the showmanship side of theatre nowadays. I too remembered a theatre by me, The Deer Park theatre, that used to have a gorgous horizontally rippled curtain that lifted straight up on cable pulls (the same way Radio City does it) and it raised for each movie and then lowered at the end. It even had the lights on the bottom of the stage that lit up the curtain from the front in hue of oranges and ambers. Very very nice. But as time went on, they only raised the curtain on the first show and lowered it on the last of of the day. Eventually for a short time they changed hands and they stopped using it altogether and left it open. They stopped using the pretty lights too. It wasn’t long after that before the theatre closed for good. The theatre wasn’t torn down, but was ‘absorbed’ by a Marshall’s clothing store that moved in next to the theatre. Today it is a Sears hardware store. But if you go around to the back of the Sears, you can clearly see that the left side of the Sears store was a movie theatre.

I am hoping to restore much of the ‘pre-entertainment’ side of things when I do find my ‘dream theatre’. I would like Butterfly Curtains if possible and I would put the small lamps in front of the curtain very much in a similar way as to the old Deer Park Theatre I remember.

With today’s rising gas prices, people need more reasons to get up and go to the theatre. Just showing ad slides and a bunch of pre-views in ones face is NOT entertaining. Nor are these new bland monochromatic auditoriums. Something enticing when you walk in and to before the show starts is mandatory. I do remember ‘back in the day’, my mom said she used to go to Radio City and said that they used to show a Cartoon, a feature film, AND a short live act. You were in the theatre for just about the WHOLE day. Now THATS entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining, has anyone seen the Loews Paradise lately? OH….MY…GOD…! This is definately one of the “Die-go to heaven” type theatres.

JG

Life's Too Short on July 23, 2006 at 8:32 pm

Question for someone regarding atmospheric theatres: back in the day did they leave the stars and decorative lights on all the way through the show? Some of the restored atmospheric theatres I have visited in the modern era turn all of that stuff off just before the show begins. Actually the same goes for restored hard top theatres. I have been to shows where the colored lighting is totally turned off as the curtain opens. Is this the way it was in the glory days or did they turn the lights down to something less distracting, like blue? What was the standard practice? And how did that change during the years of decline (50’s onward)?

jukingeo on July 23, 2006 at 6:56 pm

Hello All,

On a different note…can anyone identify THIS Paradise Theatre?

View link

JG

crazylady888 on July 23, 2006 at 4:19 pm

Geo1 and everyone else:
I have heard from Chris Hopkins and am going to attempt to copy his e-mail here, as it is long and detailed and I don’t want to mess it up.

Mary,
I am truly amazed at this inquiry. It seems that I painted the Styx
Paradise Theater album cover art an eternity ago. I was 25 years old
and fresh out of art school. Paradise Theater was one of my first jobs.
I was working as an illustrator for an illustration/design firm called
Willardson and White. At that time A and M records was a steady client.
My self and another illustrator (Mick McGinty) would do all of the
illustration work and almost all of the design work. While a movie
poster campaign for Flash Gordon went to Mick, the entire campaign for
Styx Paradise Theater came to me. The project involved not only album
cover art front and back, but also inside art, 45 sleeve art, the
record label art, the round art in the middle of the LP ( which would
subsequently be used as a lazer etching on the LP vinyl). The
lettering and boarder front and back had to be designed and painted as
well as designs and paintings for the outdoor boards. I designed the
cover art in a way that could be altered and used as a 36"x48" poster
as well as a 12"x12" album sleeve (there is much more of the building
in the original art and printed posters) . I painted this project back
in 1980 ( or 81) I apologize as this was so long ago and so very many
paintings ago. I vaguely remember getting a stack of reference on how
the band wanted the feeling of the concept to proceed. I was working
with Chuch Beeson who was art director at A and M at the time, I was
also working with Derek Sutton who was managing Styx. I am sorry and
embarrassed to admit that I am not familiar with Robert Addison nor do
I know anything of the Granada Theater. I was a young man from the
pacific northwest working in Los Angeles with absolutely no reference
to the Chicago area. I was simply given a stack of reference and told
of the attitude of the concept and proceeded accordingly. If samples of
Mr. Addison’s work or photos of the old Paradise theater, as well as
other classic theaters were included in that stack… well I just do
not remember as it was 26 or 27 years ago. It is also important to
remember that the band was seeking a feeling or an artistic statement
rather than an exact architectural rendering of a specific structure in
which case I would have been the wrong person for the job. I remember
having fun designing a building facade( based on reference) and all the
gargoyles and the one sheet marquees on the front of the theater. I
remember the band requesting that I put a number 10 above the ticket
window (I think It may have been their 10th album however I’m not
entirely sure of it’s significance). They also asked me to design a
one sheet poster marquee for the dilapidated back cover art, “Sparky
The Flying Dog”. I was never really aware it’s significance. I had my
friend Ted Witus design a black and white solution of the Paradise
Theater marquee which I incorporated and translated to color and
dimension. Ted was one of the leading title designers in Hollywood at
the time designing movie titles for:“ Raiders of the Lost Arc”, “The
Natural” and a great many others. It was my decision to paint the
figures and vehicles on the front art in a deco style as I felt it
would contribute to the feel and period of the concept. It seems that
the art went over well as A and M printed the art as a limited edition
print minus the title lettering on high quality paper ( an addition of
500 I think, I assume those must be worth something I know that I must
have a few artist’s proofs stashed away some where for a rainy day) The
art was also a finalist for a grammy award in the category of “Album
Packaging Design”.
I have been intending to delete the Paradise Theater art from my web
site as it was created so long ago and I believe that my painting
skills have improved drastically. But as it turns out yours is not the
only inquiry as of late. I suppose I’ll delay it’s removal for a little
while longer.
Thank you Mary for this trip down memory lane,
Should you have any more questions feel free to ask,

Chris

This answers some of the questions on the artwork, but doesn’t answer why Styx didn’t use the Paradise for the cover. Since Dennis DeYoung didn’t answer you back, Geo 1, we may never know. However, at least we got some information on the artwork and in the process made Chris Hopkins' day by letting him know we were admiring his artwork.