Boxoffice-November.24.1951

New York Paramount Has 25th Birthday
Starting Place of 'Name' Band-Film Shows and Famous Performers
NEW YORK—The Paramount Theatre,
shrine of teen-agers, starting place of "name"
band-film shows and,
in addition, the spot
where many famous
performers began or
Leonard Goldenson
boosted their careers,
reached its 25th birthday
Monday (19).
Most of its daily
patrons were not born
when the third of
Broadway's film palaces
made a ceremonious
bow to the entertainment
world and
started out to introduce
culture to tne expanding film industry in a big
way. Since then it has passed through all the
ups and downs that have marked the industry
and has emerged as one of the few institutions
of its size—4,000 seats—aiming its
appeal at a specialized audience of youths.
To the youngsters it's the youngest theatre
in town; to the oldsters who like to look
back, it is the monument that evolved from
Adolph Zukor's ambition to build a symbol
of Paramount's greatness only 20 years after
motion pictures had moved north from the
14th street nickelodeon and peepshow belt.
ZUKOR'S DREAM REALIZED
Zukor spans the whole period from the
earliest flickers in 1906 to the Paramount
opening in 1926 and the luncheon at Toots
Shors Wednesday (21). United Paramount
Theatres, which now operates the house, and
RKO, which happens to have a film, "Two
Tickets to Broadway," playing there, were joint
hosts and Robert M. Weitman was guest of
honor.
Weitman and the Paramount have become
almost synonymous in the 16 years since he
took over as managing director in 1935.
He has never worked more than a few
miles from the place. At the age of 22 he
graduated from the Paramount Managers
School and became assistant manager of the
old Rialto, a hop, skip and jump from the imposing
entrance to the Paramount, in 1926. In
the intervening years he had been manager
of the Brooklyn Paramount and city manager
for the old Publix group, but headquarters
have always been in the Paramount
Theatre or building.
YOUTH APPEAL NOT FORGOTTEN
Weitman, whether he knew it or not at the
time, went into exhibition in the closing years
of a trend, but did not allow the prevailing
pursuit of magnificence to weaken his conviction
that films had to appeal to youth
especially in the restless, crowded Times
Square area where competition is terrific and
grosse.> can go up and down like a fever chart.
S. L. Rothafel and Dr. Hugo Reisenfeld,
with symphony orchestras, had raised films
out of the tinny piano and sloppy music score
era at the Rivoli and Rialto before the Paramount
was built, and Rothafel had gone on
to the huge Capitol Theatre. Mark Strand
had built the Strand. The Palace era was
under way. That was before the Roxy and
Music Hall.
In the early days of these huge theatres it
became the fashion to try to fit the show to
Gloria DeHaven presents a 25th anniversary
scroll from the Broadway Ass'n
to Robert M. Weitman, managing director
of the Paramount Theatre, New York
City. She is appearing in the current
screen attraction at the theatre, "Two
Tickets to Broadway" (RKO).
the surroundings with plenty of "art." It was
a step in the long process of adding prestige
to films, but the draw had begun to weaken
two years after the Paramount opened. That
was when sound began to attract attention.
There was a call to return to "old-fashioned
showmanship" and a mass of conflicting
ideas about its component parts.
Harold Franklin, graduate of vaudeville and
stock company days, supervised the building
of the Paramount as head of Paramount's
theatre interests and dominated its first elaborate
programs with a big orchestra headed by
Nathaniel Finston, stage shows by John Murray
Anderson and other features.
The second phase of the Paramount showmanship
policy began when Sam Katz became
president of Publix Theatres in 1934. Katz
was a product of Chicago and the beginning
of the jazz era. He had been a piano player
in one of the early movie houses and had
thorough ideas of what pleased Chicago audiences,
which are about as cosmopolitan as
those of New York.
Katz had joined up with Barney Balaban
and his brothers who built a series of huge
theatres—Central Park, 1917, 2,000 seats:
Roosevelt, 1919, 2,600 seats; Tivoli. 1920, 4.000
seats; Oriental, 1920, 3,500 seats; Roosevelt,
1922, 1,700 seats; McVickers, 1925, 2,500 seats.
It took a lot of pictures and a lot of stage
shows to keep those houses going. One of the
prize attractions was Paul Ash, "the rajah of
jazz."
When Paramount took Balaban & Katz into
its expanding theatre empire it acquired some
down-to-earth entertainment ideas as well,
and the Paramount, New York, went from
symphonies to dance bands.
It was a jolt to the advocates of "culture,"
but it stimulated the boxoffice.
A year after Katz took over, Weitman came
into his own and started to find stage attractions
that would bolster weak films and less
expensive stage shows to fill in when the
films were strong—always with the emphasis
on youth.
Dozens of the present-day outstanding film
stars, singers, band leaders and radio celebrities
were hardly known when Weitman first
booked them. He always watched for the
"comers"; it helped keep the overhead down.
Paramount weekday matinee audiences are
noted for the heavy repre.sentation of "Ei.senhower
jacket" wearers.
Bing Crosby's first appearance at the Paramount
was with Paul Whiteman's "Rhythm
Boys." Six weeks later he went back as a
"single."
Frank Sinatra, who was singing in a New
Jersey night club, filled in in an emergency
for his first appearance. Vic Damone used
to be an usher and sang from the Paramount
stage as part of his start to fame. Cass
Daley, Ruth Etting, Helen Kane, Danny Kaye,
Betty Hutton, Andrews Sisters, Ethel Merman,
Ginger Rogers, Dinah Shore and Red Skelton
were among the early entertainers.
Among others have been Buddy Rogers,
Nancy Carroll, Eddie Cantor. Miriam Hopkins,
Amos and Andy, Kate Smith, Mae West, Fred
Astaire, Lenore Ulric, Gary Cooper, Mary
Pickford. Bob Hope, Rudy Vallee, Maurice
Chevalier. Gloria Swanson, Bea Lillie, Burns
and Allen, George Jessel, Milton Berle and
Fred Allen.
NAME VALUES RISE AND FALL
After booking all the bands and stars now
before the public one might be pardoned for
thinking that all Weitman would have to do
would be to look back over the grosses, but
managing the Paramount doesn't work out
that way. Name values are mercurial. To
make money on bookings the managing director
has to know what happened yesterday
and he has to be able to make some shrewd
guesses about what is going to happen tomorrow.
That's why Weitman would think it funny
if somebody should call him a "veteran." He's
still a youthful experimenter and the Paramount
is his laboratory, with Leonard H.
Goldenson, United Paramount Theatres president,
supervising everything.
Paramount Pictures and United Paramount
Theatres are now separate corporations, but
Adolph Zukor, creator of the Paramount idea,
is a frequent visitor and takes a friendly interest
in the goings on.
Honor Medal Men Attend
'Fixed Bayonets' Rally
NEW YORK—Four Congressional Medal of
Honor winners, all of whom earned the award
in the Korean fighting, took part in "Fixed
Bayonets" rally in Times Square November
19. The rally emphasized the urgent need for
additional blood donors.
The Honor Medal winners were introduced
by Jack Carter, TV comedy star, who acted
as master of ceremonies. Deputy Commissioner
of Commerce Walter Shirley represented
Mayor Impellitteri at the rally.
Tlie four men are; Capt. Raymond Harvey
of Pasadena, Calif., who w-as loaned to 20th
Century-Fox to act as technical adviser during
the filming of "Fixed Bayonets"; First
Lieut. Carl A. Dodd of Fort Benjamin Harrison,
Ind.; Second Lieut. Stanley T. Adams
of Denver, and Capt. Lewis Millett of Indiantown
Gap, Pa., the only one to win the award
for a fixed bayonet charge.
BOXOFFICE November 24, 1951 35