Early View of the Brooklyn Paramount

Motion Picture News, December 25, 1926, featured an article on the new Brooklyn Theatre currently under construction. Designed by Rapp & Rapp, it would open November 23, 1928 as the Brooklyn Paramount.

 "Rapp & Rapp have designed a most striking structure for erection at DeKalb Avenue and Flatbush Street [sic] in Brooklyn N. Y. An office building of 30 stories will surround a 500-foot tower, the whole being designed in modern adaption of the later Spanish Renaissance.
"The building will enclose a theatre with a seating capacity of 4,500 and will be designed in the style of Old Spain, embodying the  spirit of the Spanish carnivals and fetes of that race. Features and novelties new to theatre architecture will be employed to further inspire the amusement-loving world."

The completed structure featuring a rococo-designed theatre with a seating capacity 4,124*.

Photo: New York Theatre Organ Society

               

.
* Seating for the Brooklyn Paramount has been given variously as 4.084, 4,144 and 4,500. The larger number could be based on the original design.
The New York City Department of Buildings list capacity as:
Orchestra: 1,983
Mezzanine: 411
Balcony: 1,730
Total 4,124

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, chosen 2010 Best Book of the year by the Theatre Historical Society.

He is available for theatre talks and walks in 2014.

Brooklyn Paramount Theatre 385 Flatbush Avenue Extension, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Excerpts from Motion Picture News, January 12, 1929:

"Publix Theatres made its entry in another eastern city with the opening of the new Paramount in Brooklyn, N.Y. This gorgeous motion picture house embodies many unique features of design and equipment.
--C. W. & Geo. L. Rapp, architects"

"The proscenium arch, an elaborately decorated frame for the pictures presented on stage and screen at the Brooklyn Paramount. This auditorium numbers among its unusual features a suggestion of the atmospheric in the open lattice treatment of the main ceiling and the sidewall reveals."

 
"View across auditorium under the balcony, showing the loges with illuminated fronts and the balcony soffit with insets of glass, illuminated from above, a suggestion of the scheme of the main ceiling. Ornamental plaster is the vechicle that was used to produce the many intricate designs of the decoration."


Uploaded to YouTube by Bruce Friedman, June 28, 2013, an early appearance by Cezar Del Valle on That's Brooklyn, cable television.

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, chosen 2010 Best Book of the Year by the Theatre Historical Society.

He is available for theatre talks and walks in 2013. 

Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State Street, Chicago, IL 60601

Designed by architects Cornelius W. Rapp and George L. Rapp, the Chicago Theatre opened October 26, 1921, becoming the flagship of the Balaban and Katz chain.
Its vertical sign, with 6-foot letters, drawing the attention of the Exhibitors Trade Review.

Exhibitors Trade Review, December 3, 1921:
"The electric sign on the new Chicago Theatre is one of the largest hung on any theatre. It measures seventy-four feet from top to bottom and seven feet in width. A total of 2874 sockets are used in the construction, holding 75-watt lamps in the border. The entire display is made of high grade galvanized sheet iron, the face plates being 20-gauge, the interior efficiently braced and supported with steel angles and channel irons.Special cantilever construction has been used in attaching the sign to the wall of the theatre, a method which has made possible to do ways with wind braces.

"The main portion of the sign consists of the word 'CHICAGO,'  spelled in six-foot letters, extra deep grooved to take care of special lamps used. Above is 'Balaban & Katz' in twenty-four inch letters, and a four-line attraction border with alternating action goes around the display.

"The sign is more massive than would be apparent from its braces, as it weighs over seven tons. In action, the letters C-H-I-C-A-G-O spell on, burn steady, flash off and then come in solid.

"A part of the job is the four single-faced attraction panels, containing two rows of ten-inch changeable letters of special groove type. A continuous high-speed spectacular border goes around the panels.

"The strength of this sign is such that it absolutely dominates State Street from Lake Street to Van Buren Street and is even visible beyond the confines of the Loop. But all the brilliance of State Street only serves to emphasize the super-brilliance of this crowning achievement in sign construction. The sign was made and installed by the Thos. Cusack Co." 

  
The Chicago Theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and designated as a historic Chicago landmark on January 28, 1983. Closed in 1985, it was purchased by the Chicago Theatre Restoration Association. After  an extensive restoration, the Chicago reopened in 1986 with a performance by Frank Sinatra.

Historic Theatres and Movie Palaces of Balaban & Katz 

Chicago Theatre on WordPress

Top photograph from Exhibitors Trade Review

Bottom: Chicago Theatre, 2001. One of several photos given to Theatre Talks by Darleen MacIntosh. Thanks Darleen.

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, chosen 2010 Best Book of the Year by the Theatre Historical Society.