Paramount Dining Car Company
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Paramount Dining Car Company was a manufacturer of stainless steel modular diners that was one of several such manufactures based in New Jersey.[1] The company, founded by Arthur E. Sieber, was originally based in Haledon, New Jersey, and later relocated its facilities to Oakland, New Jersey. Sieber was granted patent 2,247,893 by the United States Patent Office on July 1, 1941, for his design of a portable diner that could be built in parts and assembled at a separate location.[2][3]
Description
[edit]Diners built by the company include White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey and Jersey City, New Jersey. The Jersey City location was originally built by the company as a prototype that was used at the 1939 New York World's Fair and was then relocated to its site on Tonnelle Avenue (U.S. Route 1/9) after the fair was over.[4] The Jersey City White Mana, an "N" was lost on the sign and the name left with one "N" rather than two, was designated by the city as a local landmark in 1997 to ensure its preservation.[5]
Rosie's Diner is located in Rockford, Michigan, and was previously located at its original site on U.S. Route 46 in Little Ferry, New Jersey. The diner was constructed in the 1940s and was originally known as the Silver Dollar Diner. It was renamed after a series of commercials were filmed in the diner for Bounty paper towels with a fictional character named "Rosie the Waitress" played by actress Nancy Walker pitching the product as "the quicker picker-upper".[6][7]
Aetna Diner, located in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford, Connecticut, was built in 1947 by Paramount Diners and assembled on site in 1948, after the diner was shipped as three prefabricated stainless steel sections that were assembled on site. The diner was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ Gabriele, Michael C. "Classic Diners, Offering a Glimpse Into the Past, are True Jersey Gems", New Jersey Monthly, May 1, 2018. Accessed January 29, 2024. "Other Jersey manufacturers of that golden age included Fodero Dining Car Company (Bloomfield); Mountain View Diner Company (Singac/Little Falls); Swingle Diner Manufacturing Inc. (Middlesex); Paramount Dining Car Company (Haledon); and Manno Dining Car Company (Fairfield)."
- ^ Patent 2,247,893, Google Patents. Accessed January 29, 2024.
- ^ a b Registration Form" Aetna Diner, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed January 29, 2024. "The Aetna Diner is a prefabricated, stainless-steel diner located on its original site at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Laurel Street in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford, Connecticut. Paramount Dining Cars, Inc. manufactured this custom diner in their Haledon, New Jersey factory in 1947. Paramount utilized their patented prefabrication technique to manufacture the diner in three longitudinal sections known as cells, which were individually transported to Hartford in 1948."
- ^ Patrick, Kevin. North Jersey Diner Tour, Society for Commercial Archeology, September 26-27, 2015. Accessed January 29, 2024. "The White Manna in Hackensack, and the White Mana in Jersey City are the most famous little, white hamburger diners in the state.... They were both built by Paramount, which designed the circular Jersey City White Mana as a prototype displayed at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair..... The square Hackensack White Manna was the hamburger unit Paramount actually built, and sold after World War II to a new generation of grill men who brought fame to the little hamburgers un-officially but widely known as sliders."
- ^ The White Mana Diner, New Jersey City University Jersey City Past and Present. Accessed January 29, 2024. "The futuristic Art Deco-style White Mana Diner was made by Paramount Diners of Oakland, NJ, as was the White Manna Diner in Hackensack. Its founder Arthur E. Sieber began Paramount in Haledon, NJ, during the Depression.... On March 24, 1997, the Jersey City Historic Preservation Committee declared the diner a local landmark. The decision helps secure the preservation of the White Mana Diner and its signage from future developers and demolition."
- ^ Anderson, Elizabeth. "Remembering When Diners Were for More Than Just Eating", The New York Times, March 11, 1990. "Like Rosie's Farmland Diner of Little Ferry, known for its role in the Bounty paper-towel commercial and recently moved to Michigan, the Teamsters is a streamlined Paramount diner made in Haledon."
- ^ Burrow, Megan. "Rosie's Diner of Little Ferry won fame in '70s TV ads. How did it become a Michigan eyesore?", The Record, July 12, 2022. Accessed January 29, 2024. "Rosie’s Diner, once a gleaming, chrome-plated Little Ferry landmark made famous in paper towel commercials, now sits closed and decaying along a Michigan roadside. The diner, built in the 1940s by Paramount Diner Co. of Oakland, was a favorite stop among truckers and locals looking for a cup of coffee, a plate of goulash or a late-night cheeseburger. But it gained national fame when Procter & Gamble Co. chose it as the setting for its long-running Bounty commercials.... When Ralph 'Tex' Corrado opened Rosie's as the Silver Dollar Diner at the Route 46 Little Ferry traffic circle in 1945, it was one of many such eateries dotting the North Jersey landscape."