Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

I love the vertical marquee and the lobby of the Portland. I was very dissapointed in the auditorium. It was painted one color and not the original colors. This theatre was renovated and not restored. This is the last picture palace left in downtown Portland. Three movie theatres were torn down in the 1990's including the Fox. Portland has the nerve to call it a theatre disrict. brucec

The Paramount's address is 1037 SW Broadway .

Part of the history of a great movie theater is the films that played there. Listed below are most films which played at the Paramount Theater in Portland, Oregon from 1960-1970. The dates listed are all Wedenesdays of the week the film opened, as in those days, most new films started on a Wednesday instead of Fridays as they do now. Research is from microfilms of The Portland Oregonian (1964-68) and Variety (1960-70).
12/16/59 L'il Abner/Counterplot
01/06/60 Happy Anniversary/Timbuktu
01/13/60 The Wreck of the Mary Deare/Libel
01/20/60 The Amazing Transparent Man/Get Outta Town
01/27/60 Samson and Delilah/Ulysses
02/10/60 On the Beach
03/30/60 Heller in Pink Tights/A Touch of Larceny
04/06/60 Visit to a Small Planet/Circus Stars
04/20/60 The Bridges of Toko-Ri/The Country Girl
04/27/60 House of Intrigue/Web of Evidence
05/04/60 The Fugitive Kind/The Music Box Kid
05/18/60 Kidnapped/In the Money
05/25/60 The Gallant Hours/The Boy and the Pirates
06/01/60 Five Branded Women/Walk Like a Dragon
06/08/60 The Angry Red Planet/The Plunderers of Painted Flats
06/15/60 Macumba Love/Take a Giant Step
06/22/60 Circus of Horrors/The Fighting Wildcats
06/29/60 The Apartment/Gunfighters of Abilene
07/13/60 The Bellboy/Tarzan the Magnificent
07/27/60 The Rat Race/Chance Meeting
08/10/60 STAGE SHOW
08/17/60 Elmer Gantry/Cage of Evil
08/31/60 It Started in Naples/Prisoner of the Volga
09/07/60 All the Fine Young Cannibals/Davy
09/14/60 Private Property/A Question of Infidelity
09/21/60 JOHNNY MATHIS/VICTOR BORGE CONCERTS
09/28/60 Under 10 Flags/The Boy Who Stole a Million
10/05/60 For Members Only/Mating Time
10/19/60 Heroes Die Young/Sex Kittens Go to College
10/26/60 Dial M for Murder/Strangers on a Train
11/02/60 Ten Who Dared/The Hong Kong Affair
11/16/60 A Breath of Scandal/New Orleans After Dark
11/23/60 G. I. Blues/Legion of the Doomed
12/14/60 Cinderfella/Police Dog Story
12/28/60 The Facts of Life/Operation Bottleneck
01/18/61 Swiss Family Robinson/Mysteries of the Deep
02/22/61 The Misfits/Frontier Uprising
03/08/61 The World of Suzie Wong
04/05/61 All in a Night's Work/Blueprint for Robbery
04/12/61 The Absent-Minded Professor
05/31/61 Vera Cruz/Apache
06/07/61 Look in Any Window/Unwed Mother
06/14/61 One-Eyed Jacks/Foxhole in Cairo
06/28/61 By Love Possessed/The Cat Burglar
07/12/61 The Ladies Man//Night Ambush
07/26/61 STAGE SHOW
08/09/61 Nikki--Wild Dog of the North/Dondi
08/16/61 On the Double/Deadly Companions
08/23/61 Not Tonight, Henry/Next to No Time
09/20/61 Armored Command/The Serengeti Shall Not Die
09/27/61 Question 7
10/04/61 The Lovers*/Not Tonight, Henry/Blond Blackmailer
*seized by the law
10/11/61 Paris Blues/The Flight That Disappeared
10/18/61 Greyfriar's Bobby/The Boy Who Caught a Crook
10/25/61 The Lovers (returned after winning legal challenge)
11/22/61 Blue Hawaii/It Takes a Thief
12/06/61 STAGE SHOW
12/13/61 The Train/Blonde Sinner
12/20/61 Pocketful of Miracles
01/17/62 The Happy Thieves/Deadly Duo
01/24/62 Siege of Syracuse/Hey, Let's Twist!
01/31/62 Flight of the Lost Balloon/The Day the Sky Exploded
02/07/62 Qustion 7
02/14/62 Too Late Blues/Lost Battalion
02/21/62 Sergeants 3/Hell Drivers
03/07/62 Pinocchio
03/28/62 Knights of the Round Table/Ivanhoe
04/04/62 The Outsider/Blast of Silence
04/11/62 Splendor in the Grass/Fanny
04/18/62 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence/Brushfire
05/09/62 King of Kings (popscale)
05/23/62 The Rose Tattoo/The Proud & the Profane
05/30/62 Escape from Zahrain/The Matchmaker
06/13/62 Big Red/The Living Desert
06/27/62 The Road to Hong Kong/The Nun and the Sergeant
07/18/62 My Geisha/Air Patrol
07/25/62 The Delicate Delinquent/The Sad Sack
08/01/62 STAGE SHOW
08/15/62 Hatari/Safe at Home
09/05/62 Tales of Terror/The Dead One
09/12/62 Tarzan Goes to India/The Tartars
09/19/62 Karamoija/Ritual of Love
09/26/62 Convicts 4/The Frightened City
10/03/62 Pressure Point/Summer of the 17th Doll (Season of Passion)
10/10/62 Almost Angels/Lady and the Tramp
10/31/62 The Manchurian Candidate/The Valiant
11/21/62 Girls! Girls! Girls!/Story of the Count of Monte Cristo
12/05/62 Portrait of a Sinner/Playgirl After Dark
12/19/62 In Search of the Castaways
01/23/63 The Longest Day
04/10/63 The Miracle of the White Stallions/The Brave One
04/24/63 I Could Go on Singing/Mary Had a Little
05/01/63 The Hook/Escape from East Berlin
05/08/63 Hercules and the Captive Women/Battle Beyond the Sun
05/15/63 Mondo Cane/Stark Fear
05/22/63 In the Cool of the Day/Rififi in Tokyo
05/29/63 Dr. No/Five Miles to Midnight
06/05/63 Poor White Trash/Cash McCall
06/12/63 Call Me Bwana/Hero's Island
06/26/63 Cleopatra
03/18/64 Wuthering Heights/Our Very Own
03/25/64 The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao/Flipper
04/01/64 God's Little Acre/I Want to Live
04/08/64 Mail Order Bride
04/15/64 Voodoo Village/Girls of the Night
04/22/64 Night Must Fall/Murder at the Gallop
04/29/64 Act One/Gypsy
05/06/64 Advance to the Rear/The Defiant Ones
05/13/64 The Best Man/The Bramble Bush
05/20/64 The Horror of Party Beach/Curse of the Living Corpse
05/27/64 Rhino!/The Golden Arrow
06/03/64 Witches' Curse/The Flesh-Eaters
06/10/64 The Three Lives of Thomasina
07/01/64 The Unsinkable Molly Brown
09/16/64 Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
11/11/64 STAGE SHOW
11/18/64 My Fair Lady
10/06/65 Mary Poppins (why did this take so long to open in
Portland?)
02/09/66 The Great Race
03/02/66 Made in Paris/The Hill
03/23/66 The Spy With My Face/To Trap a Spy
04/06/66 Doctor Zhivago
02/15/67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (another film that opened
way late in Portland - why?)
03/15/67 The Mikado (3/15-16 only)
05/10/67 Hawaii
11/15/67 Camelot
06/05/68 War and Peace
06/12/68 Speedway/Day of the Evil Gun
07/03/68 The Odd Couple
11/20/68 Funny Girl
05/28/69 A Fine Pair/Twisted Nerve
06/04/69 Baby Love/A Bullet for the General
06/11/69 Fraulein Doktor/Waterhole #3
06/18/69 My Side of the Mountain/Hello, Down There
06/25/69 True Grit/Where's Jack?
08/27/69 Stiletto/Woman Times Seven
09/17/69 Sweden, Heaven, and Hell/Deadly Sweet
10/01/69 The Italian Job/Ace High
10/08/69 Blow-Up/Lolita
10/22/69 Mondo Hollywood/The Devil's Mistress
10/29/69 Paint Your Wagon
05/27/70 The Adventurers
07/08/70 The Out-of-Towners/Norwood
09/16/70 Cherry, Harry, and Raquel
09/30/70 The ABCs of Marriage
10/14/70 Diary of a Mad Housewife

Films from 1971-1975 will be posted as soon as research has been completed.

Are you sure about the original name of "Portland Public Theatre?" It was built by Paramount-Publix, and I thought it first opened as the Paramount Theatre, but I could be wrong. However, "Public" was almost certainly spelled "Publix" if that word figured in the name.

I recall a news report when the old Paramount vertical sign was taken down so that it could be used as the basis for the replacement Portland vertical sign, the Paramount sign was so heavy that it caused damage to the sign company's crane.

The "Paramount" did if fact open as the Portland Publix. The name change to Paramount came only a few months later as Paramount studios started to rename their theatre to Paramont. This happened all over the country, not just in Portland.

It should be mentioned that 70mm equiment was install for the roadshow of Cleopatra and many of the films you listed above were sold on a hard ticket basis including My Fair Lady, Funny Girl, Paint Your Wagaon, Dr Zhavago and I believe Camolet.

Concerning the timeline of this theater as a concert venue, The Grateful Dead performed here on 7/26/72.

At that time (1972) I was working at the Paramount. Several concerts played there around that time including the BeeGees, Captain Beefhart and the touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar among others. The theater was still primarily a film venue with a concert about once or twice a month. The last major film to play there was the 70mm run of Ryan's Daughter. After that there was a string of horror and black explotation flicks which lasted a few more months.

There were originally 3,036 seats. It had an organ which was a 4/20 Publix 1 opus 1831 similar to the Seattle Paramount Wurlitzer. The instrument was shipped from the factory in January 1928 and the installation was supervised by Wurlitzer employee Harry E. Carruthers.

The theater opened on Thursday March 8, 1928 at 7:00pm. Liborius Hauptmann directed the Portland Grand Orchestra in selections from Faust. Following the overture came a short novelty film and the Paramount News. As the velvet curtain closed, a white spotlight caught the ivory and gold Wurlitzer as it rose from the pit with Ralph Hamilton playing "Organs I Have Played." After the console had slowly sunk from sight, Alex Hyde and the Portland Stage Band appeared to accompany "A Merry Widow Revue" direct from the New York Paramount Theatre and produced by Frank Cambria. This revue consisted of six acts... then the curtains opened on the feature picture which was "Feel My Pulse," starring Bebe Daniels, William Powell, and Richard Arlen.

The Portland Theatre was designed by C.W. and George Rapp and was built by the Association of Publix and Loew under the direction of West Coast Theatres. After about a year, the theatre was renamed the Paramount. The Wurlitzer console was presided over by such well-known artists as Oliver Wallace, Stanleigh Mallotte, and the popular team of Don and Iris Wilkins, among others. As a matter of fact, the organ was used regularly well into the 1930's.

The Paramount Theatre building still exists and was acquired by the City of Portland in the early 1980s. After extensive refurbishing, it reopened in 1984 as the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, home of the Oregon Symphony. The City owns the building which is part of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. The marquee was restored to the original theatre name: "Portland."

Just an FYI. This information was taken from http://www.pstos.org/instruments/or/portland/paramount.htm

From the Oregon Historical Society:
http://www.ohs.org/collections/library/images/bb000873.jpg
http://www.ohs.org/collections/library/images/10183879.jpg

My images of the PORTLAND THEATER
www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/264542295
www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/264542294

Added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1976

Paramount Theatre *** (added 1976 - Building - #76001585)
Also known as Portland Public Theatre
1037 SW Broadway, Portland
Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Rapp & Rapp
Architectural Style: Other
Area of Significance: Architecture
Period of Significance: 1925-1949
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Theater
Current Function: Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function: Auditorium

Here is a 2007 photo of the Portland Theater.

It's wonderful that it was saved. I believe it's the last remaining movie palace left in Portland, which once had its fair share of them.

Unfortunately, the exuberant colorful decoration indicated in the BW shots linked above (shoeshoe14, Aug. 23, 2005) has been brought to its knees by hundreds of gallons of beige paint. This paint could be scraped off some day, and I hope it is. But for now the place is a monument to misguided "good taste."

Unfortunately, Monica, the interior already looked like that when I last visited the theatre in 1987, so more layers of beige paint have probably been applied in the twenty years since.

Warren, yes. You are surely correct. The beige went on when the city took the place over in the mid 80s. I worked at The Oregonian a block up Broadway. I last saw the theatre in 1988. I'm sure they've gone in by now with even more beige to touch up the wear and tear.

I have a few dim memories of the place before they subdued it. Its colors were just raucous in places, and in all ways different from what exists today (except for the stonework). I hope to hell that someone made a good color inventory, and took pictures, before they powered up the spray guns. It deserved at least that much respect.

Another recent photo of the Portland Theater can be seen here.

This is a 2008 close-up view of the marquee.

This photo of the Portland Theater might be one of the two links (now expired) that Ken MC posted on Jan 9, 2006.

Here is a March 1966 ticket to see Bob Dylan at the Paramount. No refunds.

A November 2008 photo is here.

The date given for this photo is March 24, 1982.

This is the longest of long-shots. As you can see from the post by Ron3853 above, on 09/17/69 a movie called DEADLY SWEET opened at the Paramount. I am doing research on this obscure movie, and am hoping against hope to find someone who saw it at the Paramount. If you saw it, or if you know someone who did, or if you could trace down someone who did, I would really like to hear from you. You may read my essay on the movie at http://rjbuffalo.com/1967a-he.html
Many thanks!
Ciao!
LHL12
busterktn@gmail.com

1969 photo of the Paramount Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c37%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=32754
1973 night photo of the Paramount Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c37%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=32755
Another 1973 night photo of the Paramount Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c37%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=6&catpagesize=25&ProductID=32756
1971 photo of the Paramount Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c37%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=32757

1982 photo of the Paramount Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c37%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=32758
Another 1982 photo of the Paramount Theatre.
Box office & front entrance.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c37%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=6&catpagesize=25&ProductID=32759

Here is a 2009 photo.

Thanks for the photos.

This is another nice 2009 photo.

Is that the original vertical sign or a reproduction?

The vertical sign is a reproduction, dating to 1982, according to the new book by Gary Lacher, Theatres of Portland. It is really stunning, particularly at night. The original said PORTLAND, was later relettered PARAMOUNT, and the replica was created to look like the sign as originally lettered.

Thanks for the info.

I agree that it is a very nice job.