Paramount Theatre (New York City)
Paramount Theatre entrance, 2003
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| Address | 1501 Broadway New York City United States |
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| Coordinates | 40°45′26″N 73°59′11″W / 40.75713°N 73.986488°WCoordinates: 40°45′26″N 73°59′11″W / 40.75713°N 73.986488°W |
| Type | movie palace |
| Capacity | 3,664 |
| Current use | office and retail |
| Construction | |
| Opened | November 19, 1926 |
| Closed | February 21, 1966 |
| Architect | Rapp & Rapp |
The Paramount Theatre was a noted 3,664 seat movie palace located at 43rd Street and Broadway in the Times Square district of New York City. Opened in 1926, it was a premiere showcase theatre and 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 located at 1501 Broadway, is in commercial use as an office building and is still home to Paramount Pictures offices, and remains a Times Square landmark.
Following the closing of the Times Square Paramount Theatre, two other theaters in Manhattan have had the same name: The Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden and a movie theater in Columbus Circle, now demolished.
The Paramount Theatre opened on November 19, 1926 with the gala showing of God Gave Me 20 Cents with Mayor Walker and Thomas Edison as guest. The stage gala was produced by John Murray Anderson.
The theater housed one of the largest and most admired theater organs ever built by the Wurlitzer company. Designed for the famous organist Jesse Crawford, the organ was used for solos and to accompany silent films. The organ had 36 ranks of voiced metal and wooden pipes weighing a total of 33 tons. Crawford, who advised on the construction and installation of the organ, was the theater's featured organist from the 1926 opening until 1933. The organ continued to be played intermittently throughout the Paramount's history by George Wright and other noted organists.
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