In response to Van, I don’t know if the artists were particularly fond of bagpipes, but the six panels that make up the murals were each meant to symbolize a different type of music. Thus, the panel with St. Cecilia playing a pipe organ symbolized religious music, and the other panels have titles such as “festal music”, and “martial music”. I would imagine that the pipers would be on the panel for martial music. I don’t recall the names for the remaining panels.
Hi Warren, right now you may well be the one person at this website that knows the most about the RKO Temple in Rochester. It was torn down when I was very young and I don’t have any distinct memories of it at all. It may even have been torn down before I was born. I have memories of the block it sat on being cleared, but the theatre may have already been gone before then. If you were to start a posting on it you would be doing us a service! There was another theatre near the Temple called the “Victoria”, but I also have no memories of that.
I attended UB, and must have driven past the remains of this theatre literally hundreds of times. It was easy to see that the building had some theatrical history, and I had always wondered what it was. It’s nice to know. By the way, the facade is much more attractive than the photographs make it look.
I’ve browsed through some of the above comments, and just would like to say the following: It’s foolish to expect movies to serve a greater purpose than entertainment. Worse than that, it’s dangerous. To expect a fair assessment of life from people who are barely aware of reality outside of Los Angeles or New York is like expecting to get health and beauty advice from Rosie O'Donnell (or, indeed, like expecting Rosie O'Donnell to say anything intellingent, but that’s another story). I personally have given up going to movies because even the good ones aren’t that good.
As far as Michelangelo needing the Pope’s money to pay for the Sistine Chapel, that’s true, but when Michelangelo saw what the Pope originally planned, Michelangelo pretty much said, “I can’t do that, but I can do something much better”. When was the last time Hollywood actually tried to give us something better than what they thought the people wanted?
Hi JAlex. In response to your desire for a replica of the original vertical sign, if memory serves me correctly there was no vertical sign on the Fox. However, the framework above the facade, visible in Lost Memory’s recent photo, used to hold a large incandescent sign which was visible all the way to downtown St. Louis. That’s something I would like to see restored!
I went home to Rochester for the summer and toured around Central NY and the Adirondacks with a friend who was visiting from Tennessee. We stopped and took a tour of this theatre. Upon entering the auditorium my friend became very quiet. When we returned to our vehicle he stated that he stopped talking during the tour because he was choking back the tears. For the next few hours all he could talk about was how blown away he was by the Stanley, and how he had never seen such a beautiful building in all his life.
By the way Geo1 (and I smile as I type this) you definitely show your NYC roots when you describe Utica as an “upstate village”. It is in fact a city, and is in Central New York, not Upstate. (of course I realize that, to an NYCer anything north of the Bronx is upstate).
The fourth photo that ken posted on March 5, 2006, shows the original marquee just before opening day. It also shows someone being hung if effigy! Any ideas on who it might be? “Old Man Depression” maybe? Guesses anyone?
Thank you, Tim, for those photos. What a wonderful neighborhood theatre this must have been. It was a shock to read about its destruction, since the last news I’d heard was that it was going to be restored. What happened?
By the way, the top member of a column is called a “capital”, not a “capitol”. Speaking of which, did you get to save any of them?
I’m not sure if this link is a repeat, but here are what appear to be fairly recent photos of the Kings' interior. The photos aren’t mine, but I hope who ever owns them doesn’t mind them being posted here.
Warren, I’ve said it before, and I’ll undoubtedly say it again in a few months. I don’t know how you keep finding these wonderful photo, but thank you very much for sharing them!
Certainly the Roxy was grander, but since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, who can say? It seems to this outside observer that few other theatres in New York City, if any, were as beloved in their own neighborhood as the Paradise. I have elderly friends from Bronx who recall going to the Paradise with such amazing nostalgia and longing. Much more than I’ve ever heard from people recalling other theatres. It’s almost as if this building was the defining factor for their neighborhood. The theatre even gets mentioned in the movie “Marty” when a few bronxites are discussing what to do for the evening. Of course they pronounce it “Lowee’s Paradise”.
Hi Patsy, I realize it’s 4 months after you asked, but the Palace Theatre’s Wurlitzer is now installed in the Auditorium Theatre on the other side of downtown, and is very well cared for by the Rochester Theatre Organ Society.
Hi Ed, Personally, I don’t buy stuff at the theatre, but if I did, I wouldn’t buy a ticket, enter the auditorium to save a seat, and then go back out to the lobby to use the restroom or buy candy. So my rule is, if the movie hasn’t started, all seats are fair game. Also, you have to use a little judgement. If someone is saving one or two seats, there is always a chance that they could have sat down and realized they forgot something. If someone is saving four or more seats (NINE!??!? For crying out loud! That is just ridiculous!! Patrick, please tell me your girlfriend is 17 or younger. I hate to think of an adult running around with that kind of attitude) then it’s safe to assume that they’re being held for a party that hasn’t arrived yet.
As an addendum, I wouldn’t cross the street to see a Steven Speilberg film (unless it’s playing at some theatre I’ve been aching to see the inside of).
Ummm, the rule is, unless you’ve bought tickets, then you have no right to those seats. Sooooo, if I’d been there and truly wanted them, no amount of hand waving or jacket draping would have kept me out of them.
Hi Rambear, those are great photos, and I enjoyed getting my first decent view of the interior of the Warner in Erie, but you posted them on the page for the Warner in Torrington. If you would post these photos on the site for the theatre in Erie, Penna, I’m sure the folks interested in that theatre would love to see them.
It was definitely a crime to open the forecourt up on one side so that a walkway and escalator connect it with the shopping complex next door. Now, instead of being an enclave and foretaste of the theatre, it’s simply a thoroughfare.
I used to see this theatre from the windows of “The City of New Orleans” when I took the train home for Christmas, and I always wanted to get out and have a look at it. It’s good the building is still in use. Maybe someday it can be a theatre again. It’s not likely that RKO bought the theatre in 1920. The RKO chain didn’t exist until 1929 or so.
Hey Lost Memory, I contacted the Westchester Historical Society, and they sent me a nice reply and corrected the info on their website. So thanks to you, and Warren, for your input.
Hi Lost Memory, Thanks for the great photo! Is there some way to contact the Westchester County Archives so that they can correct the misinformation that went with the photo? Thomas Lamb did not design the first Madison Square Garden, I believe that was McKim, Meade, and White, and that most of it was Stanford White’s work. Also, the Capitol is certainly NOT “art deco”.
I can understand why some folks would find Warren’s comments abrasive, but he is one of the best contributors to this site. He manages to find and post more photographs than anyone else on this site that I’m aware of. Speaking of which, Warren some of the links to the photos you’ve posted of this theatre no longer work. Would you please re-post the photos so that we can enjoy them again?
Jim Rankin, I would like to respectfully disagree with your post of October 10, 2002. I don’t think the Fox in Brooklyn is Gothic at all. It looks like a mixture of Spanish Baroque, Byzantine, a few touches of Art Deco and a few Near Eastern items all thrown together. I honestly don’t see anything Gothic in it. All in all, it must have been a very beautiful theatre. Too bad I never got to visit it.
Thanks for sharing those photos. I clicked on the “complimentary photo” link and thought that, perhaps, your grandmother and her friend are walking westbound on one of the streets that cross State Street, the reason for the lack of tall buildings in the distance could be that Grant Park (and Lake Michigan) are a couple blocks behind them.
In response to Van, I don’t know if the artists were particularly fond of bagpipes, but the six panels that make up the murals were each meant to symbolize a different type of music. Thus, the panel with St. Cecilia playing a pipe organ symbolized religious music, and the other panels have titles such as “festal music”, and “martial music”. I would imagine that the pipers would be on the panel for martial music. I don’t recall the names for the remaining panels.
Hi Warren, right now you may well be the one person at this website that knows the most about the RKO Temple in Rochester. It was torn down when I was very young and I don’t have any distinct memories of it at all. It may even have been torn down before I was born. I have memories of the block it sat on being cleared, but the theatre may have already been gone before then. If you were to start a posting on it you would be doing us a service! There was another theatre near the Temple called the “Victoria”, but I also have no memories of that.
I attended UB, and must have driven past the remains of this theatre literally hundreds of times. It was easy to see that the building had some theatrical history, and I had always wondered what it was. It’s nice to know. By the way, the facade is much more attractive than the photographs make it look.
I’ve browsed through some of the above comments, and just would like to say the following: It’s foolish to expect movies to serve a greater purpose than entertainment. Worse than that, it’s dangerous. To expect a fair assessment of life from people who are barely aware of reality outside of Los Angeles or New York is like expecting to get health and beauty advice from Rosie O'Donnell (or, indeed, like expecting Rosie O'Donnell to say anything intellingent, but that’s another story). I personally have given up going to movies because even the good ones aren’t that good.
As far as Michelangelo needing the Pope’s money to pay for the Sistine Chapel, that’s true, but when Michelangelo saw what the Pope originally planned, Michelangelo pretty much said, “I can’t do that, but I can do something much better”. When was the last time Hollywood actually tried to give us something better than what they thought the people wanted?
Hi JAlex. In response to your desire for a replica of the original vertical sign, if memory serves me correctly there was no vertical sign on the Fox. However, the framework above the facade, visible in Lost Memory’s recent photo, used to hold a large incandescent sign which was visible all the way to downtown St. Louis. That’s something I would like to see restored!
I went home to Rochester for the summer and toured around Central NY and the Adirondacks with a friend who was visiting from Tennessee. We stopped and took a tour of this theatre. Upon entering the auditorium my friend became very quiet. When we returned to our vehicle he stated that he stopped talking during the tour because he was choking back the tears. For the next few hours all he could talk about was how blown away he was by the Stanley, and how he had never seen such a beautiful building in all his life.
By the way Geo1 (and I smile as I type this) you definitely show your NYC roots when you describe Utica as an “upstate village”. It is in fact a city, and is in Central New York, not Upstate. (of course I realize that, to an NYCer anything north of the Bronx is upstate).
The fourth photo that ken posted on March 5, 2006, shows the original marquee just before opening day. It also shows someone being hung if effigy! Any ideas on who it might be? “Old Man Depression” maybe? Guesses anyone?
The “mystery theatre” is the what is now called the Ohio Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. You can check it out at its cinema treasures page.
Thank you, Tim, for those photos. What a wonderful neighborhood theatre this must have been. It was a shock to read about its destruction, since the last news I’d heard was that it was going to be restored. What happened?
By the way, the top member of a column is called a “capital”, not a “capitol”. Speaking of which, did you get to save any of them?
Thanks again for the photos.
I’m not sure if this link is a repeat, but here are what appear to be fairly recent photos of the Kings' interior. The photos aren’t mine, but I hope who ever owns them doesn’t mind them being posted here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marioletto/
Warren, I’ve said it before, and I’ll undoubtedly say it again in a few months. I don’t know how you keep finding these wonderful photo, but thank you very much for sharing them!
Certainly the Roxy was grander, but since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, who can say? It seems to this outside observer that few other theatres in New York City, if any, were as beloved in their own neighborhood as the Paradise. I have elderly friends from Bronx who recall going to the Paradise with such amazing nostalgia and longing. Much more than I’ve ever heard from people recalling other theatres. It’s almost as if this building was the defining factor for their neighborhood. The theatre even gets mentioned in the movie “Marty” when a few bronxites are discussing what to do for the evening. Of course they pronounce it “Lowee’s Paradise”.
Hi Patsy, I realize it’s 4 months after you asked, but the Palace Theatre’s Wurlitzer is now installed in the Auditorium Theatre on the other side of downtown, and is very well cared for by the Rochester Theatre Organ Society.
Hi Ed, Personally, I don’t buy stuff at the theatre, but if I did, I wouldn’t buy a ticket, enter the auditorium to save a seat, and then go back out to the lobby to use the restroom or buy candy. So my rule is, if the movie hasn’t started, all seats are fair game. Also, you have to use a little judgement. If someone is saving one or two seats, there is always a chance that they could have sat down and realized they forgot something. If someone is saving four or more seats (NINE!??!? For crying out loud! That is just ridiculous!! Patrick, please tell me your girlfriend is 17 or younger. I hate to think of an adult running around with that kind of attitude) then it’s safe to assume that they’re being held for a party that hasn’t arrived yet.
As an addendum, I wouldn’t cross the street to see a Steven Speilberg film (unless it’s playing at some theatre I’ve been aching to see the inside of).
Ummm, the rule is, unless you’ve bought tickets, then you have no right to those seats. Sooooo, if I’d been there and truly wanted them, no amount of hand waving or jacket draping would have kept me out of them.
Hi Rambear, those are great photos, and I enjoyed getting my first decent view of the interior of the Warner in Erie, but you posted them on the page for the Warner in Torrington. If you would post these photos on the site for the theatre in Erie, Penna, I’m sure the folks interested in that theatre would love to see them.
It was definitely a crime to open the forecourt up on one side so that a walkway and escalator connect it with the shopping complex next door. Now, instead of being an enclave and foretaste of the theatre, it’s simply a thoroughfare.
I used to see this theatre from the windows of “The City of New Orleans” when I took the train home for Christmas, and I always wanted to get out and have a look at it. It’s good the building is still in use. Maybe someday it can be a theatre again. It’s not likely that RKO bought the theatre in 1920. The RKO chain didn’t exist until 1929 or so.
Hi Manfred. Why don’t you approach the theatre owners? They’d most likely by thrilled to have a chance to get some original fixtures back again.
Hey Lost Memory, I contacted the Westchester Historical Society, and they sent me a nice reply and corrected the info on their website. So thanks to you, and Warren, for your input.
Hi Lost Memory, Thanks for the great photo! Is there some way to contact the Westchester County Archives so that they can correct the misinformation that went with the photo? Thomas Lamb did not design the first Madison Square Garden, I believe that was McKim, Meade, and White, and that most of it was Stanford White’s work. Also, the Capitol is certainly NOT “art deco”.
I can understand why some folks would find Warren’s comments abrasive, but he is one of the best contributors to this site. He manages to find and post more photographs than anyone else on this site that I’m aware of. Speaking of which, Warren some of the links to the photos you’ve posted of this theatre no longer work. Would you please re-post the photos so that we can enjoy them again?
Jim Rankin, I would like to respectfully disagree with your post of October 10, 2002. I don’t think the Fox in Brooklyn is Gothic at all. It looks like a mixture of Spanish Baroque, Byzantine, a few touches of Art Deco and a few Near Eastern items all thrown together. I honestly don’t see anything Gothic in it. All in all, it must have been a very beautiful theatre. Too bad I never got to visit it.
A brief article regarding this theatre’s conversion to a performing arts center can be found at View link
Hey Brian,
Thanks for sharing those photos. I clicked on the “complimentary photo” link and thought that, perhaps, your grandmother and her friend are walking westbound on one of the streets that cross State Street, the reason for the lack of tall buildings in the distance could be that Grant Park (and Lake Michigan) are a couple blocks behind them.
Just a thought, and I really loved those photos.