Paramount Theatre
727 Church Street,
Nashville,
TN
37203
727 Church Street,
Nashville,
TN
37203
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 142 comments
Tlsloews & Mike, The LOEW’S TAMPA is actually the Austin Cinema 1 & II. Will be scanning more vintage ads between today & tomorrow so keep looking! Also, check the CINEMA in DC for THE EXORCIST ad from 1974 where I saw the film for the first time at the K-B Cinema.
There is another theatre for you,Nick.
Thanks Nick,I noticed on you ad slideshow an ad for LOEWS TAMPA any info on the theatre I do not find it on C.T.?
Yes, when Mike visited Tampa we took him downtown to take the tour of the Tampa Theatre. It was the number one priority on the list! He was very much impressed. This theatre never fails to impress everyone who sees it.
Your welcome Nick,I have seen the TAMPA theatres site on C.T. very impressive.Mike has been there right?
Thanks tlsloews for directing me to this site. The photos of the demolition are indeed sad. It’s a terrible shame so many classic theatres in nearly every city are now history. The Tampa Theatre luckily escaped the wrecking ball by one single vote in favor of saving the building. Otherwise it would be a parking lot today.
The Paramounts site is still a parking lot after all this time.
Yes its true Theatre Organ that the PARAMOUNTS entrance and lobby were kind of small but the auditorium was pretty big.The LOEWS CRESCENTS lobby was also small but the house sat 830.As you know the LOEWS VENDOME had a rather long lobby as did the TENNESSEE THEATRE all locacted on Church Street all of them are gone now.
Tisloews, I think it is amazing just how huge I thought the Paramount and the Loew’s Vendome were when I was a kid in the early 60s. The picture post by Life’s too short above really shows how kind of narrow and unimpressive the Paramount lobby really was. I can barely remember the Wurlitzer rising on Saturdays for the kids matinee.
Thanks for the photos Life,s too short.I remember when they tore up Church street and installed brick pavers in the street as in the 1st. photo.They have now tore that out and put Church Street back like it was before,Thats Nashville Government in action for you.
View link
www.flickr.com/photos/maincourse/434320288/
In regards to an early post “A HARD DAYS NIGHT” played at the Paramont, but it also played at the LOEWS VENDOME I saw the records fro the Vendome that we stored at the Loews Crescent after the Vendome burned But the records did not burn in the fire.It sold a lot of tickets..
Nashville has simply demolished too many theatres over the years!
tisloews: Too bad you don’t still have some seats from the Paramount…designed by Eberson!
In an earlier post it was mentioned that there was not a theater know as LOEWS. There was the LOEWS VENDOME was known to most locals as just The Loews. It faced up Capitol Bvld. looking directly at the Nashville, Tennessee Capitol building.I also used to have some seats from the Paramount that me and a friend took out as they were tearing down the building.We worked for Loews at the LOEWS CRESCENT down church street. I do not know what happen to them though.
Correction on the furniture above. There are 4 pieces, including a sofa.
In the 80’s we purchased three pieces of furniture from the old Paramount from a former employee. It is a setee and 2 chairs, oriental in design and reportedly were part of a movie set before part of the Nashville theater decor. We still have the set and live in Murfreesboro.
This Paramount’s Wurlitzer was the first theatre organ in Nashville to be situated on a lift in November 9, 1930. On November 14th, 1930, the Tennessean reported that theatre organist C. Sharpe Minor, also known as Charlie Minor, billed as the “manipulator of the manuals”, would be introducing the 3 manual Wurlitzer. The opening night’s film would be “Fast and Loose” with Miriam Hopkins, Frank Morgan, and Carole Lombard. Tickets were 60 cents.
On December 14th, 1931, the film “Frankenstein” was playing with Johnny Winters at the Wurlitzer.
On November 7th, 1946, the film “The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers” starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Lizabeth Scott was being shown, with Bob Luck at the organ.
“….an organist at the console of the Paramount Nashville Wurlitzer….” These few words are nice to read and do so wish the theatre, an organist and that Wurlitzer were still in existence in that theatre in TN!
My early 1960s organ teacher, Mary Doster, was a fill-in organist at the Paramount. She used to tell me that the organ was removed to a Dr’s home in Bowling Green, Ky. I had never heard that the organ was ‘broken-up’ as mentioned in this thread, and am not too sure that it is true, as a color picture of the Wurlizter console is on the inside first few pages of the last edition (4th book in the series, I believe) of the Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ. You can see this book’s ordering form here (http://www.atos.org/marketplace/) as well as the place to order a back copy of the American Theatre Organ Society’s quarterly publication 2007 Vol. 49, No.1, No.2, in which a picture of an organist at the console of the Paramount Nashville Wurlitzer is also listed under the category of Mystery Organist.
In speaking with organist Gaylord Carter many years ago by telephone when checking on a CD I had ordered from him, he told me that the organ from the Loew’s Vendome was in either the Oakland or LA area, as he had played it.
“A Hard Day’s Night” played at The Paramount. Not at the Loew’s. And by Loew’s I mean the Loew’s Vendome. We called the Loew’s Vendome Loew’s. We called the Loew’s Crescent the Loew’s Crescent. We called it the Loew’s Crescent because there was a Crescent Drive-In out on Murfreesboro Road. So if someone said, “It’s playing at the Crescent, ” they meant that it was playing at the drive-in. If it was playing downtown, one would say, “It’s at the Loew’s Crescent.”
Hope that clears everything up for everybody.
Yes, it is “a shame that no venues for such exist in Nashville”, Music City USA! Many probably didn’t appreciate the name Eberson the, but they do now…a little late though!
I attended many shows at the Paramount. One unusual feature of the building was its entrance way at street level..and auditorium which was downstairs.
I do recall seeing the organ console, but by that time the instrument was silent. It was bought by someone who broke it up and scattered it to the four winds.
Although I’m a classical/church organist, I do enjoy good theatre organ music; it’s a shame that no venues for such exist in Nashville.
In the 1930’s Eberson had updated his theater style to art-deco, Art Moderne. Some of these are listed as Atmospheric, though they lack the treatments that he had applied to his work in the 1920’s. Those theaters had vaulted Azure ceilings that met with sculpted or painted walls simulating a garden. The ceiling was either outfitted with small electric lightbulbs that twinkled – using automobile style blinker switches – or a Brenograph, a projector. They also used the Brenograph for the projection of clouds that moved across the sky. An example of one of his other creations can be seen here: http://www.sftos.org/olympia05.htm While others attempted to copy his style, there are several details that seemed to be lost by the casual viewer, who might be trying to copy his style. There are rumors that some of his plans were stolen and then used, but these cannot be confirmed.
I hope that helps. Too bad we all lost this Eberson design!