Paramount Theatre
1501 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1501 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
38 people
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Showing 426 - 450 of 508 comments
Here’s a bit of 3-D/“House of Wax” trivia. I attended opening day, which featured Eddie Fisher’s “return from the Army” as well as the premiere of “House of Wax” in WarnerPhonic sound. We arrived in the middle of the first showing of the feature, saw the stage show, and then the beginning of the second showing of “House of Wax.” All of the dialogue for the first few minutes was unintelligible, as though it was in another language. When it cleared up, the first words one understood were “You’re going to like this man —– he speaks your language!” The full house gave that line a hearty response.
“Meet Danny Wilson” opened on 26 March ‘52, so, yes, that’s later than Sinatra’s show with “My Forbidden Past.”
When my mother and father were dating they saw Frank Sinatra on stage here with “Meet Danny Wilson”. My grandmother saw him many times in the bobby-sox days and talked so many times about how incredible those shows were for less then a dollar.
Before ProQuest ruins me, I want to record some primitive memories of two stage shows at the Paramount. The first accompanied “Dear Ruth†in June ’47 and was headlined by Perry Como (my elders had a thing for that crooner, who always made me feel incredibly sluggish). I remember sitting in the steeply sloped balcony and experiencing a severe vertigo, and to this day I associate that sensation with the drowsy moan of Perry Como and the sharp pitch of the Paramount’s balcony. That’s a synaesthesia for you.
The second accompanied “My Forbidden Past†in May ’51 and featured Frank Sinatra. Aside from the pitch for “Johnny Concho,†it must have been his last regular stint at the Paramount. The hook of the film is that it starred his then-spouse Ava Gardner (with Robert Mitchum, Melvyn Douglas, and a closet-full of GWTW-style costumes; “silly tripe,†writes Leonard Maltin). At the time, Sinatra was at a low point in his career, no?, and the Paramount stage show paired him with the curvaceous Dagmar. The two of them sang bouncy songs, including “If I Knew You Were Coming, I’d ’ve Baked a Cake†and the notorious “Mamma Don’t Bark.†No drowsy moan there.
I’ll check ProQuest for details, but for now I kinda like this fuzzy recall of a vaporous memory.
On the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database (for details, see today’s page on RCMH), I just searched the NYT for “Paramount” and “marquee” between Nov. ‘47 and Nov. '48 and found an article from 18 April '48 about a $250,000 renovation at the Paramount.
The budget included $37,000 for the new marquee, plus unspecified amounts for a new “floating stage,” 3,600 new seats, and a complete paint job. That’s a pretty good price for all this. The work was being done mostly between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. so as not to interfere with the performances, and it was estimated to take six weeks to complete.
The film opening that week (21 April) was “The Big Clock” with a stage show headed by Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. For that, I wouldn’t care what marquee or floating stage the Paramount had sported.
Warren,
How was the artwork (heavy stock-cardboard?) that framed, horseshoe-shaped, the entrance to the Broadway & 42nd Street theaters (double features!)accomplished and at what cost? Jerry
If memory serves me, the Paramount installed its new trapezoidal white-glass marquee upon the debut of Donald O'Connor’s first talking-mule comedy, “Francis,” which opened on 15 March 1950. I recall newspaper ads proclaiming a refurbished, better-than-ever showplace, with a caricature of the talented ass peering over the edge of the modernized marquee.
Harmony was indeed a budget line of Columbia records, consisting primarily of reissues of older Columbia product. They didn’t always use the same album artwork throughout the life of the re-release.
If you can find a copy of staff organist Don Baker “At the New York Paramount Theatre Organ” the 33-1/3 jacket has a great color picture of the Paramount entrance.
The record was produced by Harmony as HL7021 (a product of Columbia Records). I think Harmony was to Columbia as Camden was to RCA.
Cheaper price.
Jim-
If you see the comment I posted on September 30, 2004, there is an article about the creation of the new marquee. It is LED and Fiber Optic.
I will try to get a copy of the ad posted somewhere. The ad does mention that the show starts today at 8:00 AM – 6 complete deluxe stage shows – last complete show 12 MIDNIGHT. Hopefully Jackie & Co. go to do the 10am and midnight slot. Bad enough.
The film, Drum Beat, was 111 minutes. So, if my math is right, the stage show would be about an hour in order to get 6 shows in from 8am to 3am with some intermission time to get everybody to the snack bar.
The ad mentions the 32 June Taylor Dancers, Bobby Hackett and the “Music for Lovers Only” orchestra of 50 musicians with Sammy Spear. So the Honeymooners were probably on stage for less than 30 minutes. Probably 20 minutes, close to the length of an episode.
Man,they were troopers!
One of my earlier memories.
Jerry
No latter day views of the marquee are shown in the Theatre Historical Society’s Annual on the New York (Times Square) PARAMOUNT, but it is quite likely that they do have other views in their Archive. A letter to them at their address listed on their site: www.HistoricTheatres.org will probably elicit some photocopies to document the changes for you. Of the two early days photos of the marquee in their Annual of 1976, one does show that that light bulb extravaganza was augmented with tall attraction boards above the end boards already a part of the original marquee. This is one of the few major palaces in the nation not to have had a vertical sign, as also did not the PARADISE in the Bronx, but then both had monumental facades not needing such superfluous decoration. It is remarkable, nontheless, how close the modern reproduction shown in the photo on this site above, is to the original. We cannot expect all the detailing of the original which had no doubt rusted out by the ‘50s, since costs were ever higher for such creations in later years. The latest one appears to be primarily neon, which is now cheaper in the long run due to the vastly higher costs of labor today to replace more expensive light bulbs every few months, as compared to the initial cost of neon which is high but can give 50 years of continuous service if properly built. I rejoice that they did see fit to restore both the marquee as well as the name sign above the mock grand window. They lend a magnificence befitting Gotham and fill the nightscape with wonder.
In her memoir, “Love, Alice,” Audrey Meadows (who was, of course, Jackie Gleason’s TV wife, Alice Kramden) has a few pages about the time that the “Honeymooners” played the Paramount.
One of the most amazing things (almost too amazing to believe) is that they did these special versions of the “Honeymooners” (which was then just a regular segment of the Jackie Gleason Show) daily at the Paramount during the actual TV season — and in an era when TV was done live!
As a matter of fact, a few paragraphs of Meadow’s account describes the day they did shows at the Paramount on the same day that they did the Jackie Gleason TV show from their theater about ten blocks further uptown!
But apparently Meadows was used to this kind of stuff. Earlier in the book she also mentions that, just before she was hired for the Gleason show, one of her first TV jobs was with Bob and Ray, and that she would do the show daily at the NBC studios in Rockefeller Center (Sixth Ave.) and then scurry down 50th St. to the Winter Garden (stage door is on Seventh Ave.) where she was appearing nightly opposite Phil Silvers in the Broadway musical “Top Banana”!
As someone else mentioned in connection with the performing schedule of (Jerry) Lewis & (Dean) Martin during that era (perhaps on the page of another Cinema Treasures theater), entertainers really worked in those days!
In the Meadows book, there is also a picture of the Paramount marquee when the “Honeymooners” was there. This marquee seems to me to be different from the original marquee (and therefore different, of course, from the current recreation). The marquee almost looks like the one they have/had at Roseland Ballroom on W. 52nd St. Given that it has a 1950s look, I assume the marquee was remodeled in the early 1950s, but would be interested if anyone has more details.
Jerry, I think that was a one time stage and movie combo which featuted The Honeymooners which was a smash TV show at the time.
Post some of those ads, please.
The “combos” went to at to least Nov. 1954. I have a copy of the NYT ad for the Jackie Gleason stage show (with Art Carney, Audrey Meadows & June Taylor Dancers)and Alan Ladd’s Drum Beat on the screen.
This is my only memory of seeing a Paramount stage show.
Ernie, the best way to document the bookings at the Paramount is to find a library with NYT on microfiche, it worked for me. Lots of fun and you can print out a copy of the ads.
Jerry
There are obviously many very knowledgeable people on this link, allowing me to ask this question: My interest is in the swing and dance bands which flourished in the 30s and 40s, and which played at the Paramount, the Strand, the Roxy, the Capitol as well as Loew’s State. Does anyone know how one could find a list of the bookings for these theaters during the 30s and 40s? I just feel that info must be out there somewhere.
Ernie Nagy, Washington, DC
stevebob
Thanks for sharing those pics. I forgot to post that recently I saw a picture of Times Square on New Years Eve, I believe 1958. Loews State is playing an Alan Freed stage show and picture combo. I cant make out the name of the movie, but what suprised me was I never knew any of the Freed shows played the State.
Beautiful!
Much attention has been given to the ersatz marquee and arched window that have been replicated in their original locations on the front of the Paramount Building.
Many people might not realize that the original marquee did not survive until the theater’s destruction. By the 1950s, it had been replaced by a new marquee in the shape of a modern, backlit trapezoid. I located a few pictures of this newer marquee. (On one site, it was misidentified it as the Brooklyn Paramount!)
View link
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~angell/thsa/jc04-4.jpg
http://www.lirock.com/images/bkpara.jpg
Thank you. I am so glad that it survives. While I no longer own a record player, I remember my father playing this record when I was a kid. Hopefully, I will be able to find the recording one day on CD (or DVD), as I would like to hear it again. (Either that, or I have to look at yard sales for a record player (although it would be nicer to have a CD anyway).
Lyn Larsen has made several recordings performing on the Paramount organ which now resides in the Century II Convention Center in Wichita KS.
The famous “mother†Wurlitzer as it was dubbed by the redoubtable Ben M. Hall, has been reinstalled in Kansas City, MO, as brought by this listing at: www.TheatreOrgans.org :
State/City: KS, Wichita USA Location: Century II Center Street Address: Exhibition Hall, 225 W. Douglas Instrument: 4/39 Wurlitzer Status: EXISTING Notes: This organ is opus 1458 from the New York Paramount theatre
Regular Schedule: 98-99 SCHEDULE POSTED AT http://www.vornado.com/98-99_season.html Special Events: Primary Web Page: http://www.vornado.com/mother.html Alternate Web Page: Contact Name, Phone and Email: Michael Coup -316.838.3127
Further information can be found via the American Theatre Organ Society at: www.atos.org
Many recordings of this organ were made, and no doubt several to the organ specialists writing on this site can direct you to vendors of those recordings, and the LINKS lists on the organ sites will take you to yet more. Likely the very album you refer to is to be found as a CD or DVD on those lists.
Does anyone know what ever became of Paramount’s organ?
I was looking through some of my father’s old records, and he had an old Christmas record that was recorded in the Paramount theater, with it’s organ. It was so nice sounding, I was wondering if it still existed somewhere.
Trump fired the Paramount? Sorry, I just had to write that.