Paramount Theatre
612 Main Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14202
612 Main Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14202
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Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 159 comments)
Just to confirm, according to
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Paramount CLOSED AKA: Great Lakes
612 Main July 22nd, 1949-1965 3,024 seats
Opened as Great Lakes on March 30th, 1927 and renamed Paramount on July 22nd, 1949. It was owned by Buffalo Paramount Corp.
The closing date jives with my recollection of our family moving in early August, 1965. For company info see:
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Thanks a lot for the info Jeff – if you have any other recollections of the local theaters that I’ve commented on, please share. Maybe we can start a group of locals to reflect on personal movie house memories as well as technical ones.
The only other ‘near’ Paramont story I can come up with is the local “Peanut Man” that used to ply the corners of Main Street around the theaters with his pushcart selling hot nuts to passerbys. The cart used steam to power a whistle as an attention getter and — I believe — in the really early days he actually had a live monkey on his shoulder!
Try that one today on nearly deserted Main Street as the semi-subway cars rumble by!!!!
Hi alknobloch. There is a Yahoo users group for Buffalo movies theater aficionados but not much of interest is posted there. I don’t remember the peanut cart but it sounds wonderful. Most of my recollections center around special events and openings with celebrities. Also I had a great collection of 8x10 stills from my favorite war, western and SF movies. As I remember each local or regional theater chain was responsible for advertising and promotions. My father coordinated directly with the studio PR reps to set up the local opening event. At the time Ed “Kookie” Burns (of 77 sun set strip fame) generated more buzz than John Wayne.
As a late comer to this theatre listing, I’ve just finished reading through all the posts, and noticed this question:
“I have no idea what could have been on the upper floors of this building when it was a theater.”
Does anyone know or have any ideas?
Unless I missed an answer post… I wish to point out that the answer to that question is shown in the 1964 photograph posted by Lost Memory on April 17th, 2009.
If you study that photograph, you will see that the Nemmer Furniture store occupied the left side on the ground floor even when the theatre was operating. Their sign on the front of the building just to the left of the Paramount marquee says: 9 Floors of Furniture. That pretty well says it all. They occupied all of the front building except the theatre entrance and lobby. When the theatre closed they apparently expanded into that space as well.
This is a January 1932 ad for “Frankenstein” at the Great Lakes Theater.
Here is a September 1929 ad for the Fox Great Lakes.
More Paramount information. While Fox and Loews originally ran this theater, Micheal Shea, with
Paramount as a partner took over in 1931. At this point Shea had an interest in all the major
downtown theaters, except the Lafayette. In early 1934 the Great Lakes went dark. Other
operators couldn’t get the theater reopened (claiming Shea monopolized the product) and
Sheas under Vincent McFaul (Shea died in 1935), reopened that year, and stayed under that
management until 1949. The theater breakup in 1949, gave the Great Lakes to Paramount, and
also the name change. In 1951, Edward Miller began managing the Paramount, and did so
until the end in 1965. 51 people saw the last show in the 3300 seat theater on February 20,
1965.
Some other data, a furniture store occupied the upper levels for most years. A silent theater
for only one year, the “Jazz Singer” debuted in 1928. Vaudeville was ended in 1932. AC installed
in 1936. Admission dropped as low as 25 cents in the 1930s, but was up to 65 cents in 1945.
“Gone with the WInd” showed here in 1940 at $1.10 per seat. Dennis Day was brought in,
to open the “New” Paramount in 1949. 75,000 pairs of 3-D glasses were obtained for the
showing of “House of Wax”, which was 2nd only to GWTW for attendance.
Cool History.
Click here for a photograph taken of Fox’s Great Lakes (Paramount) Theatre in 1931 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
From the late 1950s a photo postcard view of downtown Buffalo that captured a view of the Paramount and Buffalo Theatres.