Huntington History

Long Islanders filled with eager anticipation crowded the sidewalks at two different opening nights separated by 84 years. One opening night was held in a small, but growing country town shortly before the Great Depression; the other was held in a mature suburban community shortly after the Great Recession. One crowded was entertained by vaudeville actors and Hollywood’s latest production; the other by an English singer songwriter.

Two different crowds, two different theaters; the same building.

The Huntington Theatre was the largest movie theater ever built in Huntington village. The Paramount is “the best club that’s ever been on Long Island,” according to no less an authority than Billy Joel, who has played at the venue several times.

The building’s story begins in the Roaring Twenties when Huntington, especially the three blocks of New York Avenue south of Main Street experienced one of the village’s greatest building booms. New office buildings, a 60-room hotel, and a grand theater—called the finest theater east of Brooklyn—were built within the last three years of the decade known for its booming economy.

The Huntington theater when it was new

The Huntington Theater, one of 19 theaters in a chain that stretched from Brooklyn throughout Long island, opened on May 5, 1927. The sold out crowd of 2,000 (twice that number were turned away) listened to speeches from the Town Supervisor, the president of the Chamber of Commerce as well as the owner and builder of the theater. Then they watched “Clothes Make the Woman,” a Technicolor movie about a wager by two men that they can transform any ordinary woman they find into a “stunner” with the proper clothes. The feature film was “The Better ‘Ole,” starring Charlie Chaplin’s brother Syd. The World War I film was the second full length film produced using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc process and may have the first word of spoken dialogue in a film if one believes those who can hear one character whisper the word “coffee” to Chaplin’s character. In between the two films were the vaudeville acts.

Visitors to the new theater could expect to enjoy five vaudeville acts, a big feature motion picture, a comedy, and other novelties accompanied by the sounds of a symphony orchestra. All that entertainment was available for 75¢ on a Saturday evening, less during the week.

It was predicted that the new theater would attract visitors from surrounding towns. In fact, people travelled from as far away as Queens rather than travel into Manhattan to see first run movies, which under studio restrictions could now be shown in theaters within a certain distance from each other.

Eventually the vaudeville acts were discontinued. After five decades, the movies stopped as well. By 1973, the theater was dark. A few years later, a rescue effort was attempted. Vincent Orlando, who was the director of a local dance company, hoped to create a theater that would attract dance troupes from around the world. The main floor of the old theater and its stage would be converted to a mini mall, while the 700 seat balcony would be transformed into the Balcony Theater with a new stage built expressly for dance performances. A screen for showing classic movies would also be included as part of the renovations. Working with the Balcony Film Club and Stars of American ballet, which hoped to make the renovated theater its permanent home, Orlando raised money through grants and fund raising. He hoped to meet his $25,000 goal from 100 supporters who would donate $250 each and become members of the Founders Club.

It was a dream that was to be only partially realized.

The $400,000 conversion project was stymied by construction delays. Orlando hoped to show off his new dance floor with a performance by his dance company on September 15, 1978, followed by the Murray Louis Dance Company in early October. Both performances had to be cancelled because of delays in laying steel and pouring cement. Disputes with the Town Building Department over state fire code issues further delayed the project. The delays continued into the summer of 1979, when the State Board of Review approved plans for a deluge curtain that, in the event of an emergency, would separate the stage from the audience with a wall of water.

In the meantime, the Balcony Film Club had already started showing films. In April, the Beatles graced the screen in Yellow Submarine and Let It Be. Although not new releases, they do not seem to be the vintage films that were originally anticipated and which caused such concern to the directors of the newly formed New Community Cinema, who worried about the competition for a limited audience.

Construction and fund raising continued in 1980. The project was now under the auspices of a newly formed not-for-profit organization called Ballet Continuum, of which Vincent Orlando was artistic director. That effort too foundered in part because Orlando’s wife, who provided much of the organizational work behind the effort, died.

By 1981, the Balcony Theater was rechristened as Spaceport and featured a 102-foot wrap around stage (billed as “the world’s longest screen”) for laser light shows. The inaugural show, “Rock Fantasy,” received tepid reviews. Meanwhile, work on converting the theater for dance performances was only 50 to 60 percent complete and completion would require another $100,000 of work.

Another type of dance was proposed for the main floor of the building. Thomas Damato and Joseph Lutz applied for variances to open an African themed dance club called “The White Elephant.” That venture also failed to get off the ground.

Two years later, the old theater finally found a second life when the Inter-Media Arts Center moved from Bayville. IMAC, as it was popularly known, was a not-for-profit organization run by Huntington residents Michael Rothbard and Kathie Bodily. In addition to live performances of music and dance on the stage, IMAC conducted workshops on videotape editing, camera technique, and studio television production. As one of 13 media arts centers across the state, its video production facilities were used by artist and not-for-profit groups to produce a variety of works including music videos and public service announcements.

Eventually the video production aspect of IMAC diminished and the 650 seat theater became known for presenting a wide variety of music including folk, jazz, blues, world music, and as Rothbard put it, “a type of music we really don’t have a name for.”

By 2009, however, declining funding, rising expenses, and a difficult relationship with their landlord forced Rothbard and Bodily to close IMAC. Rothbard died four months later.

Local business owners were concerned about the impact of IMAC’s closing on sales. The theater had attracted thousands of visitors to the village every week. In response, Town Supervisor Frank Petrone promised to convene a task force to explore ways to bring a new music venue to the village.

A little more than a year after IMAC had closed, a group of investors entered into a 30-year lease for IMAC old space as well as additional space in the building, including the main floor of the original Huntington Theater and started the process of converting it into a new state of the art music venue.

The three initial investors were Dominick Catoggio, a critically acclaimed designer and contractor with over 25 years experience in architecture, management, design and hospitality; Brian Doyle, a music industry executive with 38 years experience in music management working with artists such as Hall & Oates, Mariah Carey, John Mellencamp, Carly Simon and Taylor Dane; and Stephen Ubertini, a designer with over 35 years experience in design, sales, management and entrepreneurship, including the creation Matrix Polymers (prominent reseller of plastic resin) and 3 Water (innovative new product of caffeinated water). They were later joined by Jim Condron, who has 20 years of experience in radio management, marketing and promotion and currently serves as regional senior vice president of Connoisseur Media (WALK-FM, WKJY-FM, WBZO-FM, WWSK-FM and WHLI-AM).

The first hurdle to clear, as with so many projects in Huntington village, was parking. The proposal to expand the theater from 650 to 1665 seats required the owners to provide 438 parking spots or secure a variance. In exchange for a $9,000 annual fee, the owners secured permission from the Town of Huntington to use the upper Elm Street parking lot for valet parking and the Town Hall parking lot for staff parking. They also agreed to provide a free shuttle bus from the Huntington train station parking lot to the village.

Renovation of the theater, which cost in excess of five million dollars, presented its own challenges. According to architect Neal Hoffman, the biggest issue was how to recreate the original capacity of the former vaudeville theater, in what essentially had been the balcony level of that original theater.  A mid 20th Century renovation had split the original theater into four quarters, including two separate spaces on the second floor.  The front section had been used by IMAC. The back wall of the IMAC stage was removed and the floor was extended to the back wall of the building. This created the large, open floor space of The Paramount.

The original stage was still on the lower level. “We were also surprised to see the old proscenium [i.e. the part of a theater stage in front of the curtain] intact,” said Hoffman. A new stage was built above where the original stage had been. Dressing rooms were built beneath the stage.

“As in many renovations, removing obsolete construction is often an important part of accommodating a new use.  Walls, and finishes, including the old plaster ceiling was removed to expose the giant trusses above,” Hoffman explained.  “We were pleased to find that the trusses were strong enough to hang the new balconies we needed to obtain the required occupancy, without columns.”

The extended floor and stage from the old balcony

“We thought we would need, and did purchase a huge steel beam to support the remaining masonry above, but it turned out that the truss work was supporting the entire fly space, so that chunk of steel became the bar.”

“The huge front window that brought the theater out to the street was a unique feature that required some sensitivity to the historic theater facade. We designed it simply enough to make it a special feature of the overall facade without removing any existing details.”

The result of the renovations was a space with the versatility to host live events in a standing, hybrid or fully-seated configuration with a capacity of up to 1,573; a large main upper level floor, fixed side loge-balcony seating, mezzanine seating and a “Skybar.” The street level of the building was converted into the Founders Room, a private club designed to recreate the look and feel of a 1920s speakeasy with private rooms.

By September 30 2011, The Paramount was ready for its grand opening with a sold out concert by Elvis Costello. Since that night, The Paramount has become a top live entertainment venue, not only for music, but also for comedy, boxing and other special events. The Paramount hosts approximately 200 live events per year and quickly became popular not only with audiences, but also with performers.   English singer songwriter Ed Sheeran, who gave an impromptu sold out concert at The Paramount on July 5, 2014, praised venue: “I’ve played a lot of venues around the world and The Paramount is by far the best!” Pollstar Magazine ranked The Paramount as the #5 club venue in the world for 2017.

A sold out crowd enjoys the show

Top artists who have taken The Paramount’s stage include Billy Joel, Ed Sheeran, Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Steve Miller Band, Judas Priest, Willie Nelson, B.B. King, ZZ Top, Rob Thomas, Steely Dan, John Fogerty, Pitbull, Jewel, Slash, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Michael Bolton, Melissa Etheridge and many other Grammy-award winning entertainers.

The Paramount Comedy Series has featured such names as: Sebastian Maniscalco, Kevin Hart, Jim Breuer, Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin James, Joan Rivers, Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, Steven Wright, Rob Schneider, Weird Al Yankovic and Frank Caliendo…just to name a few.

The Paramount Tribute Series regularly hosts the best tribute bands in the country to sold-out crowds, where fans can relive the sounds of their generation, spanning numerous decades and genres. In partnership with Joe DeGuardia’s STAR Boxing, The Paramount has hosted 30 nationally televised live sporting events as part of our “Rockin’ Fights” Series and is the hometown venue for former WBO Welterweight Champion – Chris Algieri “The Pride of Huntington.” The Paramount has also had their hand in creating and putting on special events such as the presidential town hall event with John Kasich during the 2016 presidential election, Long Island Music Hall of Fame, and the VH-1 Top 20 Countdown.

The Paramount also hosts numerous special events including; weddings, sweet 16’s, bar / bat mitzvahs, fundraisers and corporate rentals, as well as live music every week, and special VIP concerts for Founders Room Members Only.

The Founders Room

Another added feature is a state of the art radio studio located in an adjacent storefront space. In partnership with Connoisseur Media Long Island, “The Studio @ The Paramount” offers the artists who play the room a platform to promote their music to over 1.6 million listeners on CMLI’s five radio stations.

In September 2018, the Huntington Historical Society honored The Paramount and its four owners for rescuing the old theater and reimagining it as a centerpiece of Huntington’s vibrant cultural landscape.