Robert Weitman, 84; Innovator in Era of Big Bands

Robert M. Weitman, a retired film studio executive credited with instituting the Big Band policy at the Paramount Theater in New York City where Frank Sinatra first took the nation by storm, died Friday in his sleep. He was 84 and lived in Trousdale Estates.

Born in New York City, Weitman was graduated from Cornell University and joined the Paramount Managers Training School. He was assigned to various theaters in Manhattan before becoming managing director of Paramount’s flagship Times Square film house in 1935.

During his tenure the theater introduced a policy of displaying the Big Bands of the day, among them the Tommy Dorsey band with Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Harry James and others.

Later he became vice president of the Paramount houses in the South and after the theaters and studios were forced into separate ownership by legal decree in 1949, became a vice president of program and talent development for American Broadcasting Theater Corp. with responsibility for about 1,500 houses.

He went to work for CBS television as a program developer in 1956, MGM-TV in 1960 and then became vice president in charge of production for all of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1962.

He moved to Columbia in 1967 and two years later formed his own production company. His films included “The Anderson Tapes” and “Shamus.”

Survivors include his wife, Sylvia, two daughters and four grandchildren. Services are scheduled today in New York City.