Brooklyn Paramount

My mother was a Broadway dancer, who performed in the show “Cheerio” at the Brooklyn Paramount on January 12, 1929 as she neared her 20th birthday. Here is an excerpt from her diary:

“Brooklyn Paramount … new theatre. only open six weeks. Beautiful. Paul Ash and his marvelous orchestra was there. He is a most wonderful m. of c.”

Lit Whitlock was the daughter of a prominent North Carolina attorney. His older daughter went to Sweet Briar College and he wished his younger daughter to further her education, as well. My mother wanted to become a dancer, instead, so she overcame her father’s objections of heading to New York at age 18 by convincing him she could become a dance teacher (which she never did). She married an advertising executive, moved to Atlanta, where they reared five children and then restarted her career in her 60s, eventually appearing on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson almost 50 years after this diary entry. She performed the grandmother’s song/dance routine from “Pippin,” a role originally performed on Broadway by her close friend from the early days, Irene Ryan, of Beverly Hillbillies' fame.

Lit Whitlock Connah died five years ago in 2004 at age 95. She was a lively spirit and a wonderful human being.

James Cameron Connah (Jim)
Sandy Springs, GA

The caption of the color photo says “Gymnasts practicing on stage at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater, now used as a gymnasium by Long Island University.” Since they are practicing IN FRONT of the proscenium, it’s the first time I’ve seen a stage on that side of the footlights. As WGH might say, even Life can make a mistake!

Here’s a You Tube link, with some video from inside. Kenny Vance(of Jay & the Americans & the Planotones) at the Brooklyn Paramount with Charlie Thomas of the Drifters who had appeared there at the Rock & Roll Shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nie864gsHfw

The “Brooklyn Eagle” had better do better “research” concerning the Wurlitzer organ. Calling it second in size to the Radio City Music Hall instrument is nonsense.

I scoured the LIU website and there was nothing new about either the athletic enter or the Paramount. Stayed tuned.

This article just recently appeared in a local Brooklyn periodical “The Brooklyn Daily Eagle”:

On This Day in History: August 22
Paramountâ€\s Last Picture Show
by Brooklyn Eagle (), published online 08-22-2008

BROOKLYN â€" As the curtains closed over the screen on August 22, 1962, the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre at Flatbush & DeKalb Avenues was history. The last feature film at the famous movie palace was John Wayne in Hatari. Attendance on closing night in the 4,126 seat theatre was about 300. Its grand opening as the first movie theater built in America expressly for sound pictures was on November 24, 1928, with the feature Manhattan Cocktail starring Nancy Carroll and Richard Arlen.

Over 4,000 patrons came to gaze in awe at the theaterâ€\s vastness and baroque splendor; its $3 million collection of paintings, sculptures and antiques; and the assemblage of theatrical and political personalities who attended the opening. Gracing its ornate stage during its reign as the mecca of Brooklyn entertainment were such celebrities as Frank Sinatra, Liberace, Rudy Vallee, Ginger Rogers, Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Mae West and most of the big band era orchestras. In later years the Paramountâ€\s stage was the site of rock & roll shows such as Little Richard and Bill Haley and the Comets, emceed by popular disc jockey Alan Freed.

Long Island University took over the building and in 1950 converted the office tower to classrooms and administrative offices. When the theatre itself closed 12 years later, the grand lobby, a copy of the famous Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, became LIUâ€\s student cafeteria; the orchestra seating area became a gymnasium where the LIU basketball team plays with spectators seated in bleachers where the balcony patrons once sat. The “Mighty Wurlitzer” pipe organ, second in size and sound only to the two in the Radio City Music Hall, has been lovingly restored by the Theatre Organ Enthusiasts group and was still played at the basketball games until recently. Now, with the opening of its new athletic center, LIU announced plans to use the space as a theater once again.

The sunburst proscenium, the side bays representing visions into the formal gardens of French royal palaces of the late 18th century, and the ornate ceiling are still visible and worth a look.

This story doesn’t go far enough. When LIU says that it will resuse the space as a theater, what exactly does that mean? Will the seating be restored? Will the theater be refurbished? Will it be used for films, live theater, concerts or all three? What is the timetable? In my opinion, the reporter did a poor job. If you’re going to announce the return of one of Brooklyn’s most treasured and storied theaters you should provide actual news and not just a history lesson.

I seem to remember running a movie based on that 1956 image posted above. If memory serves me, I think it was in 1978, and was called “American Hot Wax.” If that is the movie, and the events followed true, than it really was a great time to be around.

hay TRMiller
The lady who might have that info. won’t be in till classes start up again on the 22nd. So I have been going around the school blindly looking till then. Nothing yet however I was told that PBS might have done a special on it so you might want to check that out as well. As soon as classes start I will make a trip up archivist to see if she has anything keep your fingers crossed.

LIUgirl

Hello LIUgirl.
That would be great! Bob West was my maternal grandfather. I never met him as he abandoned his wife and four children and ran off to New York to be with some young starlet many, many years ago! In fact, I never heard grandma mention the name of the starlet so I am not sure who she was! He hung around with many of the famous actors and actresses of the era and was quite popular, so who knows who it might have been. He also played in Chicago and, I believe, Colorado. Obviously there is much more information on this side of his family that his other family, if he has one, might be interested in. So anything you might come up with just might be the thing we need to solve the mystery!
Have a safe day there in the Big Apple!
Tom

Hello LIUgirl.
Do you know if any old photographs of the marquee exist with any of the performers names ‘up in lights’? Or do any other old photographs from the 1930’s to 50’s exist in an archive or library there? I am still looking for information about theatre organist Bob West, who played there many years ago!
Thanks.

Wow! Great photos! Though this theater has lost a lot it does look totally salvagable. I assume that the original lobby colors were much darker and varied. It much have been beautiful back in the day.

Excellent photoset Ken. Those are the best shots I have ever seen of the grand lobby as it exists today.

Here is an undated interior photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2v4tcr