Above is the Paramount Theater and below it the arcade/walkway that connects it with the Convention Center in the bottom picture. The pictures were taken during the reconstruction project.
Raffaele, as mentioned in our Medrano building conversation, this it the Paramount Theater. We opened here in 1978 the same time Ringling/GGW were at Madison Square Garden. Business was "slow" so the Producer had two posters made of me standing on the elephant with a tiger proclaiming, "Why go to New York City to see Ringling, when you can see the same thing here!!!!!" He taped one on each side of the doors to the box office entrance above. As he was proudly showing them to me and asking what I thought I said, "why did you put them at the ticket window? If they are reading them, it means they are already here to buy a ticket?" That's when I realized he wasn't asking for my opinion, he was asking for "suckup." His angry response was, "you are so ungrateful. I could only afford two, and couldn't decide where in Asbury Park to hang them." If I recall business dropped another 12% in spite of his gallant marketing effort. LOL
On a more serious note, Bruce Springsteen has been given credit for the revival and restoration of the Paramount which I dispute. If Thomas Bohner writes history correctly(as it is told to him), it will suggest that it was my brilliant performance in 1978, despite GGW and a tapped out producer, that was the inspiration for the revival/restoration of this grand entertainment venue, and that it was I and The All-American White Tigers who blazed the trail and paved the road for "Mr. Born In the USA!!!!" to come along later and take credit for it.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Paramount Theater and Convention Convention Center Asbury Park, N. Jersey
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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2 comments:
Wade: As you probably know, over the past 20+ years the Hamid's Circus has played here, as well as the Piccadilly Circus (Dickie Garden) The hotel across the way, the Belmont(!?) was purportedly owned for a time by Johnny Cash and he, purportedly hid out there from time to time to "dry out". The hotel goes back a long time as does much of Asbury Park. My mother, who would have been 101 next month, used to stay there with her family when she was a child. Much better days back then.
Paul G.
Paul,
It is a neat, neat building. Growing up in ND, where a Prairie Dog crapping on your porch was a big deal, I can only imagine at the magical feeling the boardwalk area had for a child back in the day.
Wade
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