Brooklyn Paramount Theater

Last updated

Logo of the theater, in use since March 2024 Brooklyn Paramount Theater 2024 Logo.svg
Logo of the theater, in use since March 2024
wordmark Brooklyn Paramount Theater 2024 Wordmark.svg
wordmark

The Brooklyn Paramount Theater is a concert venue and former movie palace at 1 University Plaza at the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. Opened in 1928, the building has been owned by Long Island University (LIU) since 1954. Converted for use by LIU as classroom space and a gymnasium, the building retains much of the theater's original decorative detail. Until recently the venue operated as a 1200-seat multi-purpose arena, formerly home to the Brooklyn Kings basketball team. From 2017 to 2023, it had undergone a renovation to reopen the theater as a performing arts venue. [1] It reopened on March 27, 2024. [2]

Contents

Use as theater

Paramount Pictures constructed the venue in 1928 and selected the Chicago theater architect team Rapp and Rapp as designers. The studio constructed a sister Paramount Theatre in Times Square, Manhattan. The rococo-designed theater had 4,084 seats covered in burgundy velvet, with a ceiling painted with clouds. The auditorium featured a 60-foot (18 m) stage curtain decorated with satin-embroidered pheasants and huge chandeliers and fountains with goldfish adorned the lobby space.[ citation needed ]

According to anthropology professor Michael Hittman, "while the Brooklyn Paramount is remembered as a popular movie house and early home of rock ‘n’ roll, it is a little known fact that it helped introduce Brooklyn to jazz, with artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis." [3] Duke Ellington first played at the Paramount in 1931. The most famous star connected with the theater was composer and radio personality, Russ Columbo, who performed at the theater during the early 1930s. Columbo had the most sold-out performances on record at the theater that would not be broken for quarter of a century, during the promoter created Battle of The Baritones (source: multiple biographies, newspaper and magazine articles, incl. Prisoner of Love by Tony Toran and The Joe Franklin Show (TV interview Bing Crosby). The theater promoters pitted Bing Crosby and Columbo against each other at two different Paramount Theaters, encouraging audience members to compare the two. According to the (Dutch) biography 'De Keizer van het Jiddische Lied' it was in 1943 that singer Leo Fuld introduced Yiddish music on this stage. In the 1950s, Alan Freed’s rock ‘n’ roll shows played at the theater, with acts including Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. Buddy Holly played a show in September 1957.

When Alan Freed fell victim of the payola scandal, TV host Clay Cole continued the ten-day holiday show tradition, in shows produced by Sid Bernstein. The first, Clay Cole's Christmas Show broke all existing attendance records with a show featuring Ray Charles, Bobby Rydell, Brenda Lee, Neil Sedaka, Johnny Burnett, The Delicates, Kathy Young, Dion, Bobby Vinton, Bo Diddley, Chubby Checker, Bobby Vee and groups, the Drifters, Coasters, Shirelles, the Supremes, and Little Anthony & The Imperials. The last live rock 'n' roll stage show at The Brooklyn Paramount was "Clay Cole's Easter Parade of Stars" headlining Jackie Wilson and an all-star cast. [4] Then the theater was shuttered.

The General Manager of the theater was Eugene Pleshette, father of the actress Suzanne Pleshette. Long Island University purchased the structure for part of its Brooklyn Campus in 1960 and converted into its current use as a gymnasium for LIU in 1962.

The Wurlitzer organ in the Brooklyn Paramount, Opus 1984, is a four manual, 26 rank instrument with 1,838 pipes and continues to be used at LIU sporting events. [5]

Anthropology/Sociology Professor Dr. Michael Hittman presented an all-day seminar, a one-credit cross-linked course with emphasis on rock 'n' roll on March 27, 2009, at the LIU Brooklyn campus library. Clay Cole was the keynote speaker and hosted panel discussions on the connections between rock 'n' roll and the historic Paramount Theater. The seminar concluded with a 90-minute doo wop show, with artists.

Use as sports venue

The theater with the LIU basketball court, prior to renovation Paramount Theatre interior LIU NY1.jpg
The theater with the LIU basketball court, prior to renovation

In 1962 the Paramount Theater was converted by Long Island University for various uses. The auditorium was adapted as a gymnasium, now called the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Athletic Center. [6]

LIU renamed the Brooklyn Paramount building Metcalfe Hall after the University's first president, Tristram Walker Metcalfe. Metcalfe is remembered for his announcement in 1936 that LIU's Blackbirds basketball team had refused to attend Germany's Olympics due to Hitler's discrimination against Jews. [7]

The former Paramount was the home of the LIU Blackbirds basketball team until 2005. The Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament was held here three times. Since the Blackbirds moved to the LIU Athletic, Recreation & Wellness Center, the venue has served as an occasional host of Gotham Girls Roller Derby bouts and as the home of the Brooklyn Kings of the now-dormant USBL.

Renovation

Under renovation Paramount Dekalb Flatbush Avs rainy jeh.jpg
Under renovation

In April 2015, LIU announced a 49-year lease of the Paramount to a company controlled by Bruce Ratner and Mikhail Prokhorov, owners of the Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets. They plan an extensive renovation costing about $50 million, overseen by the firm of Hugh Hardy, to convert the auditorium back to a theater for live events. Many of the original Rapp & Rapp architectural details remain and will be preserved, as will the Wurlitzer organ. [8] As of 2018, the project was expected to be completed in mid 2019. [9] In 2020 the project was reported to have been delayed. [10]

It was announced in July 2023 that Live Nation Entertainment had taken over the development and that the venue was scheduled to open in the first or second quarter of 2024. [11] [12] As of February 2024, the concert venue site went live and boasts a full 2024 show line up with several sold out shows. The first performance at the venue was held on March 27, 2024. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long Island University</span> Private university in New York, United States

Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential locations. LIU has NCAA Division I athletics and hosts the annual George Polk Awards in journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alabama Theatre</span> Movie theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, USA

The Alabama Theatre is a movie palace in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built in 1927 by Paramount's Publix Theatres chain as its flagship theater for the southeastern region of the United States. Seating 2,500 people at the time, it was the largest in the Birmingham theater district. The district was once home to many large theaters and movie palaces that featured vaudeville, performing arts, nickelodeons and Hollywood films. Built to show silent films, the Alabama still features its original Wurlitzer theater organ. The Alabama Theatre and Lyric Theatre are the district's only remaining theaters, and as of 2024, both are in operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kings Theatre (Brooklyn)</span> Performance venue in New York City

The Kings Theatre, formerly Loew's Kings Theatre, is a live performance venue in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. Opened by Loew's Theatres as a movie palace in 1929 and closed in 1977, the theater sat empty for decades until a complete renovation was initiated in 2010. The theater reopened to the public on January 23, 2015 as a performing arts venue. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 22, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Lake Theatre</span>

The Grand Lake Theatre is a historic movie palace located at 3200 Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue in the Grand Lake neighborhood of Oakland, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Theatre</span> Theater and former movie theater in Chicago, Illinois, United States

The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz (B&K) group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and partner Sam Katz. Along with the other B&K theaters, from 1925 to 1945 the Chicago Theatre was a dominant movie theater enterprise. Currently, Madison Square Garden, Inc. owns and operates the Chicago Theatre as a 3600 seat performing arts venue for stage plays, magic shows, comedy, speeches, sporting events and popular music concerts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Theatre (St. Louis)</span>

The Fox Theatre, a former movie palace, is a performing arts center located at 527 N. Grand Blvd. in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Also known as "The Fabulous Fox", it is situated in the arts district of the Grand Center area in Midtown St. Louis, one block north of Saint Louis University. It opened in 1929 and was completely restored in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay Theater</span> Movie theater in California

The Bay Theatre is a single-screen movie theater in Seal Beach, California, United States. It is best known for its screenings of foreign and independent films, and for its revival screenings. The Bay Theatre is also home to a Wurlitzer organ, which is used for concerts and silent film screenings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillioz Theatre</span> United States historic place in Missouri

The Gillioz Theatre is a historic theater located at Springfield, Missouri, United States. It was built by M. E. Gillioz of Monett, Missouri. Mr. Gillioz was in the business of building bridges, and the theater was built with steel and concrete. Wood was only used for handrails, doors, and doorframes. The original cost of the building was $300,000. Renovation costs totaled approximately $1.9 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts</span> Performing arts center in Jacksonville, Florida

The Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts (JCPA) is a performing arts center located in Jacksonville, Florida. Situated along the Riverbank, the venue is known as the First Coast’s "premiere riverfront entertainment facility". Originally opening in 1962, the facility was renovated beginning in 1995 until 1997; with a grand re-opening on February 8, 1997. The center consists of three venues: a theatre; concert hall and recital hall. It is home to the Jacksonville Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the FSCJ Artist Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paramount Theatre (Manhattan)</span> Former movie theater in New York City

The Paramount Theatre was a 3,664-seat movie palace located at 43rd Street and Broadway on Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1926, it was a showcase theatre and the New York headquarters of Paramount Pictures. Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount predecessor Famous Players Film Company, maintained an office in the building until his death in 1976. The Paramount Theatre eventually became a popular live performance venue. The theater was closed in 1964 and its space converted to office and retail use. The tower which housed it, known as the Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway, is in commercial use as an office building and is still home to Paramount Pictures offices.

<i>The Clay Cole Show</i> TV series or program

The Clay Cole Show (1959–1967) was an American rock music television show based in New York City, hosted by Clay Cole.

Clay Cole was an American host and disk jockey, best known for his eponymous television dance program, The Clay Cole Show, which aired in New York City on WNTA-TV and WPIX-TV from 1959 to 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmospheric theatre</span> Type of movie theater

An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace design which was popular in the late 1920s. Atmospheric theatres were designed and decorated to evoke the feeling of a particular time and place for patrons, through the use of projectors, architectural elements and ornamentation that evoked a sense of being outdoors. This was intended to make the patron a more active participant in the setting.

L'Amour was a music venue in Brooklyn, New York, run by Mike and George Parente. L'Amour opened as a disco club in 1978, transformed into a rock club in 1981 and closed in February 2004. It was promoted as the "Rock Capital of Brooklyn". Commonly pronounced "La-Morz" by patrons, the venue hosted many of hard rock and heavy metal's biggest artists, including Iron Maiden, Kiss, Megadeth and Metallica, as well as frequently featuring underground bands from across the country and across the globe. The original L'Amour in Brooklyn remained a relevant part of the rock-metal scene for almost 25 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orpheum Theatre (Sioux City, Iowa)</span> Historic theater in Iowa, United States

The Orpheum Theatre, also known as New Orpheum Theatre and Orpheum Electric Building, is a performing arts center located at 528 S. Pierce Street in Sioux City, Iowa. Built in 1927 as a vaudeville and movie palace, the theatre was restored in 1999 and today is the home of the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilbert Circle Theatre</span> Historic theater in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

The Hilbert Circle Theatre, originally called the Circle Theatre, is in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Monument Circle in the Washington Street-Monument Circle Historic District. It was originally built in 1916 as a "deluxe movie palace" and now is the home of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LIU Brooklyn</span> Private university in New York City, New York, U.S.

LIU Brooklyn is a private university in Brooklyn, New York. It is the original unit and first of two main campuses of the private Long Island University system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tivoli Theatre (Chattanooga, Tennessee)</span> United States historic place

The Tivoli Theatre, also known as the Tivoli and the "Jewel of the South", is a historic theatre in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that opened on March 19, 1921. Built between 1919 and 1921 at a cost of $750,000, designed by famed Chicago-based architectural firm Rapp and Rapp and well-known Chattanooga architect Reuben H. Hunt, and constructed by the John Parks Company, the theatre was one of the first air-conditioned public buildings in the United States. The theatre was named Tivoli after Tivoli, Italy, has cream tiles and beige terra-cotta bricks, has a large red, black, and white marquee with 1,000 chaser lights, and has a large black neon sign that displays TIVOLI with still more chaser lights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Brooklyn (college rivalry)</span> American college sports rivalry

The Battle of Brooklyn was the college sports rivalry between Long Island University and St. Francis College. The LIU Sharks and SFBK Terriers were both in the Northeast Conference and competed against each other in various sports. The Battle of Brooklyn was a fierce rivalry, which originated in men's basketball; while the two schools are rivals in all sports that both schools sponsor, the "Battle of Brooklyn" name is currently applied only to matchups in men's and women's basketball and men's soccer. The intensity of the rivalry was augmented by the proximity of the two universities, located less than a half-mile apart in Downtown Brooklyn. The name of the rivalry is in reference to the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Brooklyn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LIU Sharks football</span> College football team representing Long Island University

The LIU Sharks football program represents Long Island University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level. The Sharks are members of the Northeast Conference and play their home games in the 6,000 seat Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium.

References

  1. Smith, Rachel Holliday (May 24, 2017). "Renovation of Historic Paramount Theater to Begin This Fall at LIU Brooklyn". DNAinfo . Archived from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  2. "Storied Brooklyn Paramount theater reopens as concert venue after years-long renovation". Daily News. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  3. "Campus History". Long Island University. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  4. Cole, Clay (October 1, 2009). Sh-Boom!: The Explosion of Rock 'n' Roll (1953-1968). Morgan James Publishing. pp. 149–170. ISBN   978-1600377686.
  5. "The Brooklyn Paramount Wurlitzer". New York Theater Organ Society. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
  6. "LIU Facilities". Long Island University Athletics. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  7. Medoff, Rafael (October 15, 2012). "A World Series warning—about Hitler". Jewish News Service. Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  8. Dunlap, David W. (April 16, 2015). "After 50 Years, Reviving the Opulence of a Faded Brooklyn Beauty". The New York Times . Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  9. "BSE Global and LIU begin Paramount Theater revamp; 2019 reopening is behind previously stated schedule". Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  10. Oder, Norman (June 19, 2020). "Has Brooklyn Paramount Theatre Renovation Been Permanently Delayed?". Bklyner. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  11. Oder, Norman (July 12, 2023). "Brooklyn's Paramount Theatre to Be Revamped by Global Entertainment Giant Live Nation". Brownstoner. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  12. Ginsburg, Aaron (July 13, 2023). "Fort Greene's historic Paramount Theatre to reopen as live music venue in 2024". 6sqft. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  13. Friedman, Gabe (February 22, 2024). "Downtown Brooklyn's historic Paramount theater gets a makeover and a opening date". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  14. Euzarraga, Matthew (February 22, 2024). "See it: Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry performed at iconic Brooklyn theater reopening in March". PIX11. Retrieved February 23, 2024.

40°41′25″N73°58′51″W / 40.6903256°N 73.9808956°W / 40.6903256; -73.9808956