Paramount Theatre

Do you think they will be evicting people from those offices, demolishing them and working from original blueprints to reconstruct the lobby?

Where are they going to get all that marble???

Warren is quite right that the proscenium dome did not have a sky effect, and was otherwise painted as he suggests. Apparently, when the blueprints were sent to the artist, the nature of the dome’s decoration was not indicated, as such things were often determined by the decorator some time after the prints by the architects were completed. It may also have been a case of revision, where the sky effect was at first intended, but plans altered at a later date, perhaps by the owner or architect refusing the decorator’s idea for the area. Other than this dome, I don’t know that there are any other material differences between the rendering/painting and the actual theatre. Remember too, that the artist was in the employ of the drapery maker or the passementier, and was to feature their work, not that of the architects or decorator, since this may well have been originally a prospectus to bid on the job.

I AM HAPPY TO REPORT THAT A WONDERFUL COLOR RENDERING OF THE STAGE WALL OF THE PARAMOUNT’S AUDITORIUM IS NOW ON LINE AT:
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CLICK ON THE IMAGE THERE AND YOU WILL SEE A CAPTION THAT GIVES CREDIT TO THE ARTIST AND DESIGNER WHO APPARENTLY CREATED THAT WONDERFUL PROSCENIUM AT THE BEHEST OF RAPP & RAPP.

I just came across a copy of the Inaugural Program of the Paramount Theater. The binding has fallen apart but is complete at 96 pages.It contains mostly etchings of the theater interiors but is very descriptive providing details of the interior such as descriptions of the drapes, organ grills, stage equipment etc. There is also a section on other Publix theaters across the country with some small illustrations. The program also has information of the Paramount stars at the time with pictures and information. There is a one page description of the opening night performance detailing the stage acts. The film shown was called “ God Gave Me Twenty Cents”. Another interesting part of of the program is sort of yearbook style with ads from the many companies involved in the construction. There is a fascinating cutaway illustration of the theater in an ad by Carrier describing the air conditioning system, a photo of the bronze doors in the grand lobby and a photo of the projection room.

Right— For some reason I can’t fathom, my parents too preferred to sit in the Paramount’s balcony when they brought me there in the late ‘40s and early '50s. They didn’t smoke, so it couldn’t have been for cigarettes. And they never took to the balcony at any other theaters (except for Ice Colorama shows at the Roxy in 1953). Perhaps they liked the sense of vertigo at the Paramount?

One possible motivation might have been to view the orchestra pit head-on as it rose to stage level with the performers. The last stage show I saw there (and I believe it was the final regular program in the old format) accompanied Doris Day’s “Calamity Jane” in November ‘53, and it featured the four Ames Brothers (“You, You, You” was the sensation at the time)who came on after the Peiro Brothers juggling act and the British ventriloquist Clifford Guest opened the presentation; the band was Pupi Campo’s Latin orchestra, which had become a big hit as the in-house music on Jack Paar’s TV show. The Ames Brothers’ pianist was Burt Bacharach.

After that show, my parents stopped going to the Paramount. My next visit was with teen-age friends to see “The Man Who Knew Too Much” on the giant VistaVision screen. We sat in the orchestra’s third row to make the picture seem as big as possible.

These diagrams show wonderfully how enormous the Paramount’s balcony was. But they barely suggest how steep it was, too. Covering much of the orchestra, it then swept back to the 43 Street wall and over the tall lobby and grand staircase. As it descended from near-ceiling height at the rear projection booth, it brought on a giddy sense of vertigo and ampitheatric expanse. When you stood up, you felt you might tumble down into the orchestra pit.

You got none of this feeling on the ground level. I never saw a show from the mezzanine set-back (here called “entresol”: my, how Louis XIVieme), but from the main floor it looked quite comfortable with its attractive low lighting. After a visit to the Paramount, a trip to Versailles would seem anticlimactic.

I’m curious then… how would patrons have exited the theater in an emergency? Was there an alley between the theater and the Times Building on 43rd Street? They are pressed right up against each other on 44th. And if so, did everyone have to make their way to that side of the theater, or were there exits from the balcony on the right side of the auditorium directly into the office tower? I’m sure there were exit doors at the rear of the auditorium on 43rd, but there must have been fireproof routes somewhere.

Bob… that is the westernmost door within the former Paramount theater space on West 44th. Immediately to the right (west) of that door is the Deli which is at the western edge of the property. To the right of the Deli is the plaque remembering the Stage Door Canteen and then the loading bays for the adjacent NY Times building. Going in the other direction from the door (headed east towards Broadway) are the two entrances to Carmine’s, the Bagel Store entrance, those two black doors and then Ollie’s restaurant which occupies the ground floor space under the Paramount office tower. Perhaps the air duct was added in the intervening years (note the electrical supply line and box that runs along the outside of the building next to the door). I inspected the entire stretch closely and could find no other doors that weren’t main entrances to one of the above storefronts.

Take a look at the first photo I posted above which was taken facing west towards 8th Avenue from the spot in front of those two black doors. If you open the image to full size, you can pan down the block from the Bagel Store entrance to where the building ends with the Deli and see that there are no other doorways except for those described above. If this isn’t it, then it’s been completely built-over.

Here are some photos I took the other night when I saw Spamalot at the Shubert Theater…

West 44th Street – here’s a shot of the businesses that now occupy the former backstage area of the theater:
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The 2nd photo shows those mysterious black doors I noted in my posting back on 11/30. These are located towards the east side of the lot where the office tower meets the old theater portion and are obviously not the stage doors. Not sure about the small door on the left, but the one on the right opens to a staircase going up… perhaps a fire escape route for the building (and maybe for the old balcony patrons?):
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The third photo appears to be the old stage door that Bob Furmanek was describing in his post on 11/30… Looks like it could be the same opening depicted in porterfaulkner’s vintage photo posted above on 12/3, but it is obviously not the same exact door. In any event, the door now leads to a space owned by Carmine’s Italian Restaurant (where I dined on some outstanding fried calamri):
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And then I walked around the block for some shots of the re-created Broadway facade and marquee:
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By the way, the line to get into the Hard Rock Cafe was queuing up down the block to the right of the entrance – much like it used to when the restaurant was at the height of its popularity on West 57th Street. Looks like the change of address has re-sparked interest in the place. And it is now once again in local competition with Planet Hollywood, which closed its West 57th Street location a number of years back and re-opened adjacent to the Virgin Megastore up the block.

Here is a photo of the Paramount stage door in the 1930’s.

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Pretty discreet.

As I recall, the door still has some wiring or outline of the light fixture that once sat above it. In the old newsreel footage, there was also a “stage door” sign which appeared to be brass.

Ed, the original stage door is a single door which now opens to a staircase going down to the basement. Back in the early 80’s, it had a list on it with many of the big names that played the theater. (Somebody cared enough to identify that door and make the list sometime after the theater closed.) Unfortunately, sometime after 1984, the door was painted black and the list was covered over.