Paramount Theatre

The proposed office tower at 6th and Hill, designed by Chuck Luckman, (this might have been his very first solo project after dissolving his partnership with Bill Periera) would have been the tallest building in Los Angeles at that time, had it been built. The Paramount was razed specifically to make way for the office development, but the deal did indeed fall through and the site was used as a parking lot for years, until the Jewelry Center was finally built there. It’s possible that one of the reasons the deal fell through was because of the unforeseen delays in the demolition of William Woolett’s rock-solid building. I’d like to think that it was.

Here is a 1926 photo from the USC archive:
http://tinyurl.com/jvgch

Here is a re-post of the 1925 photo showing the Grauman’s sign, as the link has expired:
http://tinyurl.com/q2ht5

The Paramount Downtown was a well built theatre. That the demolition company lost money and later went out of business because it was a far bigger job than they had planned or could handle.

In 1978 there was a story in the Downtown Los Angeles News about a construction company that had difficulties breaking up these huge bell shaped concrete foundation casings that were found fifty feet down after digging up a parking lot so that an office tower could be built on the site. The concrete casings were finally blasted apart with explosives. Could that have been the former site of the Paramount theatre or was it the former site of the Sunkist building on West 5th at Flower? I’m confusing the two locations because both were being developed at the same time and it happened so long ago.

Here is a photo of the Hill Street entrance. This had me fooled for a while as I didn’t realize the theater had three entrances at one time or another. William’s post above mentions the Hill Street entrance:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011006.jpg

Here is another USC photo looking north on Broadway:
http://tinyurl.com/nchzj

I read your comment above after I posted that. No slight was intended to your fine recap of the theater’s history. I originally posted the USC photo on the Broadway theater page. That’s where Ken Roe mentioned the Broadway entrance. Apologies for my oversight.

Here is another photo from 1926 that shows the marquee on Broadway:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059101.jpg

This is a photo of the Broadway entrance, which Ken Roe has said existed from only 1923 to 1929:
http://tinyurl.com/jua7f

The Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre opened on Jan. 26th, 1923. It featured a Wurlitzer 4/32, style 285, opus 534 organ. From it’s opening till 1929 this theatre also featured 3 marquees. The main marquee was located on Sixth Street a second was located on the Hill Street side and one at the long forgotten Broadway entrance. The Broadway entrance was developed and remained in use only till 1929. If you entered the Broadway lobby the patrons were brought to the mezzanine via a bridge over the alley on the east side of the theatre. Not many theatres in 1923 could boast of an escalator. Sid Grauman sold his interest in his Downtown theatres to Paramount Pictures in July of 1924. Upon renaming the theatre Paramount, they refitted the marquees with light bulbs and in the early 1930’s Fanchon & Marco took over management of the theatre. Soon after they took over management they had the marquee and vertical signage restyled in neon. After the Fanchon & Marco term finished in the early 50’s the Downtown Paramount Theatre was given a remodel. During this remodel the Paramount received a total make-over. Everything in the loby and mezzanine got hidden behind dropped ceilings or got painted over. The auditorium received a repainting scheme of Red and White. During the theatres final years the chain trashed the theatre with poor bookings till the end.
The auditorium had a depth of 135 feet, a width of 125 feet and a height of 78 feet to the trusses. The working stage opening was 52 feet by 32 feet.

For some reason, my E-mail address doesn’t display on my user info page here (I thought it did.) I don’t know how secure Cinema Treasures message board pages are from address-collecting bots, so I don’t want to post it here. You can use the E-mail address I have posted on this page at LiveJournal.

andypcl: The Paramount Theatre Building in Los Angeles was just an ordinary office building wrapped around two sides of the theatre. I don’t know if the Paramount Theatre Circuit had any offices of its own in the building or not. The company’s headquarters was in the New York City Paramount Building.

There were other office buildings connected to other Paramount Theatres in other cities, too— Oakland and Palm Beach (though the last only had two floors, so wouldn’t have had a room 514), that I know of for sure, and there were probably many others. Unless your object specifically names the Paramount Theatre Building in Los Angeles, Mr. Benjamin’s office might have been in some other city.