Paramount Center
549-59 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
549-59 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 175 of 266 comments
You’ll see a great restored facade on Washington Street, and a construction site behind it on Mason Street. Worth the short walk from the Wang.
Is there anything to see if one were to stop by this theatre site? I hope to be in Boston this May and will be visiting the Wang Theatre.
Its so hard to believ that almost 35 years later this place is not yet finished! Great picture!
Still under construction.
Any news on the progress of the Paramount?brucec
Great photo.
Was in the “ladder district” today to see “Wicked the Musical” at the Opera House (see my report on the Opera House on its page) and they have definitely started renovations on the Paramount – can see evidence of it behind the plywood covering the front. In the back there was a hole about ten feet square knocked out of the backstage wall. If the sun wasn’t shining toward me, I might have been able to see something inside, but no such luck. Saw a vague shape but couldn’t tell if it was the decorative column of the auditorium. Hope it is – the newspaper articles are contradictory about esactly how much of the auditorium interior will be saved.
The Bijou next door looks like progress is being made – most of the back portion where the Bijou auditorium stood is demolished – the front part of the building has interior demolition well underway and the front facade has already been restored. The site of B. F. Keith’s New theatre is partly taken up by the Opera House stage house, and the rest is construction area – eventually the addition to the Paramount/Bijou will be there.
Interestingly the Playbill reported that Suffolk University had submitted a bid for the Modern Theatre (just on the north side of the opera House) with an eye to renovation with a possible performing arts or theatre space on the first floor and dormitory space on the others. Bid deadline was August 30, 2007, hopefully the Boston RDA will announce a winner soon.
Playbill also mentioned the Wilbur Theatre down next to the Wang/Metropolitan has been placed on the market by Tremont Entertainment Enterprises. City officials will allow the new owners to use the building for entertainment, restaurant, office or residential use. Since it is landmarked, they cannot demolish it or make significant alterations.
I was recently in Boston on business and walked down to the Paramount to try to relive my days as an usher there. I was hoping Joe and Nemo’s was still on the corner. That was where I would get my nightly meal of soggy hotdogs and coffe milk.
the above article specifies:
As the 20th-century Paramount is painstakingly restored â€" from the ornate vents in the sealing to the murals on the walls and the Art Deco seats
Last week’s Boston Phoenix features a long article about the Paramount, the adjoining Bijou, and Emerson College’s redevelopment of both buildings:
Tinseltown East
Ron Salters, As a retired US Navy Chief thanks for clearing the sailor from any hanky panky. As a matter of fact the sailor had spent that day with his mother, sister and girlfriend who had come down from Maine to see him. After they left for Maine and he was on his way back to the USS Macon he was knocked unconscious. When he woke up he had no pants or wallet and of course had trouble getting back to and on the ship with no ID card, liberty card or pants it was a dicey – and chilly – trip back to the ship!
Several years later after he got out of the navy he married the girlfriend and the story of that day became a family legend.
If you go to American Public Media’s The Story, you can read more about it and see photos and even hear the interview. It is at the end of Art Despite Oppression (about an artist from Baghdad that is interesting to listen to) or you can fast forward to hear the sailor story at about 31:22 (lasts about 18 minutes.
View link
“Ladies And Gentlemen This Is CINERAMA” Lowell Thomas
The wallet was found by a contractor’s crewman in April either in the Paramount itself or in the Bijou Building next door. It was found 56 years to the day after it had been stolen from a sailor aboard a US Navy ship in South Boston who was on a day pass (the pass was in the wallet). The loss of the wallet and pants took place in a mugging outside, apparently near the ship; the mugger than took the wallet into the Paramount or adjacent arcade and disposed of it. The victim was not inside the theatre.
Having been an usher there, I can imagine how he lost the pants. Was it in the balcony?
I heard that they found a wallet there that was lost along with a pair of pants 56 years ago. They still haven’t recovered the pants, though. The wallet was sent to the man’s widow.
A pre-renovation exterior pic here from 2000. I was able to gain access to the very dilapidated interior at the time, but was not allowed to take a photograph!
View link
Ushering was a lousy paying job, but we had fun. Somebody found an usher’s manual from the old days and we learned hand signals. There was a full staff..head usher, captain and five or six others. During busy shows we had an usher at each aisle door. The captain would have his back to the entrance facing us and we would use the old hand signals to tell him how many seats were still available in each aisle. Many couples were split up when the place got full (even with that many seats). The lines would literally go down and around the block, a result of having no lobby space in the theater. I would walk the line marking “2 o'clock show”, “4 o'clock show” etc. People would stand for hours in the freezing cold to see a Disney or Elvis film. Now, they won’t even take a parking place too far from the multiplex door.
Memories from someone who ushered there in the early 60’s.
It was till a first run ABC/Paramount house. There was a tiny main floor lobby with a small candy stand and a very large upper lobby with a larger stand that was seldom used. The upper balcony also had a lobby. The place was huge! A large lobby with lots of marble was in the basement with the restrooms. I think a recall a center fountain. You can’t appreciate how far up this theater went unless you had to make the weekly trip hauling heavy film cans to the projection booth over the upper balcony.
(more)
IMDB.com finds a 1941 film called “That Night in Rio” with those three stars.
The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for the Paramount in Boston has a facade photo taken in April 1941. The feature film posted on the long marquee stars Alice Faye, Don Ameche and Carmen Miranda, but the title is not possible to read. The second attraction is “Shadows on the Stars”. The Report states that the theatre does not present MGM product, that it’s in Good condition, and seats 1061 on the main floor and 736 in the balcony; total: 1797 seats.
b
I don’t believe this picture has been posted yet. Apologies for any duplication:
http://tinyurl.com/j9ejl
All:
Sorry but my .mac account has closed and therefore i have no place to put the pics i had up there before. I will let you know if i get them posted on a new site or something like that.
Again sorry bout that…
Although it opened on February 25, 1932, well into the Sound era, the Boston Paramount had a Wurlitzer organ. It must have been removed to storage many years ago, but it’s now being installed in the Aztec Theatre, San Antonio TX, now undergoing restoration.
More from Emerson College’s news office:
Planning proceeds for College’s Paramount Center development on Washington Street
Construction is to begin next fall and be completed in the fall of 2008.
I’m pleased to see that they no longer plan to subdivide the Paramount, but instead will convert it into a 500-seat live stage. The second, 125-seat live stage will go into the adjoining new building.
I’m also happy that the complex will include a 200-seat film screening room. Perhaps Emerson could be persuaded to use the name Bijou for either the smaller stage or the screening room?
No. The Millennium/Ritz complex has two glass towers. Loews Boston Common is in the other one, which is out of view to the left of the picture.