Liberty-Paramount Information

[Jaime Hughes]

Don't shoot the messenger. This is what I had heard from some very important and reliable people in the area. All I have to say is take this with a grain of salt.

[Towntalk]

Paul posted a message at CinemaTreasures. Here's his post:

Thank you, "State Theatre" for your kind words. We can be civil here. Gossip is always fun to read. Here is the truth. For the record, no one from Grande Venues or USA Parking or affiliated companies, including Paul Warshauer, Jon Tharnstrom, Lou Frangos, David Vosburgh, Allison DeVito or anyone else has agreed to "button up the theatre." We did recently have problems with vandals and some pesky tresspassers who left a mess, cut locks, and pried open doors. We got nasty notes from the city but no offer to assist us. We are still evaluating the probability of success with feasibility studies. A movie theatre in the balcony, and a live theatre on the first floor with bar and restaurant in the basement looks promising. If you LIKE the idea, call the Mayor's office, and anyone else and TELL them you wan the theate restored. We need a roof ($44,000) and temporary electric and plumbing ($15,000) right away if the theatre is to be saved. The public really has not stepped forward to help us. We tried to get the Youngstown Arts Council to "stay alive" but they voted to disband instead! Now we need a NEW 501c3 to form to help us. Any takers? Contact local officials!
posted by Paul Warshauer on May 5, 2007 at 11:17pm

[northside lurker]

I recently heard from a reliable source, who is also a professor at YSU and a passionate Youngstown enthusiast, that Grande Venues has given up on the Liberty-Paramount finally making the assessment that it was not "economically feasable" to completely restore.
Lou Frangos has verbally committed to "buttoning up the facade, and putting on a new roof." But that was all he was willing to do I assume.

That's unfortunate.  But, like you said, not completely unexpected.  Hopefully they'll follow through with "buttoning up the facade" (I wonder what that means) and the new roof.  Since they own the building, I wonder how they will get rid of it?

It has also been said that the President of GVI has moved to Nebraska?

Do you have an official source for this?  The only evidence I've seen of this is a Craigslist.org listing for help to move Paul--and his office--to Nebraska.  I don't use Craigslist, but it seems very possible that one of the many people who don't like Paul could have put the ad on-line to make him look bad.(even worse)

Tell me what you all think..did anyone see this happening? What do you think will become of that building since they are not restoring the interior?

I don't know what will happen to that building.  I was in it recently, and there isn't anything to restore.  Although, I think there are enough fragments of the original interior that it could be recreated.  The structure also appears to be sound.  So, unless someone has a solid plan for a replacement building for the site, I don't want to see the Paramount demolished.

[Jaime Hughes]

I agree with you whole heartedly. We had a similiar problem with the "SAVE THE STATE THEATRE" campaign.

My main concern with the Liberty Paramount Project was, I didn't want people giving money to something that would never happen. Paul has a very long line of mishaps and I did not want to see our people get robbed.


Recently, Youngstown was on the cover of the wall street journal for our 2010 project. I feel that is such an honor and I hope to see 2010 get bigger and bigger as time goes on. I fully support everything that Mayor Williams, Youngstown enthusiasts, 2010 supporters and many grassroots organizations are doing for our city.

[Towntalk]

This  comes as no great surprise, and with this news, I hope ... nay I pray ... that the city will finally do what it should have done five years ago and tear that building down.

Oh to be sure, there will be rivers of tears pour out of the eyes of those who want to save it [with other people's money], but I have absolutely no sympathy for them ... none whatever.

Where were they five or ten years ago when the building was in better shape than it is now ... they were talking the talk, but they had huge padlocks on their pocketbooks.

That is the whole trouble with folks here in Youngstown ... they have big dreams ... but when it comes right down to putting their money where their mouths are ... forget it Jack.

The same goes for the dilapidated housing stock that some folks want to save ... rehab, but not with my money.

The people that bash Jay Williams and the 2010 program make me sick! They expect the tax payers to foot the bill for their wild schemes, but they will not go out and practice what they preach. It takes out of towner's to come in and risk their life savings to try to save some of the buildings, and that is a crying shame.

Oh to be sure, there are a very small hand fill of locals who are trying to do their part, but then they are not constantly carping about the efforts of the city, the University and the 2010 folks to make something of Youngstown that we can be truly proud of.

[Jaime Hughes]

I recently heard from a reliable source, who is also a professor at YSU and a passionate Youngstown enthusiast, that Grande Venues has given up on the Liberty-Paramount finally making the assessment that it was not "economically feasable" to completely restore.

Lou Frangos has verbally committed to "buttoning up the facade, and putting on a new roof." But that was all he was willing to do I assume.

It has also been said that the President of GVI has moved to Nebraska?

I've found a lot of websites reguarding GVI, if you'd like to see them please e-mail me at YoStateTheater@yahoo.com .


Tell me what you all think..did anyone see this happening? What do you think will become of that building since they are not restoring the interior?