Paramount Theatre
727 Church Street,
Nashville,
TN
37203
727 Church Street,
Nashville,
TN
37203
2 people
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Showing 76 - 100 of 142 comments
Four words: A Hard Day’s Night – printed on special Beatle tickets and you couldn’t hear the movie because of the screaming.
Lou and richsaff: Thanks for the verbal tour of the Paramount that was once in Nashville. I just went back and viewed some photos posted by Jack and was reminded again that this theatre was an EBERSON theatre which makes demolition an even harder pill to swallow.
That’s correct, richsaff. You entered the Paramount on either side of the outside box office through double glass doors. You walked slightly uphill through the marble floored lobby, at least it looked like marble, to a giant stairwell that led to the main floor downstairs. The lobby continued around either side of the stairwell to the carpeted balcony area. On the way in both walls were covered with giant posters of coming attractions.
My buddy, the usher, used to let us in free through the lower exit back behind the screen and Bob Lucks organ. (Ho.)
I think I was only in the Nashville Paramount one time. It was torn down shortly after I was transferred to Nashville for about three years. Am I remembering correctly that it was built on a section of Church Street that dropped sharply down to street below it, and if you walked in the theatre at the box office entrance on Church you were actually in the balcony area and had to go downstairs to sit in the orchestra area?
I see that a few of these photos were posted earlier on this link so that is where I saw them. Thanks again.
Jack: Thanks for the 4 photos. They sure look familiar as I think I recall seeing them elsewhere. Such a shame and it was an EBERSON! Hang your heads in SHAME, Nashville.
Here are photos of the Paramount: 1, 2, 3, 4
Will: I just sent an email to THS and asked them if they had any photos of the former Paramount. Will get back with their answer asap. Happy New Year.
Still would love to see photos of this former Nashville theatre after viewing photos of the former Tennessee on that CT link.
Sorry to read that the Paramount is now another parking lot. Have a great 2007, Captain.
I just noticed it was you, Chuck? Hi and Aloha!
I’m confused is there a library or parking lot where the Eberson Paramount once stood?
Any photos anyone?
The colored balcony in Loews had its own smaller marquee and entrance in the alley behind the theater. The Paramount had its own marquee and colored entrance in the alley beside Zibarts Bookstore which abutted the theater. It led to the upper half of the single balcony which was separated by a large rail, colored above, white below.
Loews was as you say a ‘performance’ theater, most performances being opera. It had four elaborate opera boxes on each side, upstairs and down. I have several stories about what went on in those boxes in my book, if I ever get it done.
Loew’s Vendome was an amazing space. It was apparently a legitimate theater when it opened in 1903. It was square shaped, as opposed to the rectanglular shape of many movie palaces. It had several balconies. Probably the upper balcony was for ‘colored only’.
The Vendome was set back from Church street. At the entrance was the marquee and box office. From there one walked down perhaps a hundred feet to the actual entrance to the theater. The lobby was rather small but had a high ceiling and the most amazing crystal chandelier.
It was essentially a wooden structure, so the fact that it burned was not so surprising. It burned on a Thursday night in 1967. The film playing was “The Dirty Dozen”. Ads in the local papers the nexy day proclaimed “HELD OVER! 2ND HOT WEEK”! Hot indeed.
In the ensuring months, Loew’s unveiled a plan to construct a mammoth theater on the site. But the time of the movie palace had passed, and the project never happened. Instead, Lowe’s leased a small, rather plain theater down the street. I think they leased it from Cresent Amusement, which ran most of the theaters then. [it might have been from Martin Theaters which took over Crescent about
that time.]
Loew’s had a very successful run at the Cresent for several years. The chain also leased the Melrose Theater on Franklin Road.
My girlfriend and I sat through “A Hard Day’s Night” twice at Loew’s Vendome in 1964.
After sitting idle for several years. the Vendome property was built into a downtown mall by a private developer. This brilliant scheme failed.
Today the site it the home of the Nashville Public Library. While obviously not a movie palace, it is an awesome structure – monumental and grandiose. Unintendably, it is a tribute to structure that once stood there.
Your final remark is a sad ‘note’ to hear in Music City USA.
Will, don’t disagree with her but Loew’s Vendome sat in the middle of the block between 6th and 7th staring straight up the hill at the Capitol. Loew’s Crescent sat in the middle of the block between 4th and 5th. It was where the old Princess was pushed by Cain Sloan.
Patsy, there were 7 theaters downtown because that’s where everyone went for entertainment. They got first run ‘big’ movies. Outlying movies got reruns or ‘b’ list stuff, although a lot of them were great.
You have to remember that Nashville only had 150,000 people back then. There hadn’t been a great rush to the suburbs because there were essentially no suburbs to rush to. Then Metro government jumped in and gobbled up the county for tax purposes. That forced
people away from downtown.
So, I guess you could say human propagation and human greed caused the death of the downtown movies.
“7 theaters in operation in downtown Nashville at the same time during the ‘50’s.” Such a shame that this isn’t the case today!
Lou, looking forward to the book. Sounds like a jewel. My mom (age 80) grew up in Nashville and so maybe those “of a certain age” never called it the Vendome, but when she talks about the Loew’s in downtown Nashville, she always means the Loew’s Cresent. And you know, mother is NEVER wrong. Just ask her.
Got a projected publishing date for the book?
May I clear up a few things for you folks.
1. There were 7 theaters in operation in downtown Nashville at the same time during the ‘50’s. I know because I went to all of them practically weekly. Movie nut.
2. The Rex was the dog of the lot but a lot of fun, It regularly had 3 Stooges or Bowery Boys festivals. Loew’s, and nobody ever called it the Vendome even if that was scrawled underneath its name, was considered the classiest. It had all the great MGM musicals. I saw 'An American In Paris’ there 9 times. The Paramount had the best comedies, the Knickerbocker the best mysteries/detective stories,
the Tennessee the best musical comedies and generally the biggest stars, the 5th Avenue the best old westerns, and the Princess had
vaudeville.
I’m writing a book about Nashville in the ‘50’s, '60’s, and '70’s and there’s a section on movie houses in it. I hope you’ll all buy it if I ever get it published.
I’ve also got a page over on Chip Curleys Nashville Memories site. There are some thumbnails on movies over there.
Posted by Lou, Nov. 23, 2006
The Paramount location is still a parking lot. When I go by there, I recall it in the ‘60s when I saw A HARD DAYS NIGHT, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, COOL HAND LUKE, Jerry Lewis and Don Knotts films, and others there. The “classy films” such as the Doris Day/Rock Hudson and Sandra Dee/Bobby Darin movies played down the street at the Art Deco wonder, the Tennessee Theater.
But it wasn’t built by John Eberson!
Tell me about the Belcourt with photos or is there a CT link for that theatre? Where the CMA Awards ceremony is being held in Nashville tonight it looks to be quite large with comfortable seating, etc.
There are currently no motion picture theatres or former motion picture theatres in downtown Nashville. All have been demolished. All of the theatres which use to make up the theatre district are listed in cinematreasues and include the Bijou, Alhambra, Capitol, Central, Elite, Crescent, Crystal, Dixie, Fifth Avenue, Knickerbocker, Paramount, Princess, Rex, Rialto, Ritz, Strand, Tennessee and the Vendome. I do not believe that there was ever more that five in operation at one time. Most of these, such as the Elite/Princess/Crescent/Loews were all the same theatre, just different names at different times on the marquee.
To Nashville’s credit, it came through in not only saving, but also sustaining the Belcourt Theatre.
So on November 14 we should all have a moment of silence for the Paramount that opened on that date in 1930 at 727 Church Street in Nashville TN.