Paramount Theatre

1501 Broadway,
New York, NY 10036

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Showing 251 - 275 of 508 comments

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on January 20, 2006 at 7:41 am

Ha! I know you jest, Bob. Seriously, there is some kind of theatrical facility that was erected for the WWF restaurant that had originally occupied the space now leased by the HRC. I assume HRC is or was renovating (or more accurately “redecorating”) that facility to fit the new brand. Just so everyone is clear, we’re talking about a small amount of space on the ground level – basically the area below the reconstructed arch and marquee – with the vast majority of the restaurant and facilities located below ground. The foyer and auditorium that was the original Paramount Theater occupied a space behind the Paramount building which fronts Broadway (or 7th Ave depending on how technical you want to get) that ran from 43rd Street all the way to 44th and is now wholly occupied by the offices of the New York Times. The WWF/HRC space only occupies a portion of the area that used to be the Paramount entrance vestibule and lobby.

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on January 20, 2006 at 5:58 am

Do you think they will be evicting people from those offices, demolishing them and working from original blueprints to reconstruct the lobby?

Where are they going to get all that marble???

fosterdeux
fosterdeux on January 19, 2006 at 8:56 am

Has anyone seen the theatre in the hard rock? They claim to be restoring, are there any similarities to the original in space or materials?

JimRankin
JimRankin on December 15, 2005 at 8:33 am

Warren is quite right that the proscenium dome did not have a sky effect, and was otherwise painted as he suggests. Apparently, when the blueprints were sent to the artist, the nature of the dome’s decoration was not indicated, as such things were often determined by the decorator some time after the prints by the architects were completed. It may also have been a case of revision, where the sky effect was at first intended, but plans altered at a later date, perhaps by the owner or architect refusing the decorator’s idea for the area. Other than this dome, I don’t know that there are any other material differences between the rendering/painting and the actual theatre. Remember too, that the artist was in the employ of the drapery maker or the passementier, and was to feature their work, not that of the architects or decorator, since this may well have been originally a prospectus to bid on the job.

William
William on December 15, 2005 at 6:35 am

I recently picked up a mint copy of the Inaugural Program for the Paramount Times Square. And it’s everything that p7350 had posted above. It has alot of interesting information about the theatre.

JimRankin
JimRankin on December 15, 2005 at 4:26 am

I AM HAPPY TO REPORT THAT A WONDERFUL COLOR RENDERING OF THE STAGE WALL OF THE PARAMOUNT’S AUDITORIUM IS NOW ON LINE AT:
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CLICK ON THE IMAGE THERE AND YOU WILL SEE A CAPTION THAT GIVES CREDIT TO THE ARTIST AND DESIGNER WHO APPARENTLY CREATED THAT WONDERFUL PROSCENIUM AT THE BEHEST OF RAPP & RAPP.

JimRankin
JimRankin on December 13, 2005 at 5:19 am

Inaugural Programmes make wonderful donations to the National Archive of the Theatre Historical Soc. in Elmhurst Illinois, and are on-line at: www.historictheatres.org

p7350
p7350 on December 12, 2005 at 8:08 pm

I just came across a copy of the Inaugural Program of the Paramount Theater. The binding has fallen apart but is complete at 96 pages.It contains mostly etchings of the theater interiors but is very descriptive providing details of the interior such as descriptions of the drapes, organ grills, stage equipment etc. There is also a section on other Publix theaters across the country with some small illustrations. The program also has information of the Paramount stars at the time with pictures and information. There is a one page description of the opening night performance detailing the stage acts. The film shown was called “ God Gave Me Twenty Cents”. Another interesting part of of the program is sort of yearbook style with ads from the many companies involved in the construction. There is a fascinating cutaway illustration of the theater in an ad by Carrier describing the air conditioning system, a photo of the bronze doors in the grand lobby and a photo of the projection room.

BoxOfficeBill
BoxOfficeBill on December 7, 2005 at 1:30 pm

And Hitchcock missed out on that extra dollop of vertigo when distributors opened his movie of that name at the Capitol instead of the Paramount.

BoxOfficeBill
BoxOfficeBill on December 7, 2005 at 1:27 pm

Right— For some reason I can’t fathom, my parents too preferred to sit in the Paramount’s balcony when they brought me there in the late ‘40s and early '50s. They didn’t smoke, so it couldn’t have been for cigarettes. And they never took to the balcony at any other theaters (except for Ice Colorama shows at the Roxy in 1953). Perhaps they liked the sense of vertigo at the Paramount?

One possible motivation might have been to view the orchestra pit head-on as it rose to stage level with the performers. The last stage show I saw there (and I believe it was the final regular program in the old format) accompanied Doris Day’s “Calamity Jane” in November ‘53, and it featured the four Ames Brothers (“You, You, You” was the sensation at the time)who came on after the Peiro Brothers juggling act and the British ventriloquist Clifford Guest opened the presentation; the band was Pupi Campo’s Latin orchestra, which had become a big hit as the in-house music on Jack Paar’s TV show. The Ames Brothers’ pianist was Burt Bacharach.

After that show, my parents stopped going to the Paramount. My next visit was with teen-age friends to see “The Man Who Knew Too Much” on the giant VistaVision screen. We sat in the orchestra’s third row to make the picture seem as big as possible.

ErnieN
ErnieN on December 7, 2005 at 8:47 am

Excellent posting, “BoxOfficeBill.” I very distinctly remember the sense of vertigo which you cite. In the many times I visited the Paramount during the war years (maybe as many as 20), I always sat in the balcony. Can’t remember why. Was it cheaper? Or could you maybe smoke in the balcony? I no longer remember, but I sure remember that steeply raked balcony and the sensation of vertigo.

Ernie Nagy

BoxOfficeBill
BoxOfficeBill on December 7, 2005 at 6:22 am

These diagrams show wonderfully how enormous the Paramount’s balcony was. But they barely suggest how steep it was, too. Covering much of the orchestra, it then swept back to the 43 Street wall and over the tall lobby and grand staircase. As it descended from near-ceiling height at the rear projection booth, it brought on a giddy sense of vertigo and ampitheatric expanse. When you stood up, you felt you might tumble down into the orchestra pit.

You got none of this feeling on the ground level. I never saw a show from the mezzanine set-back (here called “entresol”: my, how Louis XIVieme), but from the main floor it looked quite comfortable with its attractive low lighting. After a visit to the Paramount, a trip to Versailles would seem anticlimactic.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on December 7, 2005 at 6:21 am

Thanks Warren. Looks like those “exit courts” leading to 44th Street on either side of the stage were within the building itself, though obviously buffered by fireproof walls. I wonder if those black double doors were part of the exit route at all on the Broadway side of the stage. Given the location of the stage door, that would have had the exit court on the western side of the stage leading through the space currently occupied by the Deli.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on December 5, 2005 at 1:22 pm

I’m curious then… how would patrons have exited the theater in an emergency? Was there an alley between the theater and the Times Building on 43rd Street? They are pressed right up against each other on 44th. And if so, did everyone have to make their way to that side of the theater, or were there exits from the balcony on the right side of the auditorium directly into the office tower? I’m sure there were exit doors at the rear of the auditorium on 43rd, but there must have been fireproof routes somewhere.

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on December 5, 2005 at 12:56 pm

You’re right Ed, I’m sorry. I looked at it quickly and it didn’t look like I remembered it from the early 80’s when I worked on 44th Street. That’s the original stage door, for sure.

The other set of doors are new and were added when the theater was gutted. Looking at the vintage newsreel footage, I don’t think the theater had any exit doors on 44th street.

Bob

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on December 5, 2005 at 12:31 pm

Bob… that is the westernmost door within the former Paramount theater space on West 44th. Immediately to the right (west) of that door is the Deli which is at the western edge of the property. To the right of the Deli is the plaque remembering the Stage Door Canteen and then the loading bays for the adjacent NY Times building. Going in the other direction from the door (headed east towards Broadway) are the two entrances to Carmine’s, the Bagel Store entrance, those two black doors and then Ollie’s restaurant which occupies the ground floor space under the Paramount office tower. Perhaps the air duct was added in the intervening years (note the electrical supply line and box that runs along the outside of the building next to the door). I inspected the entire stretch closely and could find no other doors that weren’t main entrances to one of the above storefronts.

Take a look at the first photo I posted above which was taken facing west towards 8th Avenue from the spot in front of those two black doors. If you open the image to full size, you can pan down the block from the Bagel Store entrance to where the building ends with the Deli and see that there are no other doorways except for those described above. If this isn’t it, then it’s been completely built-over.

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on December 5, 2005 at 12:03 pm

No, the stage door is further down the street towards 8th Avenue. It doesn’t have an air duct above it, and looks identical to the picture posted above.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on December 5, 2005 at 11:36 am

Here are some photos I took the other night when I saw Spamalot at the Shubert Theater…

West 44th Street – here’s a shot of the businesses that now occupy the former backstage area of the theater:
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The 2nd photo shows those mysterious black doors I noted in my posting back on 11/30. These are located towards the east side of the lot where the office tower meets the old theater portion and are obviously not the stage doors. Not sure about the small door on the left, but the one on the right opens to a staircase going up… perhaps a fire escape route for the building (and maybe for the old balcony patrons?):
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The third photo appears to be the old stage door that Bob Furmanek was describing in his post on 11/30… Looks like it could be the same opening depicted in porterfaulkner’s vintage photo posted above on 12/3, but it is obviously not the same exact door. In any event, the door now leads to a space owned by Carmine’s Italian Restaurant (where I dined on some outstanding fried calamri):
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And then I walked around the block for some shots of the re-created Broadway facade and marquee:
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By the way, the line to get into the Hard Rock Cafe was queuing up down the block to the right of the entrance – much like it used to when the restaurant was at the height of its popularity on West 57th Street. Looks like the change of address has re-sparked interest in the place. And it is now once again in local competition with Planet Hollywood, which closed its West 57th Street location a number of years back and re-opened adjacent to the Virgin Megastore up the block.

ErnieN
ErnieN on December 3, 2005 at 11:58 am

I wonder if there’s anyone out there with the time and inclination to document for us the stage shows of the Paramount, Strand, Capitol, Roxy and Loew’s State during the period, say, 1935-1960?

Why don’t you do it yourself, some may ask? Unfortunately, I am handicapped (spinal cord injury) which severely curtails my ability to get around. However, if such a project is doable online, I would certainly take a crack at it.

Ernie Nagy

porterfaulkner
porterfaulkner on December 3, 2005 at 9:14 am

Here is a photo of the Paramount stage door in the 1930’s.

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Pretty discreet.

BoxOfficeBill
BoxOfficeBill on December 3, 2005 at 7:57 am

I never knew that the Paramount had suspended its stage shows during the deep, dark days of the Depression. The Strand and the Capitol and Loew’s State, yes. But the Paramount? That’s a jolt. For how long?

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on November 30, 2005 at 8:16 am

As I recall, the door still has some wiring or outline of the light fixture that once sat above it. In the old newsreel footage, there was also a “stage door” sign which appeared to be brass.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on November 30, 2005 at 7:19 am

I’m going back there tonight for the show at the Shubert. I’ll bring my camera along and snap some shots to post.

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on November 30, 2005 at 6:32 am

Ed, the original stage door is a single door which now opens to a staircase going down to the basement. Back in the early 80’s, it had a list on it with many of the big names that played the theater. (Somebody cared enough to identify that door and make the list sometime after the theater closed.) Unfortunately, sometime after 1984, the door was painted black and the list was covered over.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on November 30, 2005 at 6:05 am

I was on 44th Street last night, picking up tickets at the Shubert Theater, and had a chance to take a long look at the Paramount building and former stage door area of the theater. The ground floor space is now occupied by a small deli (as Bob mentions above), Carmine’s (an excellent family-style Italian restaurant and popular theater crowd destination) and a bagel store. There are two black doors located to the left (Broadway side) of the bagel store… one is a small single door and the other a large set of double doors. Peering through the crack between the double doors (which were locked) I could glimpse a wide and well lit stairwell ascending up and to the right (going up and over the bagel store)… Was this the original stage door? Bob mentions stairs going down, so I’m not sure if I have the right door. To the right of the double doors the address is shown as #200, but I’m not sure if that refers to the door or the bagel store. The smaller door to the left seems to have the address #200A (or it might have been “B” now that I think about it).

I’d love to see a vintage photo of this stretch before the theater was demolished. Looking up the facade of the theater building, it appears that the windows on the 2nd through 5th stories (the limestone portion of the building before it turns to brick) were constructed at a different date than those in the office tower. The black spandrels in the window columns between floors are plain and unadorned in the theater section, whereas those in the office tower feature some intricate relief work. I also found it interesting that at the western most edge of the property (abutting the NY Times building) the building rises a few additional stories in a mini-tower. As this was above the former theater space, I wonder what function was served by this feature.

There’s also a plaque at this edge of the building commemorating the old Stage Door Canteen, which was located in a basement space below the old 44th Street Theater – which was itself demolished in 1945 to make way for the expansion of the NY Times building. Lots of theatrical history on the block: The Sardi’s building adjacent to the Times, The Shubert, the Helen Hayes, The Broadhurst, the St. James, the Majestic. Only the Astor Plaza building (home of the former Loew’s Astor Plaza Theater) seems anachronistic.

Just for kicks, here’s a link to the IBDB site page for the 44th Street Theater with a link to photos… the place looked huge! http://ibdb.com/Venue.asp?Id=1384