Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1928)

36 BETTER THEATRES SECTION OF October 27, 1928 A full view of the auditorium from the balcony. The Originator of "Atmospheric" Design Builds His Masterpiece Balaban & Katz has opened its Paradise theat re in Chicago. Its creator, John Eberson, is generally credited with being the author of the "atmospheric" theatre. He asked for a chance to do his best — and got it. The Paradise cost $5,000,000 By GEORGE REID THE ultimate in "atmospheric" theatres is what the new Paradise theatre, a Balaban & Katz neighborhood house in Chicago, would seem to be. Its creator is John Eberson, Chicago and New York architect, who is generally credited with having originated this type of design. He calls the Paradise his masterpiece. When the building project was taken over from National Playhouses, Inc., which was financially unable to continue with it, Balaban & Katz was facing the ultimate erection of a large house by its principal rival, Marks Brothers. The lattcr's Marbro was then begun, the site being but two blocks away from that of the projected Paradise. Plans for the Marbro called for a house seating around 4,000 and appointed and equipped for the most lavish kind of entertainment. The district is a populous and commercially important one about five miles from the Loop, on the West Side. Eberson went to Barney Balaban, president of Balaban & Katz, and asked for relative freedom in the designing and direction of construction. He wished even to do much of his own purchasing. And money was to be no object. Eberson had planned many "atmos pheric" theatres. In designing all of them, however, he had been unable to achieve all that he felt he might, because the owning company had only so much money to spend and no more. It seemed that this would not necessarily be true of Balaban & Katz, the principal subsidiary of Publix and a great wealthy establishment long before Publix was invented by its own Sam Katz. "Let me be my own boss and I'll build you my masterpiece," was the burden of Eberson's request. And it is said that Harney Balaban replied to the general effect of "O. K." Completed, the Paradise represents the expenditure for one thing and another of about $5,000,000. It is quite different from anything Eberson previously did. The architect calls the general style of the house French Renaissance. More descriptively, it is a French royal establishment of the period of Louis XIV — though, of course, if that gay, irresponsible monarch had put up anything like the Paradise, DuBarry's "deluge" would have come before she was born. The exterior is four stories high and, although French Renaissance in style, more in keeping with the turn of mind obtaining around Crawford Avenue than Louis him self might have wished. No one, however, will criticize the architect in his judgment on this point. The structure also departs, happily, from the French Renaissance motif, in being of steel skeleton construction, with reinforced concrete foundation, steel girder balcony supports and reinforced concrete floor construction. The commercial section is reinforced concrete throughout. The interior is similarly safe and utilitarian, but the skeleton, like those in our best closets, is concealed behind a staggering outlay of surfacings, ornamental plaster, marble, grille-work, murals and objects of plastic art. Even an amateur can see where the money went. The interior itself is a spectacle for the new patron with which no very ordinary photodrama or presentation act could hope to compete. Letting the auditorium, the main thing in any theatre, go for a moment, let us glance at the parts outside it. The foyer is immense. It is said that this chamber alone will afford standing room for 2,000 people. It rises grandly, enclosed by marble and plaster-ornamented columns which serve as frames for works of art that arc said to be the real thing. In fact, (Cnntinurd on page 120)