Brooklyn Paramount Theater

The story

The lobby once held fountains stocked with goldfish. Paramount Pictures built this rococo palace in 1928, handing the design to Chicago architects Rapp and Rapp, who filled it with 4,084 burgundy-velvet seats, a cloud-painted ceiling, a 60-foot stage curtain embroidered with satin pheasants, and chandeliers large enough to anchor the room. It introduced Brooklyn to jazz, then to early rock and roll, before closing in 1962 and spending decades as a basketball court for Long Island University. A 2017 renovation brought it back, and the theater reopened in 2024.