Gaumont Palace

3 rue Caulaincourt,
Paris 75018

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Gaumont France

Architects: Auguste Bahrmann, Henri Belloc, M. Georges Peynet

Styles: Art Deco

Previous Names: Hippodrome Theatre, Hippodrome Grand Cinema du Monde, Hippo-Palace

Nearby Theaters

procenioum before cinerama

The Gaumont Palace was the largest movie theatre in Europe. It was located at 3 Rue Caulaincourt at the corner of Rue Forest and was a re-construction of the Hippodrome Theatre (1900) which had 5,500 seats and had been designed by architect Auguste Bahrmann. The Hippodrome Theatre was taken over by Leon Gaumont and re-opened as a cinema on 14th December 1907 as the Hippodrome Grand Cinema du Monde, soon known as the Hippo-Palace.

Another re-construction of the Hippodrome took place in 1930 when architect Henri Belloc created a fantastic super cinema in an Art Deco style, named Gaumont Palace. Seating was provided for 6,420 in orchestra and two balcony levels. It was equipped with a British made Christie 4Manual/15Ranks theatre organ. It opened on June 17, 1931 with “Tabou”.

The cinema was renovated in early-1954 to the plans of architect Georges Peynet and the exterior was renovated later that year. It was converted into a 3-strip Cinerama theatre from 17th September 1963 until 13th October 1964, after which it was a 70mm cinema. The final weeks saw sold out concerts by Frank Zappa and The Beach Boys. The Gaumont Palace closed on 31st March 1972 following a week’s run of John Wayne in “The Cowboys”, presented in 70mm.

It was demolished in early-1973. The famous Christie pipe organ was removed at the last moment before demolition and is now in a suburb of Paris. Today the Mercure Hotel, part of the Ibis Hotels Group stands on the site.

Contributed by Xavier Delamare

Recent comments (view all 14 comments)

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on August 21, 2006 at 4:28 pm

Historic photo from early 20th Century:
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Roloff
Roloff on March 23, 2007 at 7:51 am

I have an old postcard that I’ve scanned and put in my flickrstream: View link

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on December 3, 2007 at 3:15 pm

Scroll down to page 13 for vintage photo of organ console on stage in this theater:
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MarmadukeJinks
MarmadukeJinks on October 27, 2008 at 6:53 am

I’ve written about this cinema on my blog(http://parisisinvisible.blogspot.com/2008/10/prince-and-pauper.html), comparing the previous pictures found here with current pictures I took of what is there today. I wasn’t sure who to credit for the archive pictures so apologies to anybody who thinks they should have been credited.

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on April 14, 2009 at 6:36 am

Photo my father took circa 1955. (My scan of the slide)
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HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on November 29, 2009 at 3:26 pm

A cool BW photo that somebody posted recently:
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kmedeiros
kmedeiros on January 12, 2012 at 1:41 pm

My son found a original movie tix from this theater for King Kong in 1933. I was wondering if it is worth anything? If so does anyone know where I could sell it?

execelsior
execelsior on October 8, 2014 at 6:49 pm

I remember this cinema well and I also remember it being demolished. Tragic loss.

Randinius
Randinius on May 20, 2018 at 6:29 am

The Gaumont Palace was featured in all but the last of Francois Truffaut’s famous “Antoine Doinel” series of features, beginning with “The 400 Blows” and ending with “Bed and Board”, in which the film playing there is “Cheyenne Autumn”. (Available as a group from Netflix) in fact, young Doinel’s first apartment is located in the front if the building just across the street to the left. Alas, none of the TV interviews with the director pointed this out or inquired about the fact. Did he consider making greater use of the theatre itself?

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