— NEW YORK SPECIAL —
The Paramount Theatre
Then & Now
TOP: The Paramount Theatre on Times Square (1933)
BOTTOM: The former Paramount Building (2008)
1501 Broadway @ West 43rd Street
Manhattan, New York
On Times Square, on November 19, 1926, the New York Paramount Theatre opened its doors to a full 3,364 seat house and rave reviews. The New York Times ran the first ad, describing “an acre of seats in a palace of splendor.” The flagship house of the Paramount-Publix chain, spearheaded by Adolph Zukor, was an architectural triumph.
Cornerstone of the Paramount Building
NOTE: The “Then” photo shows the Paramount Theater in 1933. The film showing is Pick-up starring Sylvia Sydney and George Raft. The building to the right of the Paramount is the Astor Hotel, which was demolished in 1966. In the bottom “Now” photo, the former Paramount building looks virtually the same except that it is no longer a theater but a Hard Rock Cafe restaurant.