Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center

A little extra information on the Paramount. Between the time it was turned over to it's owner, Brandeis University and until it became the Astro, it was home to a professional bowling team. As the Astro, it boasted a 70 foot screen and 70mm projection capability.

After the theatre closed, it's seats were refurbished and installed in the new Orchard 4 Cinemas (in 1982,) which itself is apparently now closed.

I see I need to make a correction. The owner of the Paramount was Creighton University. I must have been thinking about another former Omaha Movie Palace, the Brandeis long since replaced by a parking ramp.

Mike

Go to this webpage for a brief history of the Paramount, available in text or movie version, under the "history" link: http://www.otcyp.org/newindex.htm

Here is a link to a photograph from around the time the Riviera opened (1926) showing the theater's original marquee. From the University of Minnesota Libraries Collection.

Michael, it is not conducive to become an opera house.

Michael your a first rate IDIOT.
I bet you have never even been to an opera house let alone even know what opera sounds like.

You can read about the fate of the Riviera's "Mighty Wurlitzer" organ at http://www.atos.org/Pages/Residences/Sanfilippo/Sanfilippo.html

You can view some recent pictures of the Rivera/Paramount/Astro/Rose at http://www.eomaha.com/gallery/buildings/24/

A view of this theater as The Paramount, in 1937, can be seen at http://gallery.unl.edu/picinfo/6164.html

A 1962 view of The Astro can be seen at http://www.nebraskahistory.org/images/histpres/nebraske/11591.jpg

A video tape of the Nebraska Public Television documentary on the history and restoration of this theater, titled "From Ruin, to the Rose" can be bought at http://gpn.unl.edu/static_catalog/203_051.html

I love the exterior architecture it has.

I love that 60's marquee.

The Paramount marquee from 1937 is outstanding. The Astro marquee is a little to plastic for my taste. The Rose marquee is an improvement over the Astro marquee but not as grand as the Paramount with its large vertical.brucec

Originally opened as the Riviera Theatre on 26th March 1927.

Yet more recent color photos and some history at this link:
http://www.ci.omaha.ne.us/landmarks/designated_landmarks/landmarks/41/Default.htm

Some more info on the Rose.....There was a grand parade up Farnam St. to celebrate the grand opening in 1927. The city was so impressed with this new theater, that there was talk of renaming Farnam St. Riviera Avenue. During the depression, after it became the Paramount, one of the money making ideas that the owners tried was installing a miniature golf course! After the Paramount closed, it was briefly home to a local pro bowling league, who installed a bowling alley across the orchestra pit, and broadcasted live television broadcasts of bowling tourniments. After that, the theater was extensively remodeled and opened as the Astro. At that point, most of the lavish interior decor, was covered in a large blue and white striped fabric, as was the old marquee. The new owners instructed the remodeling crew to remove all of the extensive statuary, and dispose of it all. Thank goodness the crew realized the importance of the statuary, and instead hid all of it in a basement alcove instead. All of the statues were happily discovered during the restoration in the '90's, and returned to their rightful places. Also, the "artificial fleecy clouds" described, was actually a projector like cloud machine, which was also discovered during the restoration. The last time I was in the theater, in 1997, it was on display off of the lobby. The plans at the time was to eventually either restore it, or find some other way to project clouds onto the ceiling. But, in typical Omaha Nebraska fashion, it seems that the Omaha Theater Company, which owns the Rose now, has removed all of the historical information about the theater from it's website. How typical and sad....

Typical Omaha Nebraska fashion? (where's the rolling eye icon?)

Their history page is here: http://www.rosetheater.org/about-history.asp

By the way... that's the Omaha Theatre Company for -Young People-... one of the 5 largest such companies and theatres dedicated to performing arts for children.

eomaha, stop "rolling your eyes" before they freeze like that :)when I did my listing, they HAD removed the link from their webpage, it was added back on recently......and as for the "rolling eyes" comment, the "typical Omaha Nebraska fashion" has to do with ripping down the Indian Hills Theater, just for a hospital parking lot, which, by the way, is used by few, if any......and also The Rose, which was on the wrecking ball ever since it was closed, if not for Rose Blumpkin in her final days, buying it and saving it from demolition, would have been certainly ripped down also.

The Riviera Theatre opened on March 26, 1927.

That's a cool looking theater. Looks like a gingerbread house almost!

The Rose Theater's building history page has moved here: http://www.rosetheater.org/about-ourbuilding.asp

The night photo of the Rose Theater is beautiful. I have neighbors whose daughter and family recently moved to Omaha so I will certainly tell them about the Rose and the Orpheum theatres. And the Rose has the Eberson connection!

What a pity that the photo attached to this theater's profile has to feature that horrid, mismatched "vintage" marquee. It is only vintage in that it represents a time in our architectural evolution when no thought or consideration was given to the historic nature of the building and the period, flavor or design that the architect intended. Why would anyone slap such an ill-matched marquee style onto a beautiful period building? It was done all the time - but how sad to look back at what was done to these buildings in the name of "modernization"!

Speaking of what was done to these buildings...I had the intriguing experience of touring this theater pre-renovation. In the process of making this the Astro, the then-proprietors felt it necessary to "modernize" the theater. Mustard-colored draperies covered the alcoves on either side of the auditorium. The mosaic floors of the ladies' and gentlemen's lounges were covered in brightly-colored shag carpeting. Most of the original gingerbread was removed, and the decorative upper corners of the proscenium were demolished to provide a better fit for the movie screen. One worker, ordered to destroy the statuary in the auditorium alcoves, instead hid them in the stalls of the ladies' restroom in the basement. (This is still, by the way, the current ladies' room.) Because the basement was not used during the Astro days, the statues were not discovered until years after the Astro closed, when the worker shared his secret. The savior of the statues, unfortunately, did not live to see the statues replaced in the alcoves when the theater was restored.

During the Depression, Rose Blumkin's five-year-old daughter Frances won a five-dollar gold piece singing and dancing to the song "Am I Blue" in a talent show at the theater. This memory inspired Rose Blumkin to buy the theater for $200,000 in 1981, shortly after the Astro closed. The site was being considered for a new Federal Reserve building, but Mrs. Blumkin wanted to save the building. She held on to it for several years, waiting for a workable proposal for its use. Plans for a shopping center and nightclub fell through. The children's museum and a historical museum considered moving in, but any plans they had also failed. When the children's theater announced a fundraising campaign to buy the theater, Mrs. Blumkin donated the building and threw in the first $1 million toward the $9 million renovation. She was present at the grand reopening in November, 1995, as was the original five-dollar gold piece Frances had won. Frances repeated her talent-show act at the reopening gala, accompanied on ukulele by Warren Buffet, and received a standing ovation.

PleaseTurnOffStars: What a wonderful story about a wonderful lady named Rose who had a love for theatre and that love helped to save THIS theatre. Thank you Rose and I now stand and applaud you.

And it's such a shame that the worker of whom you speak did not live to see the restoration of them for the reopening gala. Thank goodness he had the forethought to not destroy them, but to simply hide them. And "the mosaic floors of the ladies' and gentlemen's lounges were covered in brightly-colored shag carpeting" is such a shame! Was the shag carpeting taken up in later years to expose the mosaic flooring? I hope so.

I just viewed the Nov.28,03 b/w photo that shows the original wrap around marquee and the vertical RIVIERA sign...wish it could look like that today as those vertical signs were most impressive and when lighted at night it would have been an awesome sight. At the Shea's in Buffalo a reproduction vertical sign that reads BUFFALO has returned to its rightful place and I marvel at that sign each time I walk towards the theatre doors. I'm looking for an interior photo(s) now.

The mosaic floors in the former lounges and in the lobby have all been restored. I heard that a vertical marquee had been in the original plans for the renovation, but it was not done, I believe because of cost. If you look closely, you can still see the places along the corner of the building's exterior where the vertical marquee was attached. The original vertical marquee starred in a 1927 newspaper ad advertising the power of the electric sign to draw customers to one's business. At the time, lighted signs were rare, and businesspeople actually had to be persuaded to add one! The ad appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, and possibly also the Omaha Bee, which is now defunct.

Thanks for the information and I'll take a closer look at where the impressive vertical marquee once was attached.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974

Astro Theater ** (added 1974 - Building - #74001108)
Also known as Riviera Theater
2001 Farnam St., Omaha
Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Unknown
Architectural Style: Exotic Revival, Other, Classical Revival
Area of Significance: Architecture, Social History
Period of Significance: 1925-1949
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Theater
Current Function: Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function: Theater

Here is a recent photo of the Rose Blumkin.

This is another photo of the Rose Blumkin.

A photo of the Riviera Theater can be seen here. Date given for photo is April of 1927. Use the rotate button on the Acrobat Reader toolbar to turn the photo.

Here is a 2008 photo.

Here is a 2008 photo.

From the LA Times, 10/8/29:

THEATER ROBBED

OMAHA, Oct. 7 - Ten thousand dollars, the weekend receipts of the Paramount Theater, were taken from Glen McDaniel, assistant manager, at the point of a pistol early today. The robber compelled McDaniel to put the money in a sack and then fled in an automobile.

Times were tough during the Depression.

Another photo is here.

1978 Photo of the Astro Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c27%2c3%2c-1&SortField=ProductName%2cProductName&ProductID=29799

The Astro Theatre opened in June, 1962, according to the June 25 issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The theater had been mostly dark since 1952, with the exception of a few stage shows and the brief period when it had housed Omaha's professional bowling league. In March, 1962, the theater was leased from Creighton University by Dubinsky Bros. Theatres of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Dubinskys were responsible for the hasty remodeling. As the Astro the house seated 1465, reduced from the nearly 3000 it had previously held.