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One of many gates entering on to the Paramount Pictures film studio in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. Seen here in the latter stages of sunset on a November evening of 2016
we see the iconic name plate through the multiple lights of the trees the arch and the sky. this busy scene encapsulates the busy nature of the interior of the studio.
Taken in 2016.
The "2015" data is wrong.
The Paramount was once a 1700-seat movie theater on Washington Street downtown. (I went to more than a few movies there before it closed in 1976). Now it's a performing arts center for Emerson College.
A 1956 Paramount Tourer, photographed at the Queen Square, Bristol, classic car meet in September 2013.
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.
Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.
Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.
At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.
In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”
Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..
Big German collectors card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Paramount. Baby LeRoy embarks on a tour of the Paramount studios in a cart pulled by two dogs, Mutt and Jeff, Hollywood, circa 1934.
Baby LeRoy (1932-2001) was Hollywood's most famous toddler. When he was 16 months old, he became the youngest person ever put under term contract by a major studio. Between 1933 and 1935 he starred in nine films, always as a baby. These included A Bedtime Story (1933) with Maurice Chevalier, Alice in Wonderland (1933) and Torch Singer (1933). He is best known for his appearances in three W.C. Fields films: Tillie and Gus (1933), The Old Fashioned Way (1934) and It's a Gift (1934).
Baby LeRoy was born in 1932 in Los Angeles, as Ronald Le Roy Overacker. Aged six months, he made his screen debut in A Bedtime Story (Norman Taurog, 1933). The star of the film was Maurice Chevalier as a Parisian playboy who plays father to an abandoned, troublesome baby who severely diminishes his lovemaking activities. LeRoy's contract with Paramount had to be signed by his grandfather, as not only was Baby LeRoy underage but so was his 16-year-old mother. He was the youngest motion picture actor to receive star billing in such films as Alice in Wonderland (Norman Z. McLeod, 1933), a star-laden version of Lewis Carroll's novel, and the musical drama Torch Singer (Alexander Hall, George Somnes, 1933), starring Claudette Colbert. He co-starred with W.C. Fields in the comedies Tillie and Gus (Francis Martin, 1933), The Old Fashioned Way (William Beaudine, 1934) and It's a Gift (Norman Z. MacLeod, 1934). Fields recounted a difficult shooting day during Tillie and Gus where a short scene was repeatedly ruined by Baby LeRoy's crying until he surreptitiously devised a solution: "I quietly removed the nipple from Baby LeRoy's bottle, dropped in a couple of noggins of gin, and returned it to Baby LeRoy. After sucking on the pacifier for a few minutes, he staggered through the scene like a Barrymore." LeRoy is perhaps best remembered for a dinner table sequence in The Old Fashioned Way (1934) in which he throws a handful of custard into W.C. Fields's face, yanks on his nose, and destroys his pocket watch by tossing it into a bowl of molasses. Fields initially endures each of these indignities, but the scene ends with Fields spotting Baby LeRoy standing in a doorway and giving the toddler a kick to the rear end.
Baby Leroy is said to have retired from motion pictures at age 4, but four years later there was a final chapter of his film career. At age 8, LeRoy landed the lead role in Paramount's The Biscuit Eater (Stuart Heisler, 1940). This was to be his comeback film, after a two-year absence from the big screen. At age 6, he had appeared in a bit part as himself in the comedy short, Cinema Circus (Roy Rowland, 1937). He began filming the opening scene of The Biscuit Eater (1940) in October 1939. The scene called for Baby LeRoy to swing across a lake holding a rope, but he lost his grip and fell into the lake as the cameras rolled. This happened both times that the scene was attempted. As a result, Baby LeRoy became ill with a very bad cold. By the next day, he had lost his voice. As filming was on location in Albany, Georgia, and the crew and the rest of the cast could not wait the two weeks for the young actor to recover, as the doctor who examined LeRoy had determined, the film's director, Stuart Heisler, instead placed an emergency call to Paramount in Hollywood. Paramount wasted no time replacing Baby Leroy with another Paramount child actor, Billy Lee, who soon arrived with his father who was managing his career, while Baby LeRoy was sent back to Hollywood to recover from his illness, with a promise from Paramount that he would be given another lead role for another chance at a comeback. Unfortunately, that never materialised. Overacker became a merchant seaman and in 1957, as an adult, appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show To Tell the Truth. Ronald Le Roy Overacker died in 2001 in Van Nuys, California. He was 69.
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Austin, TX- April 2019- The Paramount Theater on Congress Avenue. it was built in 1915. @andrea smith
Plaxton Paramount 3200 bodied Leyland Leopard, new to Wallace Arnold with a Duple Dominant body as WUG 128S in August 1977, rebodied in 1987.
Seen here in Dawlish.
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.
Hey old buddy, I'll take it from here! 1972 Paramount (back) is ready to take over from 1969 Paramount for the rest of 2015.
A detail view of the building's exterior and marquee.
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The Paramount Theatre, also known as the Paramount Arts Center, is located in Aurora, Illinois. It was designed by Rapp and Rapp in the Art Deco style with Venetian elements, and opened in 1931. Over the years, it has hosted films, plays, musicals, concerts, comedy shows, and other acts. It has been extensively renovated and restored, with great attention to maintaining historical accuracy in the beautiful auditorium.
The scope of the Astrobel / Paramount 4000 conversion is illustrated quite well in this photo.
A great deal of work involved, but a rather pleasing outcome. Final livery is being applied by the client.
Aurora, IL. Photo by John Lishamer Photography (www.johnlishamer.com) All Rights Reserved. Nikon FA. Nikkor 24mm f2.8 ais. Fuji FP4 125. Xtol.
A bit of a challenge to work with a previously built white metal & brass kit and bring a rather tired old model back to life.
The kit was not badly assembled but had suffered the ravages of split joints, cracked parts, badly dented panels and an unfortunate attempt to tidy up the rear end detail.
The resulting Hedingham 25th Anniversary liveried Paramount is worth the effort put in to the refurb.
The only diecast among these coaches is number 83 (PJI 5958), an EFE Plaxton Paramount. It was taken over by Arden Forest from PHM Travel when the latter ceased trading and unusually is a Dennis Javelin - I don't think the combination of the high-floor Paramount 3500 body with the Javelin chassis ever actually existed in reality.
I guess you could say it was downhill all the way to Virginia Beach from this point. This was the highest elevation for our Bikecentennial76 Oregon to Virginia trip (group TAWK518, which translates as (T)rans Am (W)est to East (K)amping departure (5/18)).
Our already diminished group of 9 (the normal group size was about 12, and a couple of sisters switched from our group to Lloyd Sumner's group at the trailhead), was further decreased to 7 when a young married couple pulled out, appalled by the hardship of tackling the climbs in wintery conditions.
That's Ron McClure's Raleigh International in front and Doug Siple's 1966 Schwinn Paramount on the left.
Photo: Ron McClure
A photo of the cab of Plaxton Paramount 3200 rebodied Leyland Leopard WSV323. The basic instrumentation on the Leopard looking slightly lost on the Paramount dashboard! This coach retained the Leyland Pneumocyclic semi-automatic transmission, and also has the type of steering wheel only normally seen on the last Leopards built. I took this photo on the first day I drove this coach, 14th March 2011.
Please see the previous photo for a more detailed description of this coaches history.
British Airways also had this Paramount Volvo B10M at Manchester on crew duties, numbered CC6016. It was new in 1991 to Gatwick airport but three years later had moved north.
145 N. County Rd
Palm Beach, FL 33480
1927-1980
Architect: Joseph Urban
Screens: Single
Seating capacity: 1,236
Current usage: Church
I was fortunate enough to be able to take a photo from the stage of The Paramount Theatre. It was just a few minutes before the doors were opening for a movie premier and I only had time to setup the tripod and take one set of brackets. Pretty happy with the results.