The Brooklyn Paramount Theater will reopen as a venue in 2017

Ah, the 40s and 50s. A time of class, beautiful movie palaces and political and artistic repression that we try not to talk about that often. Whatever those decades’ problems, they definitely nailed the whole “having a nice place to see a show” thing, but now following in the footsteps of the Kings Theater being restored and reopened, the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Downtown Brooklyn is going to go through a 24-month renovation and reopen in 2017 as a 3,500-seat music venue. Beautiful movie palaces and a more free and open society? Score one for lousy millennials over the Greatest Generation.

The announcement of the Paramount getting a second life came earlier this year originally, but there was no mention of when shows would start beyond “soon.” Now we’ve got word from a press release from Long Island University, who says that the theater on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and DeKalb Avenue will get fixed up for the next 24 months, and transform into the rendering below, showing how much fun you’ll have at the Paramount in a couple of years, thanks to some serious laser light show action:

The Brooklyn Paramount, which was the first movie theatre in the world to show talkies, was open from 1928 to 1962 as a movie theatre and performance space that welcomed a range of acts, from the likes of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby to Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. After 1962, it was made part of LIU’s campus, where it’s been used as a gym and storage space with a really nice ceiling:

Now, however, the theater will be restored to its former glory and and open up for events like music, comedy and even boxing. So hopefully you can hold on here for couple more years, so that you can enjoy shows at the Paramount as a resident and not a visitor who was priced-out because of cool theater restorations like this one.

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