Yesterday in 1938...

New York Times archives January 27, 1938

1,500 STORM THEATRE TO RECEIVE GOODMAN

Police Called to Handle Crowd Beginning to Form at 5 A. M.
--- Mae West Film Shown

Long before the scheduled opening hour at 8 A. M. yesterday crowds filled the lobby of the Paramount Theatre, overflowed onto Broadway and down the Forty-third Street side of the theatre to hail the return of Benny Goodman and his swing orchestra and to welcome the new Mae West comedy “Every Day’s a Holiday.” Lines started forming at 5 o’clock and the management reported that 1,500 persons were on hand at 7:30, a half hour earlier than had been planned.

Shortly after 8 o’clock the management put in a call to the West Forty-seventh Street police station and ten patrolmen were detailed to assist the ushers in handling the crowd. At 10:30, when the box office was forced to close, the line extended down Forty-third Street to Eighth Avenue. The first show started at 8:15 A. M., which is said to be an all-time early opening record for a first-run Broadway theatre, and all seats and available standing room inside the 3,664-seat house had been sold by 9 o’clock. Police reported that they had to extinguish two bonfires started by shivering customers, who had arrived at 5 o’clock.

When the Goodman band appeared on the stage the audience, composed in the main of high school students, roared a hearty greeting and couples danced in the aisles. The more venturesome swarmed up on the stage and gave impromptu exhibitions of the shag and other swing tempo dances. As a precautionary measure the doors of the Paramount will open this morning and tomorrow morning at 7:30.