A few months ago, I tracked down the phone number for the construction office at the Paradise, and because I happened to speak to a worker who was also from Brooklyn, I learned some more current information about the theater. Yep, as people have said, they are still looking for a tenant (most probably to market latino music venues in the newly restored auditorium). The worker said that everything is being restored meticulously: the scupltures, ceiling, cloud machine, chandeliers. Though the facad out front doesn’t seem like it, it sounds like the inside has been brought back to what everyone remembers. They have been working on it non stop for the past year or so, under the direction of Gerald Lieblich of First Paradise Theaters Corp. It seems impossible to believe that anyone would put such a genuine effort into restoration if only intending to sell it to a tenant who would let it decay again. I wonder what Lieblich’s motives are.
Another note – In response to the rather pessimistic evaluation about the restoration posted a few months ago, I urge you not to forget all of the sucessful restoration projects that have saved theaters all over the country, many of them dependant on the surrounding community standing up and claiming ownership of this part of their past. Specifically I am thinking of a theater in Columbus Ohio, where all the restoration costs were paid through fundrasing, and the theater was repieced together part by part. And its treasures (or the treasures of Loew’s Paradise) were “not up for grabs” or vandalized, because the community felt and acted as owners of the theater as they volunteered to be ushers and curated film festivals and special performances.
Let us not forget that this Paradise was built around Eberson’s dreams – Maybe the Bronx needs to start dreaming again about what this landmark could mean for the community that lives around it now. (At on point in the 90’s I think there was even a school inside…)
A few months ago, I tracked down the phone number for the construction office at the Paradise, and because I happened to speak to a worker who was also from Brooklyn, I learned some more current information about the theater. Yep, as people have said, they are still looking for a tenant (most probably to market latino music venues in the newly restored auditorium). The worker said that everything is being restored meticulously: the scupltures, ceiling, cloud machine, chandeliers. Though the facad out front doesn’t seem like it, it sounds like the inside has been brought back to what everyone remembers. They have been working on it non stop for the past year or so, under the direction of Gerald Lieblich of First Paradise Theaters Corp. It seems impossible to believe that anyone would put such a genuine effort into restoration if only intending to sell it to a tenant who would let it decay again. I wonder what Lieblich’s motives are.
Another note – In response to the rather pessimistic evaluation about the restoration posted a few months ago, I urge you not to forget all of the sucessful restoration projects that have saved theaters all over the country, many of them dependant on the surrounding community standing up and claiming ownership of this part of their past. Specifically I am thinking of a theater in Columbus Ohio, where all the restoration costs were paid through fundrasing, and the theater was repieced together part by part. And its treasures (or the treasures of Loew’s Paradise) were “not up for grabs” or vandalized, because the community felt and acted as owners of the theater as they volunteered to be ushers and curated film festivals and special performances.
Let us not forget that this Paradise was built around Eberson’s dreams – Maybe the Bronx needs to start dreaming again about what this landmark could mean for the community that lives around it now. (At on point in the 90’s I think there was even a school inside…)