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‘Premier music venue of the Far East’ once oozed glamor, notoriety
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SHANGHAI in the 1930s and 40s: The jazz age grooved, Art Deco flourished, and the nightlife scene pulsed in the resplendent halls of the Paramount, revered as the “premier music venue of the Far East.”
The venue’s roots harked back to the early 20s, when rapid urbanization around the Jing’an Temple turned the area into a nexus of glamor and culture.
The boss behind the Paramount, Gu Liancheng, was a wealthy merchant from Zhejiang Province. In 1931, Gu leased a piece of land at the intersection of Wanhangdu and Yuyuan roads, near Jing’an Temple. He raised 700,000 taels of silver in shares, and at the end of 1933, he built Paramount Hall.
The high-rise structure combined a hotel with shopping, entertainment and dining. Its top featured a Western-style round tower made of fiberglass, which, when night fell, glittered with neon lights like the moon and stars. The ground floor was leased to various businesses, including banks, barber shops and stores.
However, the most significant and famous parts of the building were its dance halls.
The second and third floors were entirely devoted to dance halls. A small hall provided a practice area for beginners. A medium-sized hall was available for institutional rental, and a large hall of more than 500 square meters was open to the public.
The dance floor was supported by the kind of spring steel plates used in automobiles, creating a sensation of swaying as the floor tilted under the weight of the dancers. This was Shanghai’s first professional dance hall equipped with a “spring floor.”
The “premier music venue of the Far East” achieved not only world-class materials standards but also was a showcase of management prowess.
The venue established an exclusive system for retaining dance hostesses. At the time, Shanghai’s dance hostesses were not bound to any specific dance hall; they could be seen at one venue one day and at another the next, which sometimes led to fierce competition for clients and at other times, a shortage of hostesses.
The Paramount addressed this by training its own team of dance hostesses, issuing them licenses and requiring them to work exclusively at the venue.
At the same time, it built a VIP system to court regular patrons. These patrons did not use cash within the venue but rather operated on a tab system. Whether hiring a dance hostess or making other in-venue purchases, everything was settled through dance tickets.
The Paramount held its grand opening on December 14, 1933, and quickly became the go-to for the city’s elite — dignitaries, socialites, tycoons, politicians and film stars.
Regular patrons included Kuomintang general Zhang Xueliang. The site hosted the engagement ceremony of Chen Xiangmei, also known as Anna Chennault, and American military aviator Claire Chennault. Even Charlie Chaplin and his wife visited the venue during a trip to Shanghai.
The turning point in the Paramount’s operations came after the Battle of Shanghai broke out in August 1937. Located at the intersection of the International Settlement, the French Concession and Chinese sections, the area was plunged into chaos by the war and became rife with rampant crime, leading foreigners to dub it “the bad land.”
The murder of dancer Chen Manli at the Paramount in 1940 stirred a media frenzy. And during Spring Festival a year later, the Paramount was one of eight dance halls in Shanghai targeted in bombing attacks.
In 1954, the Paramount closed due to severe financial losses. It was subsequently transformed into the Hongdu Theater, where movies were screened and various stage performances held, including Huju and Yueju operas.
Following China’s era of reform and opening-up to the outside world, which began in the late 1970s, the Paramount was given a new lease on life. In 1994, the Hongdu Theater was renamed the Paramount.
In 2002, the renovated Paramount dance hall reopened, with a renewed focus on diversity and modernity in its business philosophy.
From 2010, the main building underwent another restoration to preserve its historical character. In 2017, the Paramount reopened to the public as a dance venue once again.
The revived Paramount now operates from 2pm to midnight, featuring dining, dancing and performances.
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