Uptown Theatre
53 S. Main Street,
Salt Lake City,
UT
84101
53 S. Main Street,
Salt Lake City,
UT
84101
1 person
favorited this theater
Opened as the Empress Theatre, it was later renamed the Paramount Empress Theatre, Paramount Theatre, and finally Uptown Theatre.
The theatre was demolished to make way for the ZCMI Center shopping mall. Because of concerns from the mall’s owner, LDS Church, about the showing of R-rated movies, a new theatre was not built to replace the Uptown Theatre. The mall is also closed on Sundays.
Contributed by
Grant Smith
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
Here are some photos of the former Uptown Theater in Salt Lake City. Click on photos to enlarge.
The ZCMI Center is being demolished, as far as I know, in the big downtown re-do that the LDS Church is doing.
This is a photo of the Empress Theater at 53 South Main Street. Date given for photo is January 14, 1913.
Here is an article about the demise of the Uptown. Date is 7/21/71:
http://tinyurl.com/6zjx5r
Here are some photos of the Empress:
1911 interior view
1911 exterior view
1911 Interior view 2
1912 exterior view
1913 rear of building
On October 2, 1941, the Salt Lake Tribune announced that extensive remodeling would be going on at the old Paramount, which had been purchased by Joseph L. Lawrence Theatres. The previous owner was Intermountain Theatres, a division of Paramount Pictures and after the purchase the Paramount would be renamed the Paramont,
The Paramont grand opening was held on November 20, 1941, with Bette Davis in “The Little Foxes.†On July 23, 1942, Lawrence Theatres ran an ad that said: “It was the desire of Mr. Joseph L. Lawrence, General Manager of the Joseph L. Lawrence Theatres and operator of the PARAMONT THEATRE to maintain this upper Main Street theatre as the landmark it has been in Salt Lake City for the past 26 years. However Paramount Picture, Inc., of New York City, and
Its wholly owned subsidiary company, Intermountain Theatres Inc., through the Federal District Court, have caused to restrain the local Paramont-Salt Lake Theatre Company from using the name “Paramount” or any similar word upon the location at 53 South Main Street. Therefore, effective Thursday, July 23rd, the PARAMONT will be known to theatre patrons as UPTOWN.â€
Other Lawrence Theatres in Salt Lake in 1941 were the Rialto, State and South-East (the Villa came in 1949); the Murray and Iris in Murray; the Holladay in Holladay; and the New Academy in Provo. The Idaho State historical Society’s oral history project has a reference to them having a contract to manage the Star and Mayfair in Weiser, Idaho for A.C. Gordon.
Marcus Loew’s taken it over on September 11th, 1914
ad is at View link
The ad that ronp mentioned on June 6th, 2009 can be seen at View link
The Uptown can be seen in this night shot circa 1950s:
http://tinyurl.com/y9z9b8j
Henry Fonda had a nice run with “THE MAN WHO UNDERSTOOD WOMEN” here at the UPTOWN in October of 1959.