Paramount Theatre
612 Main Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14202
612 Main Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14202
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Showing 26 - 50 of 145 comments
My best memory of this theater (no matter WHAT it’s street address may have been) is that on the hot summer days, which – admittedly – were few and far between in Buffalo, they had long banners below the sidewalk marquee advertising their installation of REFRIGERATED air conditioning. To further entice you inside, they left the doors wide open and the resultant outpouring of cold air was enough to bring you in to see the worst movie of the year!
Of course, most of the other theaters followed the same practice, but the Paramount always seemed to have the best mix of a strong outflow with the smell of buttered popcorn.
MVT: I can’t answer your question, but there are CT members who can so be patient and the answer will come forth!
Anyone,
I know this isn’t the exact place for this question, but I will ask any way. I was just back in Buffalo for a visit and took note of the White Bros. Livery incident. The pictures in the paper showed two carved horse heads that were the same color as the rest of the building. My question is I seem to remember a building in that part of town that had two white carved horse heads on it. Is that the same building another structure or my bad memory? If it is another structure please tell me what it is. Thanks.
And after reading many of the previous posts it would be interesting to see a present day photo of the City Centre lobby though it bears no resemblance of its theatre past. Just curious as to how it was designed and appears today!
Could anyone give us details of when this theatre was razed (rear section)and what was sold as the amount of interior artifacts must have been numerous included the Wurlitzer sale. I’m sure at the time there were newspaper articles about this theatre and its demise from Main Street.
Bob: This is Patsy….please send me an email with what you know concerning Opus 1616 which was in this theatre! I have now made contact with “D. Unks”!
bflofan,
If you read all the comments on this theater you would see a lot of questions about the address. It has now been been agreed on as 612 Main. Just out of curiosity, what address did you have for back in 1960?
‘Goldwynisms’ “Don’t turn it into a flop!” Samuel Goldwyn (1879-1974)
Phone number 1960: MAdison 5250
Bob Jensen: I have contacted D. Unks and will be talking to him via phone on Monday! Am also looking forward to your email about Wurlitzer Opus 1616 history, as you know it!
Bob Jenen: Your Feb. 5 2008 post with the Wurlitzer site is interesing in that I tracked the history of Opus 1616 and it seems to have gone from Buffalo to Reading PA to Stowe PA to Erie. Amazing that this site allows you to track a particular organ so I guess Opus 1616 didn’t go directly from Buffalo to Erie, after all!
sam_e: Well, now that’s a thought….I shall look into this! I’ve been to the Palace Theatre in Albany and now that you mention it I do recall that they do NOT have an organ, but whether they could be coaxed into buying and installing one remains to be seen as I don’t know they they would be interested though should be! Before your above post I placed a call to Dennis Unks, former OSI president in Erie PA. I left a message so when I hopefully hear back from him I will mention this organ idea to him.
Patsy, If you look through the online catalog that OSI has on their website you’ll see that they are in a position to build your very own theatre organ with authentic Wurlitzer gizmos. (I assume that they may have bought the patents or the rights to duplicate certain Wurly designs).
As far as the original Opus 1616 organ is concerned, do you think that the powers-that-be at the Palace theater in Albany could be coaxed into buying and installing it there to replace their long lost organ?
MVT: Thanks for that explanation about the rear portion and the Main Street section. I would like to think that the original Wurlitzer organ could be placed into another existing theatre, someday though.
Patsy,
After the theatre closed the rear portion that held the actual theatre was razed and that land was made into a parking lot. The Main St. section remained.
A OSI website message from the current OSI president, Bob Rusczyk is below:
View link
D. Unks: When I type the above post I was not aware that you had been the former OSI president. Great to have you as a member of Cinema Treasures. I hope the current president knows about Cinema Treasures. If he doesn’t, he does now after my email to him telling him why I was inquiring about the Wurlitzer Opus 1616. I hope that Bob Jensen can tell us where the organ photos posted on Feb. 4, 2008 were taken. How and why did OSI come to acquire the organ and did the organ go directly from the Paramount to OSI? Was or is their intent to sell it, as is? I assume they planned to restore it when they purchased it. Do you know the selling price? And do you know Bob Jensen as I find it fascinating that 2 men on this link know so much about one organ that was in Buffalo NY at the Paramount. A theatre that should never have been neglected and then demolished.
D. Unks & Bob Jensen: I have contacted OSI via email and wondered what more you could tell me about Opus 1616? The OSI president has now emailed me so that is a start! I am not really into organs so don’t know one from another other than I can appreciate their sound and the folks who sit at their consoles. Please email me @ as I hope to visit OSI this summer.
Thanks for your insightful post from beginning to end!
FIRM SHOULD BE: LEON H. LEMPERT & SON
I’m making the 124th comment to a theater that started out:
“There is no description available for this theater. If you know anything about this theater, please email us!”
That’s the neat thing about Cinema Treasures!
If you look at the different photos of the theater, in the front nine story building (the part that is now condos) that was above the entrance and the lobby, I notice hardly any windows in the front facing the street and just a few on the top floors on the back of the building, so I say the same thing Jerry said in the post Patsy made on July 21, 2006 at 3:31am:
“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?
“They showed the old movie theater, and half of it was gone.” Scott Ward
Still no reply from Organ Supply Industries so may give them a phone call since they have an 800 number on their website. On the site there is a message from the president so will ask to speak with him. Stay tuned.
Great! Let us all know what they say.
“A well stocked mind is safe from boredom."
Arthur C. Clarke 1917-2008, Author of "2001: A Space Odyssey”
I just sent Organ Supply Industries an email about the organ that was once in the Paramount Theatre and will await a reply. If I don’t hear from OSI in a few days (or hours), I will give them a phone call. Stay organ tuned!
Thanks men for your posts and organ information. I just might contact Organ Supply Industries and see what they have to say to me.
Patsy: According to the posting on Feb 4/08, the Paramount organ is/was in storage at Organ Supply Industries in Erie PA. If it is still there I assume that it is not set up and in playable condition.
As far as the Paramount building is concerned, Buffalo was beginning a decline in fortunes when the theater closed and I’m sure the theater owners were glad to get the liability of a mammoth empty building off their books. Nemmer furniture no doubt made them an offer they couldn’t refuse for the property.
Patsy,
You must have missed it, but look back to February 4, I mentioned that the organ was at http://www.organsupply.com/ which is in Erie.
The organ is “The King of Instruments” Wolfgang Amadues Mozart 1756-1791