Paramount Theatre
323 W. 6th Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
323 W. 6th Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
19 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 127 comments
I have an old pinback with the name of M.J. Benjamin – Paramount Theatre Building – Room or office number 514. Can anyone shed light on who this may have been? A vendor, salesperson etc. I can provide a scan. Thanks for any info,
Andy
Sid forgives you.
Sorry folks, in the previous message I meant to say, I don’t think it can be OVERSTATED about Sid…
I don’t think it can be understated about Sid Grauman: the man REALLY knew what he was doing! His excellent taste, his eye for detail, and his mission to elevate his audience into a higher quality bracket were all high water marks in the history of showmanship. Those are things that make the Metropolitan such a stunner.
Loyal fans, keep those photos coming, however obscure!
I knew you wouldn’t let me down. Here is a picture from 1926:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044405.jpg
This is the order in which Sid Grauman acquired his theatres in Los Angeles: The Million Dollar was opened in 1918. In 1919, he acquired Quinn’s Rialto and had it remodeled (by William Woolett, architect of the Million Dollar and the Metropolitan.) In 1922, he opened the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The Metropolitan opened in 1923. The Chinese was the last of his Los Angeles area theatres, opening in 1927.
Los Angeles grew rapidly during this period, the populations of both the city and the metropolitan area just about doubling in the decade before the onset of the depression in 1930. Financing was easily acquired for all sorts of building projects, and the tremendous popularity of both vaudeville and movies made big theatres a very profitable investment at the time.
Did Sid Grauman build the Million Dollar, the Chinese, the Egyptian and the Metropolitan all at the same time? Wasn’t this shortly before the Depression? I wonder how he managed the financing.
From the 1930s:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics17/00008074.jpg
The Paramount/Metropolitan is the kind of theatre that only gets more intriguing the more one learns about it. The picture links above are totally fascinating. More would be very welcome, if anyone knows of any.
Does anyone know why Sid Grauman sold out so soon after it was built? Perhaps to fund the later Chinese?
William Lee Woollett’s design is fantastic, savage, bizarre, intimidating, legendary, and totally wonderful. I’m delighted to learn that the old babe gave its demolishers a hell of a time in ‘63. Reminds me of when the Orpheum in Seattle was razed, which took a very long time, so well built was it.
One more of the marquee:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015539.jpg
More photos from the LA Library:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015140.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015141.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015143.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015144.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015145.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015147.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015149.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015152.jpg
CALLING ALL THEATRE / MOVIE ENTHUSIASTS!!!
T'he Los Angeles Theatre' on South Broadway, LA is playing host to the UK television show ‘Dead Famous LIVE’. We are currently looking for people who would like to come along as part of the studio audience.
‘Dead Famous LIVE’ is a studio entertainment show all about Hollywood History and the paranormal. We will be welcoming celebrity guests on to the show and investigating famous locations around Hollywood which are rumoured to be haunted including the Los Angeles Theatre itself.
This is an invaluable chance to get access to the Los Angeles Theatre, the place where Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’ premiered in 1931 and to have a thoroughly great day out! (And its free!!)
We’re transmitting ‘Live’ back to the United Kingdom so expect it to be exciting and fun!
We will be filming on three days from 11th – 13th November between 11.30am – 4pm. If you are interested in coming on one or all of these days then email me for tickets!
.uk
I look forward to your responses!
View link
View link
Courtesy of the LA Library:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics39/00039481.jpg
The projectionist at this theatre from the day it opened in 1923 as Grauman’s Metropolitan until the day it closed was Earl C. Hamilton (1887-1989) It’s not a lot of guys that you’ll meet who can say they were too old for both WW1 and WW2!
The story is true that the Paramount Theatre (Metropolitan) Downtown Los Angeles was so well-built that the demolition company did go out of business tearing it down. I remember a story my father told me about by in the Paramount Theatre during a earthquake, that the pillars that were next to the proscenium swayed alittle during the quake.
The story I heard (from the manager of the Long Beach Imperial Theater at the time) was that the Paramount was so well-built, that the demolition company went out of business tearing it down. And — they only tore it down to the street level in 1963, leaving it as a parking lot. When the property was redeveloped in 1980, the remaining Paramount basements still had to be dealt with.
After the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles was torn down a parking lot sat there for many years till that building that Joe Vogel just posted about.
I don’t know if the Metropolitan’s architectural style has a name, but it wasn’t Mission Revival. The exterior of the building was a simple form of art deco. Pictures I’ve seen of the interior of the auditorium reveal a strange melange of elements recalling both pre-Columbian Central America and the ancient near east, along with what might be taken as a sort of proto-zigzag modern. The massive cast-stone proscenium arch, with its angular segmentations, was particularly stunning.
I have been told that I was in this theater a couple of times when I was very young, but I have no memory of it. The only downtown theaters of which I have early memories are the Warner and the RKO Hillstreet. Many years later, when I began going downtown on my own, I returned to many of the theaters I had attended as a child. The Paramount was still open, but there never seemed to be anything playing that I wanted to see. In its last years, the theater seemed to have become exclusively the domain of “B” movies downtown. Had I known that the place was so soon to be demolished, I’d have gone anyway, just to get a look inside.
The marquee was an impressive sight, made all the more so by the narrowness of Sixth Street. It extended out nearly the entire width of the sidewalk, and the entrance lobby seemed like a cave carved into the side of a dim, narrow canyon, shaded on even the brightest days. It was quite the most dramatic spot on all of Sixth Street, with the hurrying crowds, the sound of rushing traffic and honking horns, and the smell of diesel bus fumes mingling with the scent of popcorn wafting out from the thickly carpeted lobby. I was astonished to find one day that the theater had been closed, and was to be demolished. The big movie palaces seemed so entrenched a part of Los Angeles in those days that it was inconceivable that they would ever be lost.
The building which eventually rose (or, more accurately, eventually squatted) on the site of L.A.’s most strikingly original downtown theater was an edifice designed for the wholesale jewelry trade- a surprisingly marginal use for a key location in a major city. The one amenity the new structure offers to the public is a pedestrian portico under which the destitute may huddle cheek by jowl with waiting bus patrons, while, running the length of the ceiling of the portico, there is a piece of public art consisting of a series of plastic tubes containing lights which change color, presumably to reflect the anxious moods evoked in the passing pedestrians by a streetscape at once both bland and vaguely hostile. It is no more than a city which would allow a monument such as the Parmamount to be razed deserves.
I have two photographs of my father, William Thompson, directing traffic on the corner in front of the Paramount Theatre. He joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1948. This photo is from 1949 as the movie “Tokoyo Joe” (with Humphrey Bogart) is on the marquee and the preview was to be at 8:30 that night. One of the photos shows incredible detail in artchitecture, store fronts, street lights, period clothing and hairstyles of pedestrians, automobiles. This particular photo shows both of the marquees at it is taken directly on the corner. I do not know who the photographer was or why they were taken. My father is no longer alive and I cannot ask him. The detailed photo is really a large negative. I need to have it developed. The other is a print. If I can find a place that can develope the negative, would you be interested in posting it on the website? It would honor my father and the bustling life the Paramount once knew. I am a member of the National Trust and an avid historic preservationist and I am appalled that this theatre was torn down. You can reach me at
Cynthia Thompson
The Metropolitan was the world’s first air-conditioned movie theater, as designed by Willis Carrier.
To see a 1953 photo of the Paramount Downtown’s final marquee (LA’s longest) go here: http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015540.jpg
To see a sad 1961 photo of the Paramount Downtown during demolition go here: http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015542.jpg
This theatre was located at 323 West 6th Street.
Before it was demolished in 1963, the Paramount Theatre Downtown had the longest marquee in the city. Today the Rialto Theatre at Broadway and 8th street has the logest marquee.
With the recent Warner release on DVD of “House of Wax”. You can see about 4 minutes of footage from the 24 hour “House of Wax” premiere. Yes, They held a round the clock series of premieres for the house. This theatre ran many 3D features during the 50’s like “House of Wax” , “Bwana Devil”….