Movie palaces became common in the 1920s between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Great Depression. In the New York City area, only a small number of operators were involved in the construction of movie palaces. These theaters' designers included the
legitimate-theater architects
Thomas W. Lamb,
C. Howard Crane, and
John Eberson. The five Wonder Theatres were developed by
Loew's Inc., which at the time was competing with
Paramount-Publix. In 1927, Loew's president
Nicholas Schenck agreed to take over five sites from Paramount-Publix, in exchange for agreeing not to build competing theaters in Chicago; these five sites became the Wonder Theatres.
Development The Hewitt Place Corporation, a subsidiary of Paramount-Publix, first acquired land on the Grand Concourse in late 1925 with the intention of developing a theater there. At the time, there were several other theaters nearby. In March 1927, Paramount-Publix announced that it would build a theater near
Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse. The theater was one of nine that Paramount-Publix planned to develop in outlying New York City neighborhoods, though the company later dropped plans for four of the other theaters. John Eberson, who was hired to design the theater, reportedly spent one year planning the interior. The structure was to be erected by the Hewitt Place Corporation and Crestwood Realty Corporation. Publix hired Maurice Muller and William Russell Root to operate the 4,000-seat theater there. The venue was tentatively known as the Venetian during planning, and its facade was designed in a Venetian Gothic style. Work on the theater began in April 1928, after N. Masem and Son was hired as the
general contractor. Eberson's son Drew, an apprentice in the Eberson firm, laid out the theater's stars and configured its cloud machine. The Architectural Plastering Company, led by Eberson and his wife Beatrice Lamb, may have designed almost all of the ornamentation inside the theater. the same day as the Kings Theatre. They were among the three Wonder Theatres whose openings were scheduled for that month, the other being the Jersey Theatre. On opening day, the theater hosted a performance of the United States' national anthem "
The Star-Spangled Banner", followed by musical shows, short films, a live show, and a screening of the film
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. The Paradise was a frequent hangout for couples, many of whom kissed in the balcony. A
New York Times writer said that the theater "was an indelible part of the mythic Bronx childhood".
1920s and 1930s The Loew's Paradise presented
first runs of films along with stage shows when it opened. Initially, the Loew's Paradise presented stage shows that had already been performed at the
Capitol Theatre in Manhattan. Frank Rieger was hired as the theater's first chief engineer, Dave Schooler was the initial master of ceremonies, Don Albert was the inaugural conductor, and Jerry de Rose was the first manager. In its first several days, the Paradise was often filled to capacity, although the
Wall Street crash of 1929 occurred six weeks after the Paradise's opening. Overflow crowds from the theater usually visited the nearby RKO Fordham Theatre, a competing venue that also screened first runs of films, while patronage at the Grand Theatre had declined. In late 1929, the orchestras at the Paradise and Loew's other theaters began performing at alternating Loew's theaters. Loew's then installed a Trans-tone wide screen at the Paradise Theatre in January 1930. Later that year, stage shows at the Paradise were temporarily halted before resuming. The theater's stage shows were rescheduled in 1931 so that they opened on Fridays, rather than on Saturdays as they previously had. Among the performers who appeared in the Paradise's stage shows were the jazz musician
Cab Calloway, the actor
Eddie Cantor, the jazz musician
Ben Bernie, and the entertainers
George Burns and
Bob Hope. Nearly two dozen sticks of dynamite, enough to destroy the theater, were discovered in the projection booth that September; three thousand people were in the theater when the bomb was detected, and the bomb did not detonate only because it had a defective fuse. Disgruntled film operators were accused of planning the attempted bombing. With the onset of the
Great Depression, the Paradise reduced ticket prices in 1934, and the most expensive tickets were decreased to 75 cents. at the time, the company was eliminating vaudeville shows from most of its theaters. Ticket prices at the Paradise were reduced after the discontinuation of vaudeville shows. The Paradise distributed prizes to random nighttime visitors in the 1930s as part of the
Bank Night franchise, but these lotteries were discontinued following protests from the operators of rival theaters. Amid increasing competition from RKO theaters in the Bronx, in 1939, the Paradise began hosting live music each Tuesday to supplement its film screenings.
1940s to 1960s The theater screened newsreel films during World War II, Also in 1942, the theater's heating plant was converted from an oil-burning to a coal-burning plant. Following the
U.S. Supreme Court's 1948 ruling in
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., Loew's Theaters was forced to split up its film-production and film-exhibition divisions. As part of the split, Loew's Theatres was compelled to either sell the Paradise Theater or limit the types of shows that were to be presented there. Additionally, the theater's original organ was relocated to California in 1949, and four seating rows were added above the organ console and orchestra pit around that time. The Paradise continued to show first runs of films; no other Loew's theater in the Bronx could showcase new films until after the Paradise had finished screening them. In 1953, the theater was retrofitted with a
panoramic screen and a stereophonic sound system. Following the success of jazz concerts at the Kings and Valencia theaters during that decade, Loew's began considering hosting jazz concerts at the Paradise. In addition, during the 1950s and 1960s, the Paradise hosted events like Easter prayer services, Christmas parties, rock-and-roll performances. and televised boxing matches. As late as 1956,
Variety magazine described the Paradise as "perhaps the most successful neighborhood operation in the Loew's circuit". In addition, urban residents had begun to move to the suburbs, and neighborhood movie houses had to compete with shopping-mall
multiplexes and household televisions. The theater started screening multiple first-run films in 1964 as part of the Showcase program. The next year,
Bernard Weinraub wrote for
The New York Times that the theater "now emits a dusty, almost eerie quality". The fish pond in the lobby had been drained after customers poisoned the fish. The furnishings had been removed, destroyed, or damaged, The Saint George and dragon figures on the facade had been stolen, The next year, there were rumors that a department store was considering moving into the theater. Afterward, Bronx borough president
Robert Abrams proposed converting the Paradise Theater into a cultural center. At the time, the Paradise was one of the city's few remaining movie palaces. The theater continued to host events like broadcasts of soccer matches and a
Metropolitan Opera performance. Loew's announced in August 1973 that it planned to divide the auditorium into two screening rooms. There would be an 1,890-seat screening room on the lower level and a 970-seat screening room on the upper level, though the decorations would be preserved; this project would cost $100,000. Because of a
consent decree that Loew's had signed in the 1950s, a federal court needed to approve any major alterations to the theater. and it was the only Wonder Theatre to be divided in this manner. A third screening room was added in 1975 or 1976; In addition, the fire exits were repaired in 1976 for $20,000. By the late 1970s, the Paradise no longer offered weekend matinee screenings of children's films due to a lack of demand. These changes hid practically all of the auditorium's original decorations, but most of the decorations remained in place. In 1992, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) began considering designating the Paradise Theater as a landmark. which was reportedly a
shell corporation controlled by the
Kushner Companies. The theater had become noticeably rundown; the auditorium reportedly had a bad smell and broken seats, while the bathrooms were dirty.
Subsequent use Abandonment and preservation The Paradise Theater was closed in January 1994. Though signs outside the theater proclaimed that it was closed temporarily for renovation, a Loew's spokesperson said that they had lost their lease to the theater. Chartwell
defaulted on the theater's $4.8 million mortgage loan after the theater closed. As such, another Delaware corporation called ABI Property Partners took over the theater in June 1994; they were represented by the Eames Asset Management Corporation. Ferrer organized the Loews Paradise Task Force in mid-1994 to devise plans for the theater's future, and the task force requested $70,000 for a feasibility study into the theater. and five
consulting firms bid for the right to conduct the study. In May 1996, the stage was severely damaged by a fire. Trespassers began removing decorations from the building, prompting the LPC to again consider preserving the theater. In early 1997, the developer
William Procida began soliciting bids for the Paradise's restoration on Eames's behalf. Procida received proposals from a variety of groups, including a city school district, retailers, and cinema operators. but the interior was not designated as a landmark at the time. Most of the interior was intact but had become dirty, with some water damage.
Renovation The real-estate developer and boxing promoter Richard P. DeCesare leased the Paradise in 1998 after seeing the gutted interior. At the beginning of 2000, the boxing promoter Joe DeGuardia still anticipated that the theater would reopen within a year. The restoration had been halted by 2001 due to missed rent payments. DeCesare had spent $5 million on renovation to date; he claimed that he had stopped paying rent because he was in the process of refinancing the building. though work did not resume until 2004. although Joe DeGuardia retained the exclusive right to schedule boxing matches there.
Event venue and church conversion The theater reopened on October 29, 2005, as a live-event venue. Initially, the theater hosted events that catered to the local Latino community, with events like
Latin music concerts as such, all alterations to the interior, except for the stage area, were subject to approval from the LPC. The theater also hosted events such as the Bronx Ball. The actress
Cathy Moriarty and her husband, the developer Joe Gentile, acquired the Paradise Theater in July 2007 through their company, Utopia Studios. Gentile and Moriarty renamed the venue the Utopia's Paradise Theater, and they wanted to host family-oriented events and productions there. The Paradise Theater was closed briefly in the late 2000s, reopening on October 24, 2009, after concert promoters Derrick Sanders and Shelby Joyner took over management. In 2011, the Paradise Theater was refinanced with a $5.7 million mortgage loan. The theater continued to host performers including the rapper
Nicki Minaj and the rock band
Vampire Weekend. In October 2012, the Paradise Theater was leased to the World Changers Church, a
prosperity gospel congregation led by
Atlanta–based pastor
Creflo Dollar and his wife Taffi. The building's interior was damaged in a fire the next month; an investigation subsequently found that the fire had been caused by construction workers whose tools had sparked a piece of hot metal. By 2023, the building was still vacant;
Vanessa Gibson, the Bronx borough president at the time, said that there were plans to reopen the Paradise, although it would not operate as a theater. == Impact ==