A Paramount Scrapbook: 1948—1960
Examiner, Dec. 30, 1961, p.13. Unfortunately, the Paramount sign was missing a few bright lights.
The Paramount’s long life (1948 to 1986) made it for quite some time the prime motion picture theatre in the city. Here are a few of the “extras” that supplement its history, with an accent on novelty (and community) publicity efforts.
See also the history of the theatre. And the Paramount Snack Bar photos — from 1955.
A Famous Players theatre ticket, Trent Valley Archives (TVA), series 2 Stan McBride file 50 F 148.
Examiner, Dec. 19, 1953, p.7. With the Capitol and Paramount both under the wing of Famous Players Canadian.
Examiner, Dec. 3, 1948. With Gordon C. Miller, co-owner/manager of the Regent front and centre.
Examiner, April 9, 1949, p.7.
Examiner, April 9, 1949, p.7.
Peterborough Weekly Review, Dec. 1, 1949, p.2. Thanks to Ken Brown for this.
Examiner, June 2, 1950, p.7.
Examiner, May 27, 1949, p.7. Peterborough with a Paramount, Centre, Odeon, and Drive-in — and if that did not suit you, you could go dancing as well. The Regent closed as of May 28.
Examiner, Dec. 7, 1949, p.7.
Peterboro Weekly Review, Dec. 1, 1949, p.2. Working side by side with a local jeweller. Courtesy Ken Brown.
Examiner, Dec. 7, 1950, p.7. Judy and Gene and a local tie-in with Ford tractors too.
Peterboro Weekly Review, March 9, 1950. Courtesy Ken Brown.
Peterboro Weekly Review, March 23, 1950, p.4.
Examiner, Oct. 31, 1950, p.7. Reminding parents to get out there and take the kids to the moving picture show. But it wouldn’t be No Way Out, an adult picture.
Examiner, Nov. 5, 1951, p.7. When they let the staff take over.
Examiner, Feb. 20, 1952, p.7.
Examiner, Nov. 26, 1954, p.7.
Examiner, Dec. 4, 1954, p.1. During a period when moviegoers tended to be relatively youthful, this was an exceptional crowd. But then it was an older movie, too.
Paramount manager Art Cauley gets an award for his publicity efforts. Motion Picture Herald, Aug. 28, 1954, p.47. When Cauley screened the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz picture The Long Long Trailer (released February 1954) he promoted a deluxe 30-foot trailer, parking it in front of the theatre behind a new convertible car. He had a four-foot model trailer set up in the lobby. All of it garnered much attention.
Examiner, March 21, 1955, p.7. I attended, but did not manage to win the Timex watch.
Examiner, May 13, 1955, p.7.
Examiner, Dec. 21, 1957, p.21. The Kinsmens Club, bicycles, safety, and movies.
The Paramount’s window getting ready for Tolstoy’s War and Peace, January 1957. Peterborough Museum and Archives.
Examiner, Jan. 18, 1957, p.7.
Examiner, July 16, 1957, p.7. Long before the Scream franchise, there were these two “scream pictures.” And an on-stage attraction too. Eighty-five cents to see the materialization of James Dean, plus the rest of the show, seems a fair price.
Examiner, Dec. 22, 1958, p.7. In the age of television, the theatre as an extra babysitter.
Examiner, Jan. 16, 1958, p.7. An open letter, with film fare for patrons of all ages.
Examiner, March 9, 1959, p.7. For patrons of a certain age.
A Shaggy Dog Story in a hockey town.
April 1959: The screening of Disney’s film The Shaggy Dog (released mid-March 1959) just happened to coincide with a long playoff run by the Junior A Peterborough TPT Petes team. In only its third year of existence — coached by Scotty Bowman and led by goal scorer Wayne Connelly — the surprising team went all the way to the national final in Winnipeg before finally being defeated.
Examiner, April 16, 1959, p.7. Billed as “a new kind of horror movie — horribly funny!” The film debut of former Mickey Mouse Club “Mouseketeer” Annette Funicello.
Examiner, April 21, p.7. The Paramount played up the local hockey story for all it was worth. Fred MacMurray starred as a mailman (as they called them in those days) who (not surprisingly) hates dogs. Although it was Disney’s biggest box-office hit of the time, as it turned out it was not a highly rated film in the long term.
Examiner, April 22, 1959, p.7.
Examiner, April 24, 1959, p.7.
Examiner, April 25, 1959, p.7.
Not at all a shaggy dog: with the advent of the 1960s, one movie in particular represented something of a difference in moviegoing habits. See it from the very beginning! No more coming in during the middle of the movie, or so they’d like.
Examiner, Aug. 12, 1960, p.24. Psycho: a landmark in film distribution — in the words of New Wave French film director François Truffaut, “oriented towards a new generation of filmgoers.” Its story line, says film historian Paul Monaco, “was seen as subversive of the values that had been traditionally advanced in classic Hollywood movies” — with its aesthetics representing a stark shift from Hollywood’s “cinema of sentiment” to a “cinema of sensation.”
Examiner, Aug. 17, 1960, p.28. Monaco argues that the stricture on nobody being admitted to a showing once the movie had begun was a “misguided” marketing attempt, creating havoc at drive-ins and a carnival-like atmosphere that prevented the film from being taken seriously as film.
The theatre and local merchants . . . and the Paramount lives on . . .
Examiner, Aug. 25, 1960, p.29.
Crowds continue to pour out of the Paramount — this time after seeing Tom Jones in 1964. PMA, 1964 May 40584-4 NYB Paramount Theater.