Paramount Theater, Newark, NJ

The Newark Paramount Theater is located on Market Street, one block from Broad Street which was part of the Lincoln Highway. First opened as a vaudeville theater in 1895, in 1917 the "Newark" was transformed into a movie palace typical of the period by Thomas Lamb. Lamb was the architect of the 1925 version of Madison Square Garden. In 1932, the theater became part of the Paramount network. Jerry Lewis was supposedly an usher at the theater, that hosted acts like Mae West (1939) and the movies of Elvis Presley. The theater was closed in 1986.

Above is a recent picture of the theater. I had to do some research to find images of the theater over the years. I love the cocktail billboard adjacent to the theater, although compositionally I couldn't get the whole of it in the painting. It reads " Broad & Market Tavern, In the Hub of Newark serving you the best

It was a bit of a challenge synthesizing the images into one painting, adding people and then imagining what it would look like at night in 1942. That's the year I chose to represent, the year Casablanca and Bambi were the big movies.

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