Paris Theater

Gerald,

Would you mind if I used your add of Gold of Naples or La Fuga ads on my blog? It’s an movie website and one of my sections is dedicated to classic movies theaters anchored by photos I have taken. With the 60th anniversary of the Paris coming up next week I am adding this theater to the blog and thought the ads would be a good illustration. Here’s a link.

http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/

This 1954 Italian film, featuring a young Sophia Loren in one episode, opened at the Paris in early 1957, shorn of two of its six episodes.

The Paris almost certainly is the single-screen art house I’ve visited most often in NYC, partly because it was such a classy high-grossing theater and therefore had access to the choicest bookings.

I had just returned from Vietnam to be discharged from the Army at Fort Dix and headed straight for nine days in NYC in August 1967 for a movie and Broadway binge (I was a whole year behind on movies and had seen only a couple of Broadway shows previously, so I was a kid in a candy store) before embarking on the rest of my life.

The first movie I saw after dropping off my duffle bag in a cheap hotel was “A Man and a Woman,” which I was aware was in its 52nd week at the Paris. Since then I’ve seen several dozen fine movies there including “Howards End,” “Remains of the Day,” “The Browning Version” and “Ladies in Lavender.”

One couldn’t help but notice over the years that the patrons were invariably older and more likely to dress up a little to go to the movies.

The only mildly negative experience I ever had at the Paris was when I attended “Vincent and Theo” and noticed that the balcony was open. (Is it always open?) Anyway, I decided to make that moviegoing experience a bit different by watching Altman’s film from the balcony. To my dismay, I could hardly make out the dialogue at all.

No one else here has indicated having a hearing problem in the Paris' balcony, so the acoustical problem that afternoon may have been a fluke, occurring only in a specific area of the balcony. That can happen, for example, if few orchestra seats are occupied and the sound lines somehow are caught off kilter.

The longtime manager of a bygone Pittsburgh legitimate theater/playhouse called the Nixon once explained there were a couple of acoustical dead spots in the front mezz of his theater. Later I found that was true in other theaters, especially in their balconies.

jacobs entertainment is the film buyer for my theater so talk with them daily..

Solow does still own tbe theater.It is managed by Jacobs Entertainment.

Devil in the Flesh in 1949.

The lease had expired and the landlord had no intention of negotiating a new one with Pathe, he had made a deal with Loews. I was the manager at the time and I handed the keys over to the Loews people. Pathe had intended to open up at a different location and use the Paris name there, and they removed their signs from the 58th St. theatre which we donated to the Museum of the Moving Image over in Astoria. Sheldon Solow and Loews (landlord and partner) re-named the theatre Fine Arts. Pathe’s local representative was scouting out locations. Shortly thereafter, Pathe in France, fell on hard times and the French equivalent of bankruptcy and reorganization. Their plans for a replacement outlet in New York were scrapped and their local representative let go. It was after this that the Paris signs went back up at the theatre at 4 W. 58th St. Still later, the Loews/Solow partnership broke up, and Solow went solo with the Paris.

In September of 1990 Pathe lost their lease at this location. They decided to re-open elsewhere so they removed the marquee and moved out. Loews took over and renamed the location LOEWS FINE ARTS.

In late 1992 it became LOEWS PARIS FINE ARTS and by summer 1993 it was the PARIS once again without Loews' involvement. Either Pathe returned or the landlord bought the rights to the name, as it never did open elsewhere.

Advertisements and the marquee were changed and news stories are available along with a “goodbye” ad in the NYT from Pathe when they lost the lease.

i can find out monday as there film buyer books my theater..

Warren, I wrote World Premiere. When it was posted by the editor Premiere became Premier. I understand the spelling has since been changed. As to caps, I like it that way.

That’s a shame. I wonder if a theatrical run of CE3K will happen at all for the anniversary. Perhaps the strong numbers for the “Blade Runner” engagement at the Ziegfeld will encourage a booking. Perhaps even via Digital Cinema Presentation (though I know Spielberg is a big proponent of film). Better still would be a 70MM run, but I doubt we’ll be so lucky..

I wonder what’s going on with plans for a 30th anniversary theatrical run of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” here. According the theatre’s website, the documentary “The Rape of Europa” will start a run at the Paris on September 14th, right after the current engagement of “La Vie En Rose” ends its long run. No word on CE3K at all at the website.