There is often an instant sense of joy when you walk into a historic building, especially one that has been as lovingly renovated as Middletown’s Historic Paramount Theatre.
This year the Paramount turns 85 with a facelift that brings it back to its former glory.
The 1930s were a time when movies had just been born as an artistic genre. They were a source of entertainment for people from all walks of life. It was also a decade during which more than 3 million people became unemployed as a result of the 1929 stock market crash that began the Great Depression.
But despite the bleak economic outlook, somehow, 1930 was the year when Middletown got its own grand theater.
Joy During Bleak Times
Even more surprising is the fact that The Neilson Construction Company that was commissioned to build it started construction in October 1929—the very month of the stock market crash. They not only completed it but also employed Middletown’s own firms as subcontractors.
The finished venue opened its doors to the public on Thursday, June 12, 1930, with much fanfare, both before and after. According to the theater’s website, on Wednesday, June 11, Middletown Mayor Clarence Van Fleet threw the switch that illuminated the huge marquee.
The following day, festivities began with a noon parade and later on at 6 p.m., the Historic Paramount Theatre’s doors finally opened for two shows—on film—that included an on-screen welcome by Buddy Rogers (star of the 1927 Best Picture “Wings”), a music selection by the Paramount Symphony Orchestra, Paramount News, a short feature on Middletown and its best-known citizens, and then the feature film “The Big Pond,” starring Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert.
At the time it seated 1,500 people and had a state of the art cooling system that consisted of air being passed over large cakes of ice, which was to keep the theater at 72 degrees.
As the years went by, it continued as a movie theater until the late 1970s.
When the Shopping Mall Came to Town
Maria Bruni, director of The Office of Economic and Community Development for the city of Middletown, told the Epoch Times that in the 1970s the first mall was built outside the city limits and took a lot of the merchants out of the downtown, thus leaving the area without the necessary economic base to keep it prosperous. This happened across America.
