This theater was a bit strange in the time it was built. The days of Vaudeville were mostly over talkies where the standard and silent movie music was dead. So in the middle of the Depression some very hopefull group of people put up a real 20’s style theater. They put in what was a very large and very expensive pipe organ when most of the big builds had already folded. Even Wurlitzer was moving out of the pipe organ business. It is a real shame it didn’t last. Tv most likely killed it off in the 50’s . I’ve never been to Hamilton I imagine that the post war move to the suburbs and TV doomed the Paramount as it doomed many intercity houses.
I have to jog my memory but, When we owned the organ I did some research and talked to some people in Hamilton and what I understand is that the building and area were becoming a blight to the city fathers and in the urban renewel policies of the 60’s and 70’s the plan was always, tear it down for something new and modern. By the time American society got nostalgic to thier childhood treasures many of these places were gone. I worked as a projectionist at the Grand THeater in Woodstown NJ in high School. It was the greatest job in the world. School students ran the place with the operator. THe problem was the bank next door bought the property years before and decided to closed the lease and put up a drive through. The theater was successful and provded a place for kids on the weekend to hang out in a rural community. Once it was gone there was no where for the kids to go. So mischeif increaed. Money before civic responcibility. It’s a lesson we need the power brokers of our country to get. Theaters bring communities together.
We used to go there for 3 movies for 5 dollars a car lot. It was great fun with crude radio sound (AM) and weak drive up car speakers. The reflectors where shot and the picture was dim until it got realy dark. I loved going there. When I was very young there was a nice playground by the screen and Jerrys Giant Hoagies was just outside the entrance. To this day I have never had a Hoagie as good as Jerry’s
The organ was built by the Bartola Musical Instrument company aka the Barton organ company. The organ was Opus #343 and was the second to last organ built by the firm as was noted in pencil on a wind chest “second to the last Barton Thank God ” by the Barton factory crew in the middle of the depression. The organ found its way to a Pizza resturant in St Paul, Mn. When it closed the organ was bought by Jasper San Fillipo as his first theater organ (no owner of the worlds largest TPO). His organ Tech the author of the Encyclopedia of the Theatre Organ, David Junchen, installed the organ with some modification in the Sally’s Stage resturant in Chicago. When that venue closed it was donated to the Theatre Historical Society who then sold it to organ brokers Bob Maes and Bob Frie who in turn sold it to the late Dr Robert Figlio and his son of Elmer,NJ for thier music room. It became evident the scale of the instrument was to much for thier music room they sold it at a discount to the Acorn THeater so that the organ would be heard in a public venue once again. The organ was very well made and has a very unique surf machine in it’s toy counter
This theater was a bit strange in the time it was built. The days of Vaudeville were mostly over talkies where the standard and silent movie music was dead. So in the middle of the Depression some very hopefull group of people put up a real 20’s style theater. They put in what was a very large and very expensive pipe organ when most of the big builds had already folded. Even Wurlitzer was moving out of the pipe organ business. It is a real shame it didn’t last. Tv most likely killed it off in the 50’s . I’ve never been to Hamilton I imagine that the post war move to the suburbs and TV doomed the Paramount as it doomed many intercity houses.
I have to jog my memory but, When we owned the organ I did some research and talked to some people in Hamilton and what I understand is that the building and area were becoming a blight to the city fathers and in the urban renewel policies of the 60’s and 70’s the plan was always, tear it down for something new and modern. By the time American society got nostalgic to thier childhood treasures many of these places were gone. I worked as a projectionist at the Grand THeater in Woodstown NJ in high School. It was the greatest job in the world. School students ran the place with the operator. THe problem was the bank next door bought the property years before and decided to closed the lease and put up a drive through. The theater was successful and provded a place for kids on the weekend to hang out in a rural community. Once it was gone there was no where for the kids to go. So mischeif increaed. Money before civic responcibility. It’s a lesson we need the power brokers of our country to get. Theaters bring communities together.
We used to go there for 3 movies for 5 dollars a car lot. It was great fun with crude radio sound (AM) and weak drive up car speakers. The reflectors where shot and the picture was dim until it got realy dark. I loved going there. When I was very young there was a nice playground by the screen and Jerrys Giant Hoagies was just outside the entrance. To this day I have never had a Hoagie as good as Jerry’s
The organ was built by the Bartola Musical Instrument company aka the Barton organ company. The organ was Opus #343 and was the second to last organ built by the firm as was noted in pencil on a wind chest “second to the last Barton Thank God ” by the Barton factory crew in the middle of the depression. The organ found its way to a Pizza resturant in St Paul, Mn. When it closed the organ was bought by Jasper San Fillipo as his first theater organ (no owner of the worlds largest TPO). His organ Tech the author of the Encyclopedia of the Theatre Organ, David Junchen, installed the organ with some modification in the Sally’s Stage resturant in Chicago. When that venue closed it was donated to the Theatre Historical Society who then sold it to organ brokers Bob Maes and Bob Frie who in turn sold it to the late Dr Robert Figlio and his son of Elmer,NJ for thier music room. It became evident the scale of the instrument was to much for thier music room they sold it at a discount to the Acorn THeater so that the organ would be heard in a public venue once again. The organ was very well made and has a very unique surf machine in it’s toy counter