Paramount Center
549-59 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
549-59 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
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Showing 26 - 50 of 266 comments
It’s rather silly to call this place a “triplex” as above. There are 3 performance spaces: the Paramount Theatre, a “black-box” theater, and a “screening room”, where films are shown. The latter 2 spaces are located in the adjacent building just to the north of the Paramount and are accessed by climbing the stairs from the Paramount’s lobby. There is also elevator service near the staircases. I went to the “open house” today and it was well worth seeing. I learned something new: the stage in the original Paramount was only 11 feet deep. The new stage is quite a bit larger and has a row of counterweight lines at stage-left. There appeared to be a large white movie screen at the rear of the darkened stage but I’m not sure of that. There is no projection booth in the theater, only light and sound desks at the rear of the balcony. There are permanent historical exhibits in both the lower and upper balcony foyers, and I found the remarks quite accurate. However, the huge map of the Boston theater district in the upper foyers has, unfortunately, some errors on it, including placing the Shubert and the Wilbur theaters on the wrong sides of Tremont St. The craftsmanship in the Paramount is first-rate.
And finally, they plan to show movies to the general public every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the Bright Family Screening Room. They handed out a paper schedule at the Open House, but unfortunately haven’t put it online yet. Looks like an interesting mix of foreign films, Hollywood classics, documentaries, and obscurities.
Also, the official name for this place is now the Paramount Center (rather than Theatre).
I just got back from the first day of the Open House, during which time I was able to attend events in all three venues: the main theatre, the black box, and the movie screening room. I highly recommend that anyone who reads this go visit on Friday or Saturday this weekend. The entire complex is beautiful and will be a great asset to both Emerson College and the general cultural life of Boston.
Since the Paramount Center now consists of three separate venues, I suggest changing the ‘Screens’ from ‘Single Screen’ to ‘3 Screens’, even though only one of the rooms will be used to show movies. Here are the seat counts, from some literature i picked up at the Open House :
Main theatre – 590 seats — 326 at orchestra level, 264 in balcony. Orchestra pit accommodates 41 musicians
Black box – 150 seats
Bright Family Screening Room (movies) – 170 seats
The total seating capacity of all three rooms is therefore 910.
According to the info in the link posted above, there will be Open Houses in Sept. after all, in addition to the Wednesday tours. There will be Open Houses from 4PM to 6Pm on Thurs-Fri, Sept 23-Sept 24; plus from 10AM – 6PM on Sat Sept 25.
The Paramount has a large number of public events, some free and some ticketed, for Opening Weekend, September 23-26.
The Screening Room will show Shanghai Express, which was the Paramount’s opening film in 1932, as well as When the City Sleeps, En Attendant Godard, The Sound of Music, and a program of Warner Brothers Vitaphone shorts.
The show Fraulein Maria is scheduled to open on September 23[/url], which is probably why the Open House was cancelled.
I’m hoping to take a tour next Wednesday.
I have heard that the planned Open House on Sept 25-26 has been dropped. Instead, tours of the Paramount were offered on certain Wednesdays during the month of August.
Emerson College is hosting an Open House at the Paramount Center on Sat.-Sun., Sept 25-26, 2010. This was reported in the Quincy Patriot Ledger recently.
They have an official web page up! Right now it doesn’t have much, outside of directions and a notice that the regular programming resumes in September.
The web page is:
http://www.paramountboston.org/
The lobby is also a form of art deco- a little unusual with the preponderance of varnished wood, but definitely art deco. In fact, some of the walls are original, with the others being recreations of the original.
I’m guessing from Ron’s reply that the only Art Deco interior in the reborn Paramount is the auditorium. Though I’ve never been inside, I’ve always had the impression the original theater indeed was a movie palace.
I’m not sure if the new, spacious street-level foyer would be considered Deco or not. But the chief Deco decoration is in the auditorium where an attempt has been made to replicate the original Deco design elements from 1932. The original Paramount was very definitely considered a “Movie Palace” by the Theatre Historical Society and by the Cinema Theatre Association (U.K.)
Where online are vintage photos? There’s one photo above of the auditorium as it originally looked. Where’s photos of the lobbies, foyers, lounges, etc?
Only the new auditorium has replicated the original Art Deco look, right? not the other spaces?
I would have to respectfully disagree with you Nicolas, and say that the Paramount was indeed a movie palace. While there is room for some subjectivity as to defining that term, the Paramount is a prime example of the last major wave of the movie palace period. It was built as a first-run luxurious house downtown by one of the major theater chains, and there were (and are) similar Paramounts across the country that are also considered to be ‘movie palace’ material. It was certainly more of a palace than the Modern from a marketplace/consumer point of view.
Omigosh!! The Modern Theatre was carnivorous!?! I’ve never met a meat eating theatre before! I wonder how many people it would take into its cavernous auditorium before it had a decent meal?
cross posted from a discussion on the Modern Theater page:
Funny that both the Paramount and the Modern get gutted/ knocked down and then one becomes a student dormitory with a small black box theater and the other becomes a reconstructed idea of the past. The effort put into re-creating the art deco cinema of the Paramount would have better been served saving the modern. Of the two theaters I find the spacial volumes to be vastly different. The Paramount, before and after demolition/construcition is/ was an ulgy box shape with some paintings on the walls. THe Modern was a simple yet beautiful carnivorous space that led the eye to wander more never quite comprehending the lofty angles. I was inside both before demolition, and now the results are shocking. Also, the Paramount was never a movie palace, it was a depression era cinema house.
Yes, it had been closed and neglected for too long, over 30 years, and was a ruin inside.
The interior of the old Paramount was devastated anyway, right?
The only parts of this building which are original are the facade and the right and left external sidewalls for the front half of the structure. Everything else is new. Supposedly, the paneling along the foyer staircases is original, and perhaps the decorative grill at the top-center of the proscenium. Those in charge were apparently quite smitten with the interior auditorium decoration of the original Paramount and so they have painstakenly emulated those design elements. I’m OK with it. The balcony (and boxes), by the way, are not original. Nor is the stadium-style main floor.
Very strange, I do not understand why the auditorium has been decorated to look like a 1930’s art deco theater. Aside from the balcony and the façade, the Paramont building is new contsruction, NOT a restauration project. Why not give the space an uncanny post modern twist such as a vintage balcony restored juxtaposed with a contemporary stage and auditorium? Yes, it is important to preserve historical buildings and architecture, but when its gone its gone, time to move on and not be living in a reconstructed idea of the past. Like in Disney World, historical monumental archetypes are evoked but on a smaller scale with a shiny coat of plastic. Another lie for future generations!
It’s just more of the same, history-wise. A lot of 20’s-vintage theatres got heavily renovated in the 40’s to cite one example. By the time the 80’s rolled around these 40’s renovations were considered classic.
Keep in mind that the original Paramount was purpose-built for movies only and that’s why its stage was quite limited. Any adaptation to make it a live venue would have required major alterations. I haven’t been inside yet but it sounds like Emerson has made all of the right decisions here.
I agree with Frank R; I have not seen the interior yet, only photos, but it looks great. Visitors today should realize that what survives is the front half of the original theater; the rear half, from in front of the old balcony to the rear stage wall, was demolished. The Paramount had a typical sloped floor, with a large balcony above. There was a tiny street-floor lobby with larger foyers above for the balcony and top-balcony. Today there is an ample lobby at street-level. The decorative elements inside today’s much smaller auditorium follow the original elements. There is a large stage today instead of the shallow stage of yore. The much smaller seating capacity today reflects what is realistic for this venue.
I attended the first performance at the newly restored Paramount on
Saturday, March 6th. Actually part of the Boston Celebrity Series, which holds events at various venues, the selection of Max Raabe and the Palast Orchestra with their “Night in Berlin” program could have not been more perfect. Their repertoire is exclusively late 1920s/early 1930s and matched the Paramount ambiance perfectly.
After a rather rushed dinner at nearby Locke-Ober (another highly-polished period piece) we strolled down Washington Street and were overwhelmed by the brilliant Paramount marquee and pristine facade. The experience continued in the lobby with its stairways retaining vividly striped veneered walls. We all found the auditorium breath-taking, with elaborate mural artwork, imposing pilasters, ceiling art, chandelier, et al.
Seating was comfortable and sight-lines perfect (well, we were in the fourth row …) and sound engineering by the Raabe crew excellent.
I imagine there will be a fair amount of carping on this site from purists who will claim that this is not a legitimate “restoration” or “preservation” but is simply an interior decorator’s 2010 take on Art Deco, with so many of the decorative elements being replacements, and the smaller seating capacity, etc, etc. Well, I think it is STUNNING, PERIOD!!! And when you realize that the whole place could have been torn down (or could have fallen down) and been turned into a black-top parking lot, you really have to admire Emerson for what they have done.
We all had the feeling that we were taking part in an important, historic event and in looking back, my only regret is not having worn black tie.