The Moving picture world (November 1926-December 1926)

262 MOVING PICTURE WORLD November 29, 1926 P ar amount O p ening Marks Advance of Motion Pictures In Single Qeneration ^^IFTEEN years ago Adolph Zukor was coaxing film reviewers and possible renters into a little u])stairs office on T| East Fourteenth street to see Bernhardt in "Queen Elizabeth," projected on a three by four foot screen in a dark corner of the office, there being no projection room. A couple of years later he had prospered to the point wh ere he was able to rent the Garrick Theatre for an afternoon showing of "The Prisoner of Zenda," with James K. Hackett in his original role. Friday evening, November 26, he projected cuts of these and other sul)jects in the new Paramount Theatre at Broadway between Forty-third and Forty-fourth streets in a Paramount owned theatre representing a net investment of $16,500,000! A forty-story office building with a theatre in the rear in which the reception and retiring rooms, fo3-ers and other non-productive apartments cover an acie of floor space. And for further contrast, the opening of the Paramount Theatre was made the climax of a three-day celebration staged by the Broadway .Association, attended by the solid merchants of the world famous artery of trade and participated in by the entire city. The Mayor expressed his welcome and a former Cabinet minister, now representing the allied motion picture industry gave welcome on behalf of the entire picture body. Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky will undoubtedly go on to other triumphs, but last Friday night marks the apex of their achievements, no matter what follows. They may open other and perhaps larger and more magnificent houses, but the Paramount will remain the first monumental structure dedicated to the picture. What may come later, no matter how great, will always take second place to the first. Enormous Throng Attracted And it was an opening worthy of the occasion. By seven o'clock the spacious Longacre was packed with people attracted to the scene by a desire to share what they could of the brilliant opening. By half past eight the press had become so great that the pedestrians were blocked from the sidewalk in front of the house and you had to begin showing your tickets— if you had them —ten minutes from the entrance doors. The action was necessary to prevent a crush that might have swept past the doors. Even at the familiar first nights it is difficult to keep he crowds from the lobby. At the Paramount opening it might easily have happened that the crowd might have "crashed the gates" had they been permitted to come sufficiently close. Within the structure, which seats about 3,600, there were some 5,000 persons, many of them glad to stand for nearly five hours to be able to boast that they had participated in so important an event. In addition to the important stars, producers, managers and other executives, the space was shared by the representative business men of the city. It is safe to say that no other theatre opening, anywhere in this country has ever been attended by a gathering half as brilliant as that which packed the Paramount on its opening night. No other city could liave produced a crowd of half the importance. No other opening could have excited the same general interest, for the Paramount Theatre represents something more than the inauguration of another commercial enterprise. It marks another milestone in the triumphant progress of an amusement device that had become an integral part of the very life of the nation : cheap enough to appeal to the lowly, brilliant enough to attract the intellectuals and important enough vitally to interest Big Business. "Dedicated to Infant Art" And this an enterprise which to quote from the speech of Will H. Hays, "located on the most important front footage in the world is a theatre, dedicated not to grand opera, which has been mellowed by time, not to the spoken drama, which is thousands of years old, but to the motion picture, infant among arts — yet all the arts combined." It was nearly nine o'clock when the clear notes of a trumpet called the throngs from their tours of inspection to their seats, and a few minutes later the organ, an instrument notable even in these days of organ advancement, pealed out its waves of melody, punctuated by the bustle of the crowd subsiding into place. Then came the singing of the national anthem and, in a few well-chosen phrases, Lee J. Eastman, president of the Broadway Association, welcomed to the thoroughfare the latest addition to the series of architectural achievements which make New York the most notable city in the world. Mayor Walker Speak* He was followed by Will H. Hays, speaking on behalf of the industry, who saluted Thomas A. Edison, seated in the first loge ; Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky and Sam Katz. At the mention of each name he indicated the person addressed and each was given an ovation, notably the aged inventor whose experiments with the kinetoscope directly led to the widely separated developments which led to the perfection of the projection device by nearly a dozen independent workers. Mayor James J. Walker followed and added a final tribute when he made mention of Harold B. Franklin, who was the person chiefly concerned with the carrying out of the idea. This was the only formality. The regular program followed imntcdiately with the "1912" overture by a large orchestra. (Continued on page 263)