Brooklyn Paramount

385 Flatbush Ave Extension | also 45 University Plaza, 371 Flatbush Avenue Ext | Fort Greene | built 1929

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1928

    Paramount Pictures opens a 4,084-seat movie palace at Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues

    Paramount Pictures built the theater in 1928 and hired the Chicago team Rapp and Rapp as its architects. The studio also built a sister Paramount Theatre in Times Square. The rococo auditorium had 4,084 seats in burgundy velvet and a painted cloud ceiling. A 60-foot curtain was embroidered with pheasants, and the lobby had chandeliers and fountains holding goldfish.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1931

    Duke Ellington first plays the Brooklyn Paramount in 1931

    Duke Ellington first played the Brooklyn Paramount in 1931. Professor Michael Hittman says the theater, better known for movies and early rock 'n' roll, also brought jazz to Brooklyn through performers including Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis.

    “Duke Ellington first played at the Paramount in 1931.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1943

    Singer Leo Fuld brings Yiddish music to the Paramount stage

    A Dutch biography of the singer Leo Fuld, De Keizer van het Jiddische Lied, says that in 1943 he introduced Yiddish music on the Brooklyn Paramount's stage. The theater was then mainly a movie house that occasionally hosted live acts.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1957

    September

    Rock 'n' roll comes to the Paramount, and Buddy Holly plays in September 1957

    Through the 1950s the theater staged rock 'n' roll revues put on by Alan Freed, with Chuck Berry and Fats Domino among the performers. Buddy Holly played one show there in September 1957. When the payola scandal hit Freed, TV host Clay Cole took over the ten-day holiday shows, produced by Sid Bernstein.

    “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.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1962

    The Paramount closes in 1962 after Clay Cole's Easter show with Jackie Wilson

    Clay Cole's Easter Parade of Stars, with Jackie Wilson and an all-star cast, was the final live rock 'n' roll show on the Paramount's stage, and the theater then shut. Cole's earlier Christmas show there had broken every attendance record, with Ray Charles, Dion, the Drifters, the Supremes and many others. The theater was closed in 1962.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1962

    Long Island University converts the Paramount into a gym in 1962

    Long Island University bought the building in 1960 and converted it in 1962, turning the auditorium into the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Athletic Center. The building was named Metcalfe Hall for the university's first president, Tristram Walker Metcalfe. The Blackbirds basketball team played there, and the Wurlitzer organ with 1,838 pipes kept being used at LIU sporting events.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2015

    April

    LIU leases the Paramount for 49 years to the Barclays Center's owners for a revival

    Long Island University announced in April 2015 that it would lease the Paramount for 49 years to a company led by Bruce Ratner and Mikhail Prokhorov, who then owned the Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets. They planned a renovation costing about $50 million, overseen by Hugh Hardy's firm, to make it a live-event theater again while preserving the Rapp and Rapp details and the organ.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2024

    March 27

    Reborn Brooklyn Paramount holds its first show, hosted by Damian and Stephen Marley

    After delays, Live Nation Entertainment took over the theater's redevelopment, announced in July 2023. Damian and Stephen Marley hosted the first show on March 27, 2024. The building reopened as a music venue after decades as a university gym.

    “Live Nation Entertainment had taken over the development... The first performance at the venue was held on March 27, 2024, hosted by Damian and Stephen Marley.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 18 buildings with stories in Fort Greene