Paramount Theatre
727 Church Street,
Nashville,
TN
37203
727 Church Street,
Nashville,
TN
37203
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 142 comments
Thanks, Dave. I tried to load a picture of C Sharpe Minor, as well as the restored Wurlitzer,, but the system was having issues.
I had a friend who attended this opening and he said he was pushed against the ticket window so hard by the crowd that he couldn’t get away from the window to go inside.
Tomorrow, November 14th, 2020, marks the 90th Anniversary of ‘Opening Night’ of the Nashville Paramount Theatre, with C. Sharpe Minor, organist, at the Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ console, Opus 2132.
Will: Wassman built the Knickerbocker which extended thru from Capitol Blvd (then so called) to 6th Avenue- Later Crescent bought it. When the theater was being torn down Wassman’s name could be seen on the main beam of the building.
The SE corner of 6th and Church was – I believe- OWNED by the Odd Fellows. When the old Capitol building was replaced with what was then called the Warner Bldg, they had a Lodge on the top floor. I don’t know what arrangements were made when the new building was erected.
Read the comments on the Capitol page below. One mentions an Oddfellows Lodge at 6th & Church.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/17007
DavePrice and DavidZornig, Last year you were mentioning, above, the park that is bordered by Church, North 6th and Anne Dallas Dudley (a.k.a. Capital Boulevard). In the June 26, 1915 Moving Picture World magazine there is an announcement for a new theater, planned for that site or possibly the adjacent parcel. I was wondering if either of you had run across this.
This is the first paragraph of the article.
“ William H. Wassman, Nashville’s pioneer motion picture man, is preparing to erect what is declared will be one of the finest and safest motion picture theaters in the country, and the first house in Nashville to be built from the ground up. The building will be on the west side of Sixth avenue. North, and just north of Church street, extending back to the Capital boulevard, on the property owned by the Sixth Avenue Property Company. The plans, which are being prepared by Marr & Holman. Nashville architects, call for a three-story building which will be the last word in theater construction.”
I’m not finding a Cinema Treasures listing for this hall. Certainly there were innumerable theatre building projects announced which came to nothing, but since this article mentions which architect is preparing the plans it would seem to have some legitimacy.
The new courthouse on Church Street between seventh and eighth Avenue will take up the entire city block due to a requirement since Oklahoma City bombing of that courthouse, The former Paramount theatre is within this block which means the courthouse will be on top of where the Paramount theater was located. The two older buildings still on the lot on eighth Avenue, where the former Hammond organ dealer was, will be staying.
Church Street Park, between Capitol Boulevard and 6th Ave. North, which is across from the public library, is where the Paramount tower was planned. To learn more about what’s happening in downtown Nashville go to the UrbanPlanet.Org and select Nashville. There is a thread on the link for the Paramount and the courthouse .
https://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/forum/250-nashville/
New page for the Midtown Theatre, which had opened by 1977 in the Singer store space seen left of center in the Overview photo for the Paramount at the top.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/60199
The new US Federal Courthouse is being built at 8th and Church St. The Paramount was the second building from the corner (it closed in 1979) and its' building footprint will be included in the Courthouse building.
The park you mentioned is across Church St from the entrance to the demolished Loew’s.Theatre. There was to be a Hotel/Condo combo built there, and it was to be called The Paramount, but those plans are on hold.
Nor could I find anything current but here’s a February story which explains the fuss.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2019/02/11/nashville-church-street-park-downtown-homeless-tony-giarratana/2711899002/
Can’t find anything online more recent than March 2019, when it was still a go.
I am in Chicago.
Back to my wondering about the recent business about whether or not to keep the park where several buildings burned several years ago. This may have been the planned structure that all the fuss was about and if so wasn’t it called off?
Ah, I see.
From above it looked like it was across from the Hilton Homewood Suites.
I stand corrected, it is further down the street.
So something else is being built on the former Paramount Theatre site.
We’re looking at different pictures, the view that your link brings up for me shows the tower across Church from the Library and specifically states “between Sixth and Anne Dallas Dudley Boulevard.”
Both the March 2019 Google street view and the rendering in the above link, show the vintage building which is today the Hilton Homewood Suites at Polk Street across Church Street from the Paramount site. Which it is in the 1968 Overview photo as well. It could be confusing as the construction site appears to be a full city block long, from 7th Street to Rosa Parks Blvd. on that side of the street. If you further up Church Street in the Google Street view, it reverts to May 2016 and has the former Ben Franklin Store building still standing. With parking lots to it’s left all the way to 7th Street. The Ben Franklin Store is also pictured in the 1968 Overview photo at the top. It gives a more complete view of Church from 2016 to 2019. Granted the link is from January 2019, but there may be more recent links to be found.
The way I see that rendering, the new building will not be on the Paramount site but rather across Church from the old Loew’s Vendome, in fact it appears to be on the very spot that a recent squabble arose regarding the city selling off the small park between Sixth Avenue and what I have always called Capitol Boulevard but which is referred to here as “Anne Dallas Dudley Boulevard.” I wonder if this announcement is now outdated by the decision to leave the park alone.
“Paramount” is the name of the tower being built on the site.
Current street view shows the foundation is already well along.
https://www.bdcnetwork.com/%E2%80%98paramount%E2%80%99-will-become-nashville%E2%80%99s-tallest-tower
Came across a Metro Nashville Archives photo that has a Midtown Theatre (XXX) in the space where the Singer store is in the Overview photo. Does it have a CT page under another name, or does one need to be added for it?
1957 photo added courtesy of Ralph Mitchell.
Bob Luck, and my organ instructor, Mary Doster, were some of the organists in the latter years before the Wurlitzer was removed.
I don’t remember Frank Bobo but I remember Bob Luck or Lux who played it in the late 40s. Delmas Jenkins was at the Paramount opening night and said the organist was named “C. Sharp Minor.” This info may be in an earlier post.
Grand opening ad in photo section.
On the contrary, MPotts, if you’ll check the book “The Wurlitzer Pipe Organ” – An Illustrated History, by David Junchen, published in 2005, you’ll see a picture of the restored 1930 Nashville Paramount Wurlitzer, Opus 2132, 3 manual/15 rank, Balaban 3 style, on page ix in the Preface section of the book. Jeff Weiler, present day theatre organist, is posing in front of the console. The organ is very much alive and playable!
Frank Bobo, who played the “Mighty Wurlitzer” at the Paramount, was also a staff musician at WSIX Radio where my mother worked. He played for my parents' wedding in 1947. I remember seeing the Paramount console, but never heard the organ. This would’ve been sometime in the 50s; console was still in the orchestra pit. Unfortunately the organ was removed by a person who scattered it abroad instead of saving it or selling it to someone who would preserve it.