Paramount Theatre

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DAVDJDO

When I was a youngster my parents took me to the Paramount. Don’t remember what the movie was but Gene Krupa was the featured live performer. We were sitting in the last row of the balcony. But not for long. My mother had height issues and we left. Many years later we had a similar experience at the outdoor Jones Beach Marine Theatre.

Fifty years ago today, 20th-Fox’s belated sequel, “Return to Peyton Place,” opened its NYC premiere engagement at the Paramount in Times Square and the Trans-Lux Normandie on West 57th Street. The original “Peyton Place” had been one of the last boxoffice blockbusters at the Roxy Theatre, where it was the Christmas 1957 attraction with support from a stage show. The Roxy was demolished in the summer of 1960.

“Meet Danny Wilson” was produced in 1951, but released in 1952. It got reviewed in the trade press in the last week of January, 1952, and was listed on the U-I national release chart for February. The NYC opening was apparently delayed to benefit from Sinatra performing in the stage show as well.

Sinatra was really down on his luck in those early ‘50s years. My dad used to talk about a benefit concert he gave at the Union Club in Hoboken NJ (Sinatra’s home town, and mine) around this time. The audience heckled him and made fun of his singing voice. “From Here to Eternity” turned his career around and put him back on top shortly afterwards, but he never forgave Hoboken and didn’t return there for many years. I think the next time he came back there publicly was for his honorary doctorate from Stevens Institute of Technology, in (I think) 1985.

William… that would have been the Hotel Claridge where Voight’s character first stayed after arriving in New York in “Midnight Cowboy.”

Tinseltoes… you describe two different programs as opening the Paramount’s 1952 Easter Holiday Show, in your posts above dated March 26 and April 9th. Which was the official Easter attraction?

Watch Midnight Cowboy. In the very beginning, John Voight looks out a hotel window onto Broadway. Across the street & on the left hand side is what looks like a big drop cloth. Behind that is the demolition of the Paramount taking place.

By the way, that hotel was also the site of a nother NYC landmark -the Camel sign with the guy blowing smoke rings.

I knew someone that attended one of these shows and said the theater was only about 40% filled.

Seventy years ago today, Paramount’s B&W musical “Las Vegas Nights,” which was a showcase for “That Sentimental Gentleman” Tommy Dorsey and his swing orchestra, opened its NYC premiere engagement at the Paramount Theatre. The film included a rendition of “Dolores” by a skinny crooner known as Frank Sinatra, but his name wasn’t metioned in the advertising, which did credit actors Bert Wheeler, Constance Moore, Phil Regan, Betty Brewer, Lillian Cornell, and even comedian Red Donahue and his mule “Uno.” The Paramount’s stage show was topped by singer Allan Jones, comedians Wally Brown & Annette Ames, Ina Ray Huton & Her Orchestra, the Lane Brothers, and, the “Extra Added Attraction” of the Andrews Sisters. Within a year, Sinatra would start performing on the Paramount’s stage and quickly become forever linked to the theatre’s history.

On this Valentine’s Day in 1949, Paramount’s “Whispering Smith,” a Technicolor western with Alan Ladd in the title role and co-starring Robert Preston, Brenda Marshall, and Donald Crisp, opened its NYC premiere engagement at the Paramount Theatre. Performing in person on stage were Buddy Rich & His Orchestra, singer Mel Torme, the DeCastro Sisters, the Four Step Brothers, and comedian Henny Youngman. George Wright was resident organist. Advertising claimed that the Paramount was “The Nation’s First Theatre To Reduce Prices.” All seats were 55 cents from 8:30am opening to 1:00pm on weekdays.

On this day in 1952, RKO’s “A Girl In Every Port,” a B&W comedy starring Groucho Marx, Marie Wilson, and William Bendix, opened its NYC premiere engagement at the Paramount Theatre. The stage bill included “Drummer Man” Gene Krupa & His Orchestra, recording stars The Four Aces, comedian Phil Foster, and singer Polly Bergen (described as “That Gal That’s Been Loved By Martin & Lewis”).

On this day in 1942, Preston Sturges' now classic B&W comedy, “Sullivan’s Travels,” teaming Joel McCrea with rising “Peek-a-boo Blonde” Veronica Lake, opened its NYC premiere engagement at the Paramount Theatre. On stage was America’s most popular band, Glenn Miller & His Orchestra, featuring Marion Hutton, Ray Eberle, and The Modernaires, plus juggler-dancer Trixie and the comedy team of Lorraine & Rognan. Doors opened at 7:45am, with the last complete stage/screen show starting at midnight.