Loew's Paradise Theatre
2413 Grand Concourse,
Bronx,
NY
10468
2413 Grand Concourse,
Bronx,
NY
10468
62 people
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Great News Everyone!
Tours of the Grand Concourse, as well as the Loew’s Paradise Theatre will be held this month. Click on the link and read all about it!
http://www.bronxmuseum.org/gc.htm
The Valencia closed almost two decades before the Paradise. The Paradise was obviously more successful at remaining open for a longer period of time.
Does anyone know if all 4 of the Wonder theaters in NYC have been given full and proper landmark status?
1977
When did the Valencia close?
Was the Paradise the most successful of the five Loew’s Wonder theatres built along with the Valencia? I know from William that both the Paradise along with the Valencia that they enjoyed exclusive runs into the 1960’s. I think the Paradise enjoyed exlusive runs longer than the Valencia due to the competition in Brooklyn.I am just so thrilled that this theatre is being restored. It would be a tribute New York City/New Jersey if all five of the Loew’s wonder theatres were restored. I hope there is a lot of coverage in the New York Times when the theatre reopens.brucec
Thanks Jim, Thats a brilliant feature. Best wishes.
Hello, Porter; it’s been a long time since we have heard from you, and I thought you might like to know that until they enlarge the forthcoming images, anyone using Internet Explorer 6 or later can turn on the Magnifier feature and it will open a window about two inches wide above the main window in which one can view the main screen portion that the cursor is over in several different magnifications according to the setting one adopts (3x is usually the best). If you put the cursor over the photos, they will be much more easy to see. This works for most anything on the screen, so enjoy!
Thanks Divinity!
Where’s the eagerly awaited Photo Gallery? I want detailed BIG photos.
The page is still under construction but the images are simply divine.
Hello everyone,
The Loew’s Paradise finally has a website: http://theparadisetheater.com/
Enjoy all!
Perhaps this should now be placed at the top of the page.
rivjr, Thirty years ago no part of this city was safe, and it was the “south bronx” that was crime ridden. At that time, much of the northern Grand Concourse and Fordham Road were very beautiful and safe. If a person didn’t belong on the Concourse, they were asked to leave by a policeman. I do agree that it isn’t looking as good as herald square, but do you remember what that looked like some years ago. However I did pass by the Paradise this evening and it looks far from “trashy”. The marquee was brightly lit and the Pilasters were illuminated with bright light shining from the four art deco sconces that were recently removed and restored. At least we still have our beloved movie palace as a sight for sore eyes.
In the heyday of LOEW’S PARADISE, major movies either played LOEW’S or at RKO. ALL, by the way, were double features except on Broadway. A LOEW’S display ad would list all the theaters playing a certain moves, similar to ads today, a long list. Invariably, the listing contained “Bronx: PARADISE Queens: VALENCIA”. These two theatres ALWAYS had the exclusive on whatever movie they were showing, and filling lots of seats. Can this happen again? Movie box office is rich, not dead. People drop $10 a ticket like never before, except they spend it in crummy theaters —– for lack of alternative. WALT DISNEY has restored the large and famous EL CAPITAN in Los Angeles. It operates with great success across the street from the huge GRAUMAN’S CHINESE and a couple of blocks from the EGYPTIAN. There’s no reason to assume the PARADISE wouldn’t draw a big audience.
LAST MONTH I went by the PARADISE. The whole area is trashy. Yes, but remember that 30 years ago the Bronx was so crime-ridden that the GUARDIAN ANGELS were formed because girls and women weren’t safe on Grand Concourse or elsewhere in the Bronx at 3 pm on a sunny day. Since Rudy, unimpared crime isn’t tolerated in New York and the cops actually arrest criminals, unheard of 20 or 30 years ago.
I know this is off topic, but that incredibly long url can be shortened at www.tinyurl.com, which results in http://tinyurl.com/bh8hd
Hello Everyone,
Attached is a website that has images of several Loew’s movie palaces. The bum uncle tale above could be true since it appears that there were in fact swords mounted above the fireplace in the lovely mens lounge. It is probably because of the uncles act of vandalism and unruly behavior that the pieces were removed. Scroll towards the bottom of the page and you can see a photo of the projection room and the mens lounge. Enjoy!
link
The shops are not occupied yet because the owner is asking for more than $75.00 per square foot and he would prefer more tasteful buisnesses to occupy the spaces. There was until recently a cheap gift shop in the attached taxpayer but it has since moved to the building to the left of the theatre.
Yes, I guess the lines generally follow the same shape but the material looks totally contemporary. I doubt very much that the original sunburst was made out of plastic, and this was the point I was trying to make.
Looking at pre-restoration photos on cinematour, it looks to me like they followed the same sunburst lines. What looks different to you?
I drove up the Grand Concourse this afternoon so I didn’t get a sustained look, but exterior work is clearly still going on (sidewalk shed, etc.). The terra cotta looks so clean and is a very pretty color. It appears that the marquee (the ornate bas-relief scroll above the entrance) is being updated with the addition of the sunburst that was once the background for the letters spelling out “Loew’s Paradise Theatre”. It doesn’t look like a recreation of the original, but rather a modern geometric interpretation. Not bad, just different.
I have to say, though, that there’s something mysterious about this whole project. Maybe it’s just that it took so long to get back on track after the well ran dry for the first developer and it’s all been so low-key. I wonder how promotion will take place considering there’s not yet even a website. (Correct me if I’m wrong!?) It would be nice if local press and NY1 News took notice, because something phenomenal is apparently happening right in our midst. How often is a movie palace of such exquisite quality resurrected?
Finally, it looks like the retail shops still aren’t rented, which seemed a touch amusing considering that that was supposed to be the issue that sunk the first developer. I guess this one has deeper pockets!
A sad pic during the closed period
View link
Visited the Bronx over the weekend and work was going on inside the Paradise when I walked past. Took a few pictures and posted the photos here.
Was never at the Paradise when it was open so not sure how the entrance was designed, but took a few photos of what was probably the main entrance and boxoffice area. Very ornate poster boxes and ceiling! The front exterior of the building looks great. Walked around the back of the theater and the upper portion looks brand new, although the area close to the street had some graffiti over the walls and exit doors.
The neighborhood was quite active, lots of small business around the theater and on Fordham.
It’s been real interesting reading through all these posts, and I’m thrilled to hear this theater is being restored and saved. I plan to be in NYC this weekend, so will make a point of getting up to the Bronx and at least see the Paradise from the outside.
Does anyone know when this theater will again be open to the public and what type of business they hope to run there? Perhaps I just missed a posting where someone said what the plans are. I’ve read quite a few comments here, many I agree with. It seems impractical that it would be used for films, although I’m sure they’ll have some at times. Are there plans for Broadway type shows, or maybe musical productions? If the owners are going through such care to restore, I’m pretty sure they will have the same diligence for how it will be used. Perhaps they are just being quiet because NY is, well, a complicated town especially when it comes to business.
Looking forward to seeing the Paradise tomorrow!
There is no image of the now infamous “sword” fixtures or the mens' room in the Theatre Historical Society’s ANNUAL on that theatre of 1975, but that does not mean that they do not have photos of that area. One could contact them for verification at: www.historictheatres.org and ask their Ex.Dir., Richard Sklenar, about that. Sending him a copy of the above Comment might lend an entirely new outlook upon the nature of movie palace entertainments! I am appaled at the blase manner in which this account is related, but something tells me that it is not beyond fact in the environment of New York City of that time. Perhaps the makers of the fixtures foresaw unwanted use of the “swords” as “carving” instruments, and therefore anchored them firmly in the fixtures!
Does anyone remember the lamps made out of old swords on the walls in the men’s bathrooms in the Paradise? I never saw them as we spent all our time in Brownsville, Brooklyn, but my dad used to tell this story.
My dad worked for Frank Costello and was Uncle Manny’s older brother. Uncle Manny as he was known to our family once tried to take a bum named Al “Knuckles” Nicoletti in the Paradise theater in the Bronx in the Summer of 1936. If I remember correctly this was a result of a Contract put out by Ben Siegel and Charlie Lucky because Nicoletti was a bagman who was helping himself. Uncle Manny followed Nicoletti to his girlfriend’s apartment on the Grand Concourse and then in to the Paradise and up to one of several balconies. After making sure the mark had settled in, my Uncle who was was not carrying a weapon got up and started looking around the theater for something to use to fill the Contract. He found these great sword lamps in one of the men’s rooms and tried to rip one out of the wall. He was going to carve up Nicoletti with a men’s room sword lamp in the Paradise balcony! Unfortunately several patrons walked in and my Uncle gave up and left. Everyone got a good laugh out of this story and my Dad even got a few nervous laughs when he told it over the years before he died. I don’t know what ever happened to Nicoletti but assuming he is gone now he never knew how close he came to being carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey in the balcony of the Paradise during the Summer of 1936.
Incidentally, my Uncle’s colleague Pep Strauss also tried to take a bum with a fire ax in a theater in Jacksonville but the guy kept changing seats so Pep finally gave up also. I guess it is hard to whack guys out in movie theaters!
My Uncle died without ratting anyone out in the electric chair in Sing Sing in 1944, not like that piece of garbage Reles or Allie Tick Tock.
I am old now and wanted to tell this story once outside of my family before I go.
“Stage show direct from the Capitol”: I like that: a subway series.