Paramount Theatre

612 Main Street,
Buffalo, NY 14202

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Showing 101 - 125 of 145 comments

Patsy
Patsy on July 21, 2006 at 11:31 am

I think that we all know by now that “620” is the wrong address. However, being one who never gives up, I went back to my 1936 Buffalo City Directory, and found out that the reason why I couldn’t find a listing for the Great Lakes Theater was because the name of the theater was the “Shea’s Great Lakes Theater” and it was listed under “S” rather than “G” in the Motion Picture section of the directory. So…… with that said, is everybody ready for the address of record? (drum roll, please): 612-614 Main Street.
The building that is now City Centre is the building that the Paramount was in. It was gutted and several stories were added to it. As Doug mentioned, the first two stories of City Centre retain the facade of the theater. I have no idea what could have been on the upper floors of this building when it was a theater.

Perhaps a post to the Buffalo History Yahoo Group may bring out some memories.

Jerry

PGlenat
PGlenat on July 21, 2006 at 8:36 am

Lost: The Erlanger theatre was built by Ellsworth Statler to complement his Statler Hotel across from it. It was, however, a legitimate theatre and apparently never showed movies. It was operated by the much reviled Abraham Erlanger who also built the New Amsterdam and St James (originally Erlanger) theatres in NYC. It ceased operating as a theatre in 1956. The interior was gutted and the building converted to offices in 1959. It was slated for demolition in 2003 to make way for a new federal court house, but according to a friend of mine that I spoke to recently, that plan has not yet materialized
As far as the Paramount theatre is concerned, I don’t know if much of the original detail survived other than the aforementioned columns. It had been used by Nemmer Furniture for a number of years as retail and warehouse space for their business. Additional floors had been created inside the shell (probably the auditorium space).
After Nemmer vacated and prior to being incorporated into the condo structure the building had been vacant for some time. By then possibly anything of value remaining had been removed. Also, there were several reports of vandalism a few years ago with architectural fragments and artifacts being looted from many historic sites. Apparently there was quite a black market operating in the area for such items for a time until the law caught up with the perpetrators.

Patsy
Patsy on July 21, 2006 at 1:07 am

I never noticed the seat capacity of this former theatre and was surprised to see the number over 3,000! Good question about an address that would be attached to any of the items in storage. Perhaps I can find out, but keep your fingers crossed as it might be harder to get that question answered.

Patsy
Patsy on July 20, 2006 at 11:31 pm

Lost Memory: I just received this information….The first two floors of the Main Street façade are original to the building. The ticket booth was given to Theater Place. Also 6 of the 8' marble columns are still in storage in a local warehouse. The capitals and bases were plaster and did not survive. The original auditorium was demolished long before and what was left was mostly stripped before the buyer bought it.

Patsy
Patsy on July 20, 2006 at 5:24 pm

Lost Memory: Great idea! LOL!

Patsy
Patsy on July 20, 2006 at 1:17 pm

I don’t know downtown Buffalo like my friend who grew up in that city does so can’t say with any certainty about any of the Paramount research. It sure has been interesting to see and read the Paramount interest that has been stirred up lately though.

PGlenat
PGlenat on July 20, 2006 at 1:45 am

Patsy: I have no idea of where the 9 West Chippewa address came from, but in the postcard view that you sent, the theatre is after the building housing MacDoels restaurant and Harvey & Carey drugs on the corner (a check of the addresses for those two businesses from old city directories might help). Since the Great Lakes/Paramount fronted on Main and since the City Centre condominiums incorporated the theatre building into their structure and has an address of 600 Main, one would have to assume that the theatre had the same address. When the building on the corner had long since been demolished, I don’t recall any part of the theatre building extending out as far as Chippewa St.

Patsy
Patsy on July 20, 2006 at 12:32 am

“Mystery solved. I looked in my 1936 Directory, and the "Great Lakes Theater Building” is listed at 9 West Chippewa St. This would be right on the corner of Main Street and Chippewa. According to a listing of theaters you sent me a while ago, I have listing of Great Lakes at 620 Main St. from 1930 to 1955. It was called the Paramount from 1950 to 1955. I can only recall the corner as being a parking lot next to the old Nemmer Brothers Furniture store,which was converted to the City Center Condominiums by City View Properties (Doug Swift and his partners). The corner lot is now an office building that Doug and his company built a couple years ago."

Another email from my Buffalo friend.

Patsy
Patsy on July 20, 2006 at 12:23 am

“I was relaxing after dinner with the new issue of WNY Heritage Magazine,and lo and behold, it has a photo of Main Street showing the Paramount.Yes, the building that was last Nemmer furniture, and was gutted by Doug Swift and his company, CityView Properties and converted to the City Centre Condominium, was indeed the theater. I know that it was pretty much a shell when it was converted and stories were added to it, but I will e-mail Doug to see if any remnants of the theater were incorporated into the building.”

The above quote is from my Buffalo friend.

PGlenat
PGlenat on July 19, 2006 at 12:50 pm

Patsy: In 1936 the theatre was still known as the Great Lakes. It became the Paramount in 1949, but was closed by 1977, which is why no listing could be found in the city directories for those years.

Patsy
Patsy on July 19, 2006 at 12:46 pm

The post provided by CT member, “ken mc” on Feb. 1, 2006 is a Chuck LaChiusa historical site and the Chuck that my Buffalo friend referred to in my July 19 post.

PGlenat
PGlenat on July 19, 2006 at 12:40 pm

At the risk of adding to the confusion, the Center theatre was originally Shea’s Hippodrome. It stood south of the Main-Chippewa intersection. More confusion. There is now a “new” Center theatre on the opposite side of Main midway between Shea’s Performing Arts and the Great Lakes/Paramount. In the photo at the top of this page note the neon ‘Cinema’(?) sign visible across from the other two theatres. That’s approximately where the new Center theatre is located (it’s a live theatre). In the left center distance the Century theatre sign is just barely visible. In the right center distance the old Center/Hippodrome theatre sign can be seen beyond the Paramount sign.
I’ve been in the condo building (600 Main), but entered from the visitors' parking lot at the rear, so didn’t take note of the Main St facade. Nevertheless, the condo is located very close to the Main/Chippewa intersection which has me thinking that it was the site of the Paramount.

Patsy
Patsy on July 19, 2006 at 12:39 pm

“OK – I just saw Chuck’s site, and there never was a theater at that address. The name Paramount doesn’t mean anything to me, and I just looked in my 1936 and my 1977 city directories, and there is no listing under theaters for Paramount.” These are the comments sent to me via a Buffalo friend.

Patsy
Patsy on July 19, 2006 at 12:36 pm

Lost Memory: I just posted on the Center Theatre link that you provided and mentioned 2 other former theatres in western NYS….Regent in Dunkirk and Geitner in Silver Creek.

Patsy
Patsy on July 19, 2006 at 12:27 pm

Lost Memory: My Buffalo friend couldn’t shed any additional light on the Paramount address, etc. mystery so keep digging and we’ll get this all sifted through for the sake of the Paramount name in western NYS.

PGlenat
PGlenat on July 19, 2006 at 5:06 am

Either the theatre was demolished to make way for the City Centre condos (as reported in an earlier post) or it was incorporated into the condo structure. The location is a lot closer to the site of the theatre, as is the condo address (600 Main). Certainly the 620 Main St building is not it and the Theatre Place buildings are to the right of 620. Shea’s Performing Arts Centre (646) is immediately after Theatre Place. Strangely enough, although I passed the corner of Main and Chippewa regularly, I don’t recall the theatre being demolished or even the construction of the condo hi rise. Because of the vacant lot on the corner the theatre was always clearly visible from the intersection. It was the first building after the vacant lot.

Patsy
Patsy on July 19, 2006 at 1:28 am

This theatre is listed as having over 3,000 seats so this was no theatre to sneeze at, size-wise.

Patsy
Patsy on July 19, 2006 at 1:11 am

Lost Memory: And hopefully my long time Buffalo resident friend will email me with his personal observations concerning the Paramount and its former location, etc.

Patsy
Patsy on July 19, 2006 at 1:09 am

Lost Memory: Great research and it just goes to show that some of the CT information isn’t correct so hopefully any future theatre information that is added to CT will be more accurate.

Patsy
Patsy on July 18, 2006 at 6:12 pm

Sam_e: I don’t exactly when I’ll be going into Buffalo, but will check out these numbers and locations at that time.

PGlenat
PGlenat on July 18, 2006 at 4:11 pm

This gets more confusing all the time. I’m inclined to agree that 646 Main IS the address for Shea’s Performing Arts Centre. However, 620 Main is still the wrong address for the Great Lakes/Paramount since there is another building at that address. The photos bear this out. I know for a fact that the condo tower was built north of the theatre so the address has to be a lower number than 620. (but what?). The last time I was in Buffalo the theatre building was still standing. ({Patsy, time to take a trip into the city and find out for sure).

Patsy
Patsy on July 18, 2006 at 1:37 pm

Sam_e: I should have known that you would be able to shed much light onto the Paramount location mystery. Too bad one of the photos on that link doesn’t show the 646 Main location. The next time I’m in Buffalo guess I’ll have to check out that number and see for myself what is now there!

PGlenat
PGlenat on July 18, 2006 at 1:23 pm

The high rise building seen in the photo link that Lost Memory provided is the condo that was built near the Great Lakes/Paramount. The actual theatre building would be just out of view to the left of the condo structure.

PGlenat
PGlenat on July 18, 2006 at 1:01 pm

The address in the intro for this theatre is wrong. The Great Lakes/Paramount was located at 646 Main St, Buffalo, not 620.

As I understand it, after the theatre closed several floors were built inside the structure to accomodate a furniture business and warehouse space. There was retail space at street level with frontage on Main.

RJT: The old Erie County Savings Bank was located on Shelton Square. The ‘square’ disappeared with the construction of Main Place Mall and a slight realignment of the streets. A small park known as Cathedral Park occupies part of the land where the bank had been.

Patsy
Patsy on July 18, 2006 at 12:44 pm

Bryan: I see that your name is after the description and location of this former theatre so perhaps you could recheck the 620 Main information.