The Paramount

THE PARAMOUNT: That Was Entertainment

By Richard Ridge

The Paramount Theatre was one of the first and grandest show palaces in the world to give audiences the combination of enormous stage shows and first-run movies. The Paramount Building, located at 1501 Broadway, housed both the theatre and Paramount Pictures' headquarters. It was the brainchild of Adolph Zukor, as "a fitting home for Paramount Pictures on Broadway."

The $17 million dollar, 40-story building which took only 12 months to erect, had architecture by C. W. and George L. Rapp, and was designed from the French Renaissance period. It occupied the entire Broadway block between 43rd and 44th Streets. The eight-story Paramount Theatre had its formal opening on November 19, 1926 with an elaborate stage show by John Murray Anderson, and the movie, God Gave Me Twenty Cents starring Lya de Putti. "But it was the architecture and design of the theatre, the gold and glitter of its lobby, its grand staircase, and elaborate, extravagant décor that drew gasps of astonishment and admiration from customers."

In its glory days, anything could happen at The Paramount Theatre, and usually did. Everyone in the world of entertainment appeared there, literally from A to Z (Amos and Andy to Zukor). The list reads like a who's who in showbusiness. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra began their careers at The Paramount, Mae West brought down the house with an escort of NYC cops on motorcycles, Ginger Rogers and Rudy Vallee headlined at the Paramount. Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers played there, Gertrude Lawrence and Bea Lillie did, too. So did Maurice Chevalier and Gary Cooper, Eddie Cantor and Fred Astaire, Gloria Swanson, Dorothy Lamour, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, George Jessel. Ethel Merman, Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, Ray Bolger, Ruth Etting, Betty Hutton all played there. Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Guy Lombardo, and Paul Whiteman all led their bands there. Florenz Ziegfeld saw singer Ruth Etting as a featured Paramount singer and stole her for his own extravaganzas, and Vincente Minnelli was, for a time, the resident ballet master. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis appeared there almost throughout their partnership doing turn-away business.

Mae West, having just saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy, played The Paramount in 1933. She made her entrance in a blinding collage of diamonds, feathers, and white fox furs, singing "I'm an Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood for Love." Her mood might have changed for the worse when she found that, due to having installed a back-stage bar for her manager (during Prohibition, mind), she wound up her engagement in the red. Bing Crosby actually began his career playing cymbals in the lobby of The Paramount, having been discovered by Bob Weitman, who was managing director of the theatre. He appeared as one of Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys, but Bob Weitman brought him back as a soloist and really made him a star. Much later, when Crosby was to make a sensational entrance, swinging out on a giant boom, singing all the while, the machine jammed and Crosby ended up, unfazed, singing every song in his repertoire while stage hands tried frantically to retrieve him. Red Skelton passed out cold in the midst of his drunk routine when the water he swigged as liquor, replaced by a practical joker, actually was gin. Zukor, catching the act, called it the best drunk bit he had ever seen.

One of the high points in the Paramount's history was in 1937 when Benny Goodman, the King of Swing appeared and thousands of youngsters in attendance started dancing in the aisles, the first manifestation of jitterbugging. In 1943, at Frank Sinatra's opening, the theatre was packed by thousands of schoolgirls, some so young they were in their school uniforms. Thus, the phrase "bobby-soxers" was coined. They wept, screamed, fell to their knees, and sat in their seats for as many as eleven shows on Saturdays. Jack Benny, who had introduced Sinatra on-stage, recalled later, "It was the biggest thing I knew since Jolson. When you get an entertainer who can hold an audience in the palm of (his) hand, (it's) sensational." Life magazine pronounced the coming of Sinatra, "the proclamation of a new era." The hysteria was so intense that the theatre, on police advice, had to blacken the windows of the star's dressing room to prevent his teenaged fans from blocking traffic for miles on 43rd Street. When he returned to the Paramount in 1944, things got so unruly that the period became known as the Columbus Day Riots. In 1957, Alan Freed practically invented rock and roll at The Paramount, shattering box office records.

Perhaps the most internationally famous attractions of The Paramount was the twin Wurlitzer organ console, played for years by Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Crawford. Mrs. Crawford was the only woman in show biz who had all her gowns made backward - the decoration on the rear, because that was what her audiences saw.

Flora Roberts, a longtime theatrical agent, had her offices in the Paramount Building. When Sinatra was besieged by his rabid fans, he couldn't so much as leave the theatre for lunch. Ms. Roberts befriended him and brought him lunch daily. They became great friends and years later, in the early 70s, she introduced Sinatra to her client, Stephen Sondheim, and his song, "Send in the Clowns." Sinatra loved it so much he cried - and promptly recorded it, which became one of his (and Sondheim's) all-time best sellers.

On August 4, 1964, the film The Carpetbaggers ended its run as the final attraction of The Paramount Theatre. Movie theatres were closing everywhere, but the passing of The Paramount "mean(t) more than the shuttering of just another movie house. It mark(ed) the end of the road for Broadway as a midway of movie glamour."Everything in the theatre was either sold off or destroyed. Ultimately, this palace of dreams was turned into office space. So much for progress. Although the Paramount Theatre is long gone, the Paramount Building lives on. In fact, it is a hub of theatrical activity - producers, directors, agents and press reps are in 1501 Broadway, the Paramount Building. Now the Worldwide Wrestling Federation (WWF) has taken over some of what once was The Paramount Theatre. This may not be Sinatra, Crosby, Benny, or West, but hey, as the song goes, "That's entertainment."