Brooklyn Paramount

Hello to all. I am new to this chatforum, but I thought I might be able to shed some light on the situation at the “Former Brooklyn Paramount.” In the fall of 2005, I will be attending the school (LIU) as a scholarship student recommended by the president of the university. My role at the university will be to serve as the Organist In Residence and Care Taker of the Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ which remains in that facility. Although I cannot be certain of the future use of the facitility, I am sure that I will try very hard to encourage the university into returing the space back into a venue for performing arts.

Michael Xavier Lundy
Dickinson Theatre Organ Society

House Organist/Publicity Chairman/Open House Program Coordinator/Board of Directors
P.O. Box 7263
Wilmington, Delaware 19803-0263
DTOS Phone (302)995-2603
DTOS Website www.geocities.com/dtoskimball

John Dickinson High School (Wilmington, Delaware)
Home of The World’s 4th Largest Theatre Pipe Organ (Kimball 3/66)

About 6 months ago, Little Richard hopped on the piano at B.B. King’s on Times Squre, in his white tuxedo with the black sparkle collar and matching pants.

At 72, nobody can follow Little Richard Petterman.

If indeed LIU plans to vacate the building for a newer gym facility the prospect of returning the Paramount to its former theatrical hey day would be a massive effort. The expense and the constuctive undertaking would be over whelming. At best creating a very simple utilitarian auditorium constructed from scratch may be more reasonable for lectures, community arts concerts and dramas and maybe showings of classic films, student films, etc.

Also, if someone does want to make an appointment to approach a university official, be sure to coordinate it here on this site and anywhere else devotees of the BP might meet, so that there are not many people making appointments, which could be perceived as a furtive assualt on LIU’s legal options to direct their property in the public eye, or simply as misguided individuals speaking of that which they do not know. Likewise, if you determine to make an appointment, take only one other person along with you, if anyone, since more might appear to them to be an intimidation tactic. If you have formed a group, certainly bring along a LIST of their names and addresses to display the fact that you are not alone in this endeavor of good will, but DO NOT make it look like a petition, which and can be very unsettling to administrators and likely to turn them off completely. Save any petition drives for much later in the ‘game.’

If you can first establish a contact on a lower level who has access to the current thinking of those in charge, then you can find out from this person whom to contact and what is a propitious time. Don’t waste your time talking off the ear of the janitor or bldg. super who may sympathize but have no power to contact or influence the president’s office where the decision will likely be made. In all these cases you must be careful not to waste their time by too many meetings or contacts; they are, in reality, a business, and time is money to them too.

Remember, short of legal condemnation of the property by the government under eminent domain laws, there is no way to force them to relinquish their property to others, and I do NOT advocate the currently fashionable misuse of this law to take private property for other private use! That might take the theatre, but leave a permanent ugly stain on its name.

Since the PARAMOUNT is privately owned by LIU, may I suggest that it would be prudent to first determine in a gentle way what their position is on the theatre’s future, since previous comments indicate that they are interested in keeping it as one of their properties, and may be willing to return portions of it to a partial theatrical use. It would be premature and perhaps offensive to them to start an outside effort about their property without their consent and involvement. IF at a later date they seem to oppose any restoration of the auditorium, then it MIGHT be feasible to start a petition drive or other influence upon them, but not before all courteous dialogue with them has been exhausted. Remember that the best way to create an enemy is to step upon his rights, and schools also have property rights. One can appeal to their civic spirit in the interests of the community, but one cannot dismiss them as unconcerned if they do not immediately see your wishes as the plans they ‘must’ adopt. IF you have a large amount of money to offer them to purchase the building and they accept, fine, but do not presume to tell them that they must sell or otherwise handle their property in the way outsiders dictate.

In this regard it might be possible to form an INFORMAL (non-incorporated) group to approach LIU administration to express your devotion to the FORMER theatre, and your wish to help them reprogram the space in a way harmonious to its decor and potential. Since any degree of restoration is going to be costly, they will see your assistance best as as funds raiser. If you can form a credible group to pledge to rent the auditorium for some events once stage and seating are restored, then you may give them a realistic gleam of hope in an otherwise confusing time. Make it clear that you realize that the regents or board of directors of the university expect them to make the most profitable use of the property (always refer to it by the name they use, not as the ‘Brooklyn Paramount’) and that you seek to help them find a profitable use harmonious with BOTH university needs and community needs. Universities are usually quite sensitive to local views and needs, but always remember that this is NOT a tax funded institution, but a private one not required to expose all their financial resources and options with the public, so never imply that you expect them to show you their books.

It might prove helpful to remember that this is but one of their ‘campuses’ and that therefore it need not contain educational programs perhaps better suited to other sites. How much of a problem is classroom space for them? If it is not critical in the former Paramount, then perhaps they could devote it to community and university events requiring a large seating area. Where do they hold graduations now and is it as noteworthy as the restored Paramount would be? They do have a performing arts program; what is the nature of the facility they now use and is that adequate compared with the former theatre? Can you find someone who will donate his time to act as an unpaid consultant in the adaptation of the theatrical aspects of the building to new uses? The more of their research you can do for them before they enter into serious decisions, the better your chances that they will listen to your ideas and take on your approach to the structure. Be ready to have YOUR lawyer draw up a MODEL demising agreement to separate the former theatre portions of the building from the upper floors of offices should LIU decide that that would be a good agreement. Such might also forsee removing the cafeteria from the lobby and other uses now in the balconies. These would presume that you have a viable plan or client to take control of those former theatre spaces at a proft or at least not a loss to the university, assuming they wish to divest themselves of the former theatre portions. You might include a back-out clause allowing them to retake control of the entire structure if the client/operator you propose actually fails within a stated period of time. In this way they will not be seen to be taking all the risk from the insurance, upkeep and profit standpoints.

Should you get the impression that they are open to a possible purchase plan or demising agreement for the theatre portion, then it is time to incorporate so as to collect funds in an open and legal way and then to take a copy of that incorporation certificate to show to them. But first of all is the quiet and kindly expression of deep interest in their property AS WELL AS your equally deep interest in the welfare of the university so valuable to the community since 1926, almost the year the BP opened!
Best Wishes to all.

I am the writer of a New York Nostalgia Index online. I got a little chuckle from saps, but what was written above is right. Does anyone know of anybody who I can E-Mail, maybe the Brooklyn Historical Society?

I’m looking to assist in the Paramount Restoration. I am already involved in the Kings. Now, I already placed a page on my website about the Kings Restoration. Is there anybody or group out there that was formed to restore the Paramount. By the way, having been born in 1961 I, sadly, don’t remember the Paramount. However, as a theater major and returning college student, I see the good that can come from two additional performance venues in Brooklyn. By the way, I was born in what is now East Flatbush.

I worked as an usher at the Brooklyn Paramount from 1960 until it closed in 1962. It was a movie palace and I never wanted to see it close. The rock and roll shows they had were wonderful and fun.

There is a picture here of one of the organists playing at the Brooklyn Paramount.

www.saengeramusements.com/music/rosario/rosario.htm

Dick Leibert was at RCMH from the day it opened in 1932 till somewhere in the early to mid 70’s when he retired to Florida. I knew him for several years before he retired, a gracious and gentlemanly fellow, with a wicked dry sense of humor. I took many a date with me to the Music Hall, Dick would let us in at the 51st street stage door and let us watch the show from the wings of the stage….always impressed the girls, let me tell you! The last time I heard him play was at the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, NJ on both the pipe organ there and a Baldwin electronic. He did some endorsements for them I think. He took a lot of criticism in those later days for using his own set combinations and not experimenting… true, but gee he was playing for 40+ years at that point. And, the organ was in bad shape, it had suffered from several “experts” who tried their own gimmicks – one even cut some pipes up as I recall. You had to use big combinations both because so much didnt work by then, and to be heard. The organ speaks from behind grillwork, so at its best it sounds muffled. Dick always played a standard that fit the movie, I remember ‘Stardust’ before some space picture, and usually had a current pop tune worked up.

Even my classical organ professor (who studied with Fred Swann – that’s credibility) agreed no one could do rapid finger substitutions like Dick – watching his fingers move chromatically up and down the keyboard for a tibia slide was just unbelieveable…. what technique he had. Even in the last years he practiced constantly in his dressing room on an old upright piano.

So when Communion is over in church, and I keep taking stops off the Swell to just a celeste as I move the harmony up the scale, fading out to just a 32'in the pedal – only my wife knows its really a Leibert ending before the movie starts!

Theres a better chance of this coming back to life then Loews Kings.

As a callow youth of fourteen, I took my first date to the Brooklyn Paramount. I struck out. Sixteen years later, I enjoyed a better outcome when I taught my first classes (Western Civ. & American History) in the balcony of this 4,400 seat famous theater. The home of rock and roll in the 1950s, it became the site of many basketball games from the 1960s to 2005. I watched in awe as Berry Leibowitz dribbled through opposing players in 1966. Larry Newbold and Luther Green led the Blackbirds back to basketball glory in 1967. Recollecting these starry knights on dramatic nights, I wonder “Where have all the flowers gone?” Where indeed is Cliff Culoko, Ruben Roodriguez, Lou Brignone, Ron Smalls, Ron Williams, Ernie Douse, Robert Cole, Riley Clarida, Mike Hay, Juney Smith, Charles Jones, Richie Parker and other illuminaries who brought us immensejoy and so much to cheer about. Curiously, Joe Dorinson

The organ is being repaired and will be reinstalled over the next year or so (it was severely damaged last year by a leaky roof). The New York Theatre Organ Society just announced that LIU has secured a contractor to begin the restoration work, whoch involves removing various components and taking thme to Connecticut for resorative work.