Michigan Theatre Organ owner of 62 years passed away at 92.

[Gistok]

^ Thanks for the info 56packan! I got the tidbit on the "Crawford Special" from AMERICAN PICTURE PALACES book by David Naylor.

It's really a shame that the ornate Broadway Paramount Theatre didn't survive the 1960s. It was Paramount's flagship theatre located in their own HQ building. When the theatre was ripped out and replaced with offic space the arched theatre entrance was also removed... only to be recreated by the WWF circa 2003. And today the arched window is the entrance to the NYC Hard Rock Cafe. Designed by the Rapp & Rapp architects that designed the Michigan Theatre, the Paramount window looks very similar to the surviving Michigan window.

Had it survived, the Broadway Paramount would probably be a very popular theatre today, facing directly onto Times Square. New York City didn't fare well when it came to old large movie palaces, except for Radio City and Loew's 175th, the large theatres are gone. The Roxy, Capitol, Loew's State, Loew's 72nd, Broadway Paramount... all the giant Midtown Manhattan movie palaces have been destroyed.

[[Image: before the 1960s destruction of the 3,600 seat Broadway Paramount.)