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Regular grooming of their coat is a must for Mountain Hares to keep them well insulated from the cold!
View of the main balcony foyer at the Paramount Theatre, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, September 1931 (TWAM ref. DX1677/1/1).
The Odeon Cinema opened on Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne on 7 September 1931. It as originally known as the Paramount Theatre but was taken over by Odeon in 1939. The Odeon’s luxurious décor made it one of the country’s finest cinemas and arguably the North East’s best loved. Most of the images in this album date from its opening and convey a real sense of the building’s elegance and beauty. Sadly the cinema closed in 2002 and was demolished in 2017.
This image is from an album which was kindly donated to the Archives by the Northumberland & Newcastle Society.
(Copyright) We're happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons. Please cite 'Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums' when reusing. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions and commercial use of the original physical version apply though; if you're unsure please email archives@twmuseums.org.uk.
Seen in Slack's yard, not long after having it's retro MK1 Paramount grill and headlight surrounds fitted.
Although a basic coach, to me, it oozes quality.
Spanish card, 2004. Photo: Paramount. Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter and Ian Keith in The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956).
The Ten Commandments (1956) was director and producer Cecil B. DeMille's last and most successful film, a partial remake of his 1923 silent film of the same title. It was filmed on location in Egypt, Mount Sinai and the Sinai Peninsula, shot in VistaVision with colour by Technicolor. The film dramatises the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews. He leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments. Charlton Heston played Moses, Yul Brynner played his jealous half-brother Rameses II and Anne Baxter the Egyptian throne princess Nefretiri.
Based on the Holy Scriptures, with additional dialogue by several other hands, The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956) tells the story of Moses, leader of the Hebrews, considered to have been a prophet by Jews, Christians and Muslims. He is thought to have lived in Egypt, in or around the 14th century BC. The older he became, the more Cecil B. DeMille was convinced that he had been put on Earth to do God’s will. He decided to remake The Ten Commandments, in response, he claimed, to scores of imploring letters: “The world needs a reminder, they said, of the Law of God.” Charlton Heston, who had previously worked with DeMille in The Greatest Show on Earth (Cecil B. DeMille, 1952), won the part of Moses after he impressed DeMille at his audition with his knowledge of ancient Egypt. The film follows Moses from the time he was discovered in the bull rushes as an infant by the Pharaoh's daughter, to his long, hard struggle to free the Hebrews from their slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. Heston was also chosen to be the voice of God in the form of a burning bush, toned down to a softer and lower register. As soon as Heston announced to DeMille that his wife Lydia was pregnant, Heston's newborn son, Fraser (1955), was cast by DeMille. Fraser Heston was three months old during filming. Edward G. Robinson was cast as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua. The film features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Sethi, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yoshebel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka. For the large crowd shots, at least 14,000 extras and 15,000 animals were used.
In 1957, The Ten Commandments was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. John P. Fulton, head of the special effects department at Paramount, won the Academy Award for his effects. Fulton’s effects included the building of Sethi’s Jubilee treasure city, the Burning Bush, the fiery hail from a cloudless sky, the Angel of Death, the composites of the Exodus, the Pillar of Fire, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the highlight, the parting of the Red Sea. The production, at the time incredibly expensive with a budget of $13 million, grossed $122.7 million at the box office. It was re-released in 1966 and 1972, and one more time in 1989. The liberties taken with the biblical story of Exodus nor its nearly four-hour length has had any effect on its popularity. According to Guinness World Records, in terms of theatrical exhibition, The Ten Commandments (1956) is the seventh most successful film of all time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation. During production, DeMille had customarily spread out prints of paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema to inform his set designers of the look he wanted to achieve. However, in terms of accuracy about Moses and his time, The Ten Commandments is patchy. Alex von Tunzelmann in The Guardian: “It's amazing how much the fashions of New Kingdom Egypt seem to resemble those of 1956. DeMille can just about be forgiven for the makeup because ancient Egyptians did indeed paint their eyelids, lips and nails, but he is pushing it by dressing dancing girls in fluorescent green bikinis. At least the spectacular scenes filmed on location in Egypt and Sinai, with thousands of extras, lend the whole thing a sense of authenticity.” Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “DeMille's The Ten Commandments may not be the most subtle and sophisticated entertainment ever concocted, but it tells its story with a clarity and vitality that few Biblical scholars have ever been able to duplicate. It is very likely the most eventful 219 minutes ever recorded to film - and who's to say that Nefertiri (Anne Baxter) didn't make speeches like, "Oh, Moses, Moses, you splendid, stubborn, adorable fool"?” During the production in Egypt, Cecil B. DeMille had a colossal heart attack. The doctor insisted that he spend the next two weeks flat on his back in an oxygen tent, and then recuperate for several weeks after that. Typically, DeMille took no notice and was back at work the next morning. He finished filming The Ten Commandments on the day after his 74th birthday. But although he lived for another five years, his health never recovered. On 20 January 1959, his doctor paid him a visit and suggested he should go straight to the hospital. “No,” DeMille told him. “I think I’ll go to the morgue instead.” He died the next day.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), John Preston (The Telegraph), Alex von Tunzelmann (The Guardian), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
The blade sign of the Paramount Theater, reflected against the building opposite it on the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia.
On our way up Mt Lassen circa early 80's. One of many epic tours of California that Jane and I did on the tandem.
The work on the Paramount involved doing extensive repairs to the original structure, making new joints and cleaning / re-etching the front dash panel detail. The aluminium panel and headlamps were created from metallic silver decals.
The rear end detail was too badly damaged to 'clean' so a new section was created below the rear window.
Interior refurb involved a repaint and the addition of seat moquette decals in line with the prototype.
Fleetnames and 25th Anniversary crest were drawn in CorelDraw and printed and supplied by John Atwood.
Taken in 2016.
The old Paramount Theater on Washington Street in the Theater District. It's been rebuilt and repurposed as a mixed-use residential, academic, and performance center for Emerson College.
1959 Beardmore MVII Paramount Taxi. Engine is Ford (1508cc or 1703cc) 4-cylinder ohv petrol or Perkins 4-cylinder ohv diesel. These were built between 1954 & 1966.
Production of the Beardmore Taxi began at Paisley in 1919 with what became known retrospectively as the Mk1. This was designed to meet the Metropolitan Police Conditions of Fitness for London Taxis. It was a very tough and reliable vehicle and it earned itself the name of ‘The Rolls-Royce of taxicabs’. It was replaced in 1923 by the Mk2, which had an all-new chassis, Following a change in the Conditions of Fitness, Beardmore introduced a new model, the Mk3 ‘Hyper’. This had a smaller, 2-litre sidevalve engine and was lighter and more economical to run.
Following the removal of William Beardmore from the board of his company in 1929, Beardmore Motors was bought out by its directors, and taxi production was moved from Scotland to Hendon, North London. Here in 1932 a new model, the Mk4 Paramount was introduced, which was essentially an updated Mk3 with a 2-litre Commer engine and gearbox. In 1935, the Mk5 Paramount Ace, with a new, longer wheelbase chassis was introduced, with the same engine. It was followed in 1938 by the Mk6 Ace, which had detail refinements.
After the Second World War, Beardmore Motors sold and serviced the new Nuffield Oxford cab, until the newly formed British Motor Corporation axed it in favour of their own Austin FX3. Beardmore Motors then returned to making their own cabs. The model they introduced, in 1954 was the Mk7 Paramount, which had a traditional style coachbuilt body, of aluminium panels over an ash frame, built by Windover. The engine was from a Mk1 Ford Consul, (later, a Mk2 Consul and finally a Ford Zephyr 4) but a Perkins 4.99 diesel was offered from 1956. In the same year, body production was taken over by Weymann at Addlestone. Production of the entire cab was soon moved there. In 1966, when Metropolitan-Cammell bought Weymann, taxi production was moved to MCW’s factory at Washwood Heath, Birmingham, where it ended in late 1966. Final production of the Mk7 amounted to just over 650 cabs.
Located on State Street, the Paramount Theatre in Bristol, Tennessee was built between 1930-31 at a total cost of $210,000. Opening night was February 21, 1931, with a Carol Lombard movie. Prices were 50 cents night, 35 cents matinee and 10 cents children. During the 30s and 40s there were live performances of vaudeville shows, the Big Band sounds of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Charlie Spivak, Harry James, Grand Ole Opry stars Tex Ritter, Ken Maynard, Gabby Hayes, Johnny Mack Brown, Ernest Tubb, and Cowboy Copus.
The last movie was shown in 1979. The theatre essentially sat empty for the next ten years. The theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Plans to renovate began to form. Bristol and its surrounding community donated 1.3 million dollars to the project, which was matched with one million dollars from the State of Tennessee by a special act of the legislature. The restoration/renovation was started in December 1989 and completed seventeen months later for re-opening April 1991.
Happy tHuRsDay!
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 378. Photo: Paramount Films. Jane Russell in Son of Paleface (Frank Tashlin, 1952).
American film actress Jane Russell (1921-2011) was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1940, Jane Russell was signed to a seven-year contract by film mogul, Howard Hughes. She made her film debut in the Western The Outlaw (Howard Hughes, 1943), a story about Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel) that went to great lengths to showcase Russell's voluptuous figure. Hughes' battles with the censors resulted in the film spending three years on the shelf before finally gaining wide release in a cut version in 1946.The film and the controversy turned her into an icon. In 1947 Russell delved into music before returning to films. She played Calamity Jane opposite Bob Hope in The Paleface (Norman Z. McLeod, 1948), and Mike 'the Torch' Delroy opposite Hope in another western comedy, Son of Paleface (Frank Tashlin, 1952).
Most famously, Jane Russell played Dorothy Shaw in the hit musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953) opposite Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee. Brendon Hanley at AllMovie: "On the surface, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a brassy, garish, colorful musical comedy featuring two rather lightweight actresses, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Ultimately, however, director Howard Hawks uses the nature of the material and the glossy stars to an interesting, paradoxical effect. The film lacks strong masculine characters and any sort of traditional morality; it's dominated by the superficial. The two main characters are sex symbols who, in true Hawksian fashion, have their sex-appeal turned on its head." After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in more than 20 films throughout her career. Russell often played cynical, 'tough broads,' and in 1971, she starred in the Broadway musical Company.
Sources: Brendon Hanley (AllMovie), AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
A 1956 Paramount Tourer, photographed at the Queen Square, Bristol, classic car meet in September 2013.
the famous paramount theatre in youngstown, ohio was one of the most opulent theatre's in all of the midwest. originally a vaudeville house which opened its doors in 1908, the theater was purchased by paramount pictures in 1918 and converted into a state of the art movie theater with that held 1,700 people. paramount spent $200,000 renovating the theater and modernizing the audio system. the theater remained a popular attraction until the end of the 1960's, when the steel industry (and general economy) took a turn for the worse.
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Some genuine Paramounts here, but there are two impostors. Pictured in a wet Tredegar, this line up at Park View, taken sometime in 1987, includes Hills B618 CKG; MHB 850P; A775 WHB; RNY 304Y; OWO 906M and C233 HTX. The Paramount impostors are of course MHB and OWO, which carried Supreme III and Elite III bodies respectively. Whilst Hills treated a few Plaxton Elites and Supreme III coaches to the newer style Supreme IV front, these were the only two to receive a Paramount front as part of a mid life refurbishment. B618 CKG was a 1985 12 metre Paramount 3500; A775 WHB was a 1984 12 metre Paramount 3200; RNY 304Y was a 1982 11 metre Paramount 3200 Express (the first Paramount for the company), whilst C233 HTX was a 1986 12 metre Paramount 3200LS.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 672. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Carla Bosch.
Mitzi Gaynor (1931) is an American actress, singer and dancer. She lied about her address so she could attend Hollywood High School, and signed a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century-Fox at age 17. She sang, acted and danced in a number of film musicals, often paired with some of the biggest male musical stars of the day. Notable films included There's No Business Like Show Business (Walter Lang, 1954), which featured Irving Berlin's music and also starred Ethel Merman, and Marilyn Monroe, Les Girls (George Cukor, 1957) with Gene Kelly, and South Pacific (Joshua Logan, 1958), the film adaptation of the stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. For her performance, she was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award. She made her last film to date in the early 1960s.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Three Stanways Paramounts in the yard at the end of the day, in March 2012, framed by two more of the type.
The former Kings Ferry Mercedes O303 (585 WKN, new as H16 KFC) is flanked by two Dennis Javelins with Brummie origins - J70 SWC was new as J110 VDA at Meadway, while JIG 3668 was new as F370 MUT at Pattersons.
All gone now, of course - the O303 was scrapped by its next owner, JIG was exported in 2015, and SWC was decaying in a yard in Hertfordshire a year or two back.
Seen on a visit to the Epsom Coaches depot in February 1987 were these Plaxton Paramount coaches. C361HGF is a 9.5m Volvo B10M-46 / Paramount 3200 II C36F; B504CGP is a Volvo B10M-61 / Paramount 3200 II C50F; and A501WGF is a Volvo B10M-61 / Paramount 3500 C50F.
Tappins Volvo B10M Plaxton Paramount TIL 5973 is seen here with Big Lemon H829 AHS. Took 829 up to Didcot to meet its new owner half way who was also buying a coach from Tappins. 829 has been bought by Abbey Travel of Leicester.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1380. Photo: Paramount.
Mexican-American actor Anthony Quinn (1915-2001) started as a contract player at Paramount, where he mainly played villains and ethnic types. He became disenchanted with his career and did not renew his Paramount contract. Instead, he returned to the stage and replaced Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. This performance made his reputation and boosted his film career. For his role as Brando's brother in Viva Zapata! (Elia Kazan, 1952), Quinn won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. He gave his greatest performance as the circus strongman in Federico Fellini's masterpiece La Strada (1954). Quinn won his second Supporting Actor Oscar in 1957 for his portrayal of Paul Gauguin in Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli, 1956), opposite Kirk Douglas as Vincent van Gogh. Over the next decade Quinn lived in Italy alternated between Hollywood and the European cinema.
Antonio Rudolfo Oaxaca Quinn was born in 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico. His parents were Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn. After starting life in extremely modest circumstances in Mexico, his family moved to Los Angeles, where his father became an assistant cameraman at Selig Film Studios. Quinn often accompanied his father to work, and became acquainted with such stars as Tom Mix and John Barrymore, with whom he kept up the friendship into adulthood. He attended Polytechnic High School and later Belmont High, but eventually dropped out. The young Quinn boxed which stood him in good stead as a stage actor, when he played Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. He won a scholarship to study architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright at the great architect's studio, Taliesin, in Arizona. Quinn was close to Wright, who encouraged him when he decided to give acting a try. After a brief apprenticeship on stage, Quinn hit Hollywood. He made his film debut with a character role in the crime drama Parole! (Lew Landers, 1936). Quinn picked up a variety of small roles in several films at Paramount, including a Cheyenne Indian in The Plainsman (1936), which was directed by his future father-in-law, Cecil B. DeMille. As a contract player at Paramount, Quinn mainly played villains and ethnic types, such as a gangster in the crime drama Dangerous to Know (Robert Florey, 1938), a Chinese gangster in Island of Lost Men (Kurt Neumann, 1939) and an Arab chieftain in the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope vehicle Road to Morocco (David Butler, 1942). He also played the sympathetic Crazy Horse in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941) with Errol Flynn. As a Mexican national (he did not become an American citizen until 1947), he was exempt from the draft. With many actors in the service fighting World War II, Quinn was able to move up into better supporting roles. He had married DeMille's daughter Katherine DeMille, which afforded him entrance to the top circles of Hollywood society. He became disenchanted with playing supporting parts as Chief Yellow Hand in Buffalo Bill (William A. Wellman, 1944) and a Chinese in China Sky (China Sky (Ray Enright, 1945). His first lead was the Indian farmer Charlie Eagle in Black Gold (Phil Karlson, 1947) opposite his wife, Katherine DeMille. By 1947, he had appeared in more than fifty films and was still not a major star. He did not renew his Paramount contract despite the advice of others, including his father-in-law whom Quinn felt never accepted him due to his Mexican roots. Instead, he returned to the stage. His portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire in Chicago and on Broadway, where he replaced Marlon Brando, made his reputation. However, IMDb also gives another explanation for his move to the stage: “Became a naturalized United States citizen in 1947, just before he was ‘gray-listed’ for his association with Communists such as screenwriter John Howard Lawson and what were termed ‘fellow travelers’, though he himself was never called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. When warned of his gray-listing by 20th Century-Fox boss Darryl F. Zanuck (a liberal), Quinn decided to go on the Broadway stage where there was no blacklist rather than go through the process of refuting the suspicions.”
Anthony Quinn’s success on Broadway boosted his film career. He returned to the cinema in The Brave Bulls (Robert Rossen, 1951). Director Elia Kazan cast him as Marlon Brando's brother in his biographical film of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, Viva Zapata! (1952). Quinn won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for 1952, making him the first Mexican-American to win an Oscar. It was not to be his lone appearance in the winner's circle: he won his second Supporting Actor Oscar five years later for his portrayal of painter Paul Gauguin in Vincente Minnelli's biographical film of Vincent van Gogh, Lust for Life (1956), opposite Kirk Douglas. Over the next decade Quinn lived in Italy and became a major figure in world cinema, as many studios shot films in Italy to take advantage of the lower costs. He appeared in several Italian films, giving one of his greatest performances as the dim-witted, thuggish and volatile circus strongman who brutalizes the sweet soul played by Giulietta Masina in her husband Federico Fellini's masterpiece La Strada (1954). Alternating between Europe and Hollywood, Quinn built his reputation and entered the front rank of character actors and character leads. He received his third Oscar nomination (and first for Best Actor) for Wild Is the Wind (George Cukor, 1957). Quinn starred in The Savage Innocents 1959 as Inuk, an Eskimo who finds himself caught between two clashing cultures. He played a Greek resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation in the monster hit The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961) and received kudos for his portrayal of a once-great boxer on his way down in Requiem for a Heavyweight (Ralph Nelson, 1962). Back on Broadway, he was nominated for the 1961 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for Becket. He returned to the cinema to play ethnic parts, such as an Arab warlord in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and he played the eponymous lead in the Sword-and-sandal blockbuster Barabbas (Richard Fleischer, 1961) opposite Silvana Mangano. Two years later he reached the zenith of his career, playing Zorba in Alexis Zorbas/Zorba the Greek (Michael Cacoyannis, 1964)), which brought him his fourth, and last, Oscar nomination as Best Actor. The 1960s were kind to him: he played character leads in such major films as The Shoes of the Fisherman (Michael Anderson, 1968) opposite Laurence Olivier, and The Secret of Santa Vittoria (Stanley Kramer, 1969), with Anna Magnani. However, his appearance in the title role in the film adaptation of John Fowles' novel, The Magus (Guy Green, 1968), did nothing to save the film, which was one of that decade's notorious turkeys.
The following decade saw Anthony Quinn slip back into playing ethnic types again. He starred as the Hispanic mayor of a rapidly growing city in Southwest United States in the TV series The Man and the City (1971). IMDb writes about an interesting incident: “Around 1972, he announced his desire to play Henry Cristophe, the 19th-century emperor of Haiti. Upon this announcement, several prominent black actors, including Ossie Davis and Ellen Holly, stated that they were opposed to a ‘white man’ playing ‘black’. Davis stated, ‘My black children need black heroes on which to model their behavior. Henry Cristophe is an authentic black hero. Tony, for all my admiration of him as a talent, will do himself and my children a great disservice if he encourages them to believe that only a white man, and Tony is white to my children, is capable of playing a black hero.’” Quinn’s career lost its momentum during the 1970s. Aside from playing a thinly disguised Aristotle Onassis in the cinematic roman-a-clef The Greek Tycoon (J. Lee Thompson, 1978), his other major roles of the decade were as Hamza in the controversial The Message/Mohammad, Messenger of God (Moustapha Akkad, 1976), as the Italian patriarch in L'eredità Ferramonti/The Inheritance (Mauro Bolognini, 1976) opposite Dominique Sanda, yet another Arab in Caravans (James Fargo, 1978) and a Mexican patriarch in The Children of Sanchez (Hall Bartlett, 1978) with Dolores Del Rio. In 1983 he reprised his most famous role, Zorba the Greek, on Broadway in the revival of the musical Zorba, for 362 performances. Though his film career slowed during the 1990s, he continued to work steadily in films and television. Anthony Quinn lived out the latter years of his life in Bristol, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his time painting and sculpting. In 2001, he died in a hospital in Boston from pneumonia and respiratory failure linked to his battle with lung cancer. Quinn was 86 years old. He was married three times. After divorcing Katherine DeMille in 1965, he married Jolanda Addolori (1966-1997) and Kathy Benvin (1997-2001). He had ten children, five with DeMille, three with Addolori, and two with Benvin.
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.