Paramount Theatre (Manhattan)

The building you see before you stands on the site of a movie palace that once defined the glamour of Times Square. When the Paramount Theatre opened its doors in nineteen twenty-six, it was a massive, three-thousand-six-hundred-seat showcase for the motion picture industry. The lobby was designed to mirror the Paris Opera House, featuring sweeping marble staircases, gold-domed ceilings, and a massive crystal chandelier that greeted patrons as they entered from Broadway. It was the headquarters of the original Paramount Pictures, and its founder, Adolph Zukor, kept an office in the tower above the stage until his death in nineteen seventy-six.