Paramount Theatre
1501 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1501 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
35 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 709 comments found
Thanks. I guess I should have read these all the way through.
Brad, see my post from May 30 above.
Wasn’t there another Paramount theatre in NYC. I remember seeing Children of a Lesser God in 1986 at a theatre on the upper west side called the Paramount. The theatre was actually downstairs underground.
During the Labor Day weekend of 1948, the Paramount Theatre was presenting Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster in the classic suspenser “Sorry, Wrong Number,” a Paramount release produced by Hal B. Wallis. The stage show comprised Carmen Cavallaro and His Orchestra, the Martin Brothers, and comedian Larry Storch. George Wright was the Paramount’s resident organist at the time.
Here’s a link to some silent newsreel coverage of Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theatre in 1944, with “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay” as the screen attraction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_wus1KL6Q
Here’s a 1937 view with Paramount’s Jerome Kern musical, “High, Wide And Handsome” as the screen attraction. The movie introduced one of Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s most beloved standards, “The Folks Who Live On The Hill”: View link
Here’s a 1955 view snapped under the Paramount’s marquee: http://www.nfo.net/usa/pix4a.jpg
It is now an underground parking lot.
/theaters/2654/
Anybody know the fate of the other Paramount in Mahattan? It was on Columbus Circle, built in the early 70s, adjacent to the Gulf+Western tower, which is now a Trump hotel. The theater was below street level, and you went down an escalator near the subway entrance. I just checked Google Maps, and there’s no sign of it, nor do I find mention of it here. I know that I saw “Young Frankenstein” there.
Renewing link.
The King:
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Thank you for your good words Life’s-too-short. Click here for another photograph of the Paramount Theatre taken in 1937 by George Mann. As in Tinseltoes' entry above, Martha Raye is again on screen, this time in “Double of Nothing” with Bing Crosby.
That entire photo set is very nice Brad.
Click on the year for photographs of the Paramount Theatre taken in 1932 , 1935 and 1939 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Interesting Photo of the 1964 demolition.
View link
Ella Fitzgerald always claimed Martha Raye as a major influence on her singing style. Here, in 1938, both are sharing a bill at the Paramount Theatre, Fitzgerald on stage and Raye on screen: http://www.howardfrank.com/Street_01.html
And you got a preview to in that picture for that night.
Here’s a 1935 photo taken during the period when the Paramount Theatre dropped stage shows to combat the Depression economy. DeMille’s “The Crusades” was a popular-priced “move-over” from the Astor Theatre, where it had been a reserved-seat roadshow:
View link
Remember it was also a marketing gimmick to get people into the theatres by offering a Big screen television for special events. Up until the 70’s theatres offered those closed circuit fights in theatres using those large RCA type projectors. On those nights the manager hoped and prayed the feed would hold and not lose picture.
Yes Bill, the Boob tube I believe we called it.
But there was a positive side, we went all out to beat tv with great advancesments like 70mm,Cinerama,CinemScope and Stereo sound. Then of course we had all those marvelous gimmicks (bless em) 3-D, odorama
and the rest. Silly stuff of course but we had fun exhibiting them and for a while anyway the audiences loved it.
I’m surprised they didn’t find another word to call it besides “Television”. TV and movies were bitter enemies in 1951, right?
The date 2/2/51
Ike,Ella,Dean and Jerry
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“This Woman Is Dangerous” was probably the first Joan Crawford movie to play at the Paramount. She turned up there again in 1959 in “The Best of Everything,” but in a glorified supporting role. Crawford was one of the few Hollywood legends to never have a film at Radio City Music Hall. During her long tenure at MGM, her films usually opened at the Capitol, and sometimes at the Astor.
That’s a gteat shot. i would not have wanted to be on the crew changing that wonderful marquee in that weather.
What a work of art those marquees were in those days, all the lettering perfectly centered and spaced.