Paramount Theatre
167 Main Street,
Brattleboro,
VT
05301
167 Main Street,
Brattleboro,
VT
05301
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I remember the auditorium being long and narrow, with ornamental pillars along the sidewalls and curtains between them, and a small shelf balcony in the back.
As stated on one of the photo captions, the original building was constructed in 1850. The 1885 Sanborn calls it the Williston Block. The old comment about the facade is wrong. It’s not brick, but granite. The original building ended about where the stone lintels stop in the alley. The 1919 map shows the area where the auditorium would be built partially occupied by a two story wooden grocery warehouse.
This opened on October 20th, 1937. Grand opening ad posted.
6 photos added. One from 1952 is particularly clear.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Paramount; it’s Card # 572. Address is “Main St.” There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Excellent. It says the theater opened 1937 and is not showing MGM product. 700 seats.
My grandfather was the first manager of the Paramount in Brattleboro in the late 1930s. His family was in Springfield, MA while he worked in Brattleboro. He later moved to Northampton, MA and managed the Calvin Theatre.
1940?? I had always thought the Paramount opened sometime in the 1920s, based on the decor, but my memory isn’t the best. At any rate, it’s a shame it’s gone.
From the 1950s a photo postcard view of the Paramount Theatre in Brattleboro.
I was here last week on a cycling trip. Yes, the bike shop is in front and the other lobby store is “Save the Corporations for Themselves” clothing store and there’s an elevator in the back with many offices upstairs. It feels modern and open now. The bottom floor’s facade is a grey stucco and the top floor is a grey brick, the left side is red brick with fire escapes.
The mural in the back has the theatre on fire with a fireman in the watch. The marquee says, “Nightly 7” and “Dances with Wolves”. The center of the mural has many rows of the auditorium seats and to the left another pic of the marquee that says, “The Fire April 30, 1991, 7&9”.
The only remaining interior artifacts are the movie poster cases along the outer lobby, now filled with bicycle posters. The bicycle shop is in the former lobby area. The auditorium portion was so badly burned it had to be gutted and has been converted to offices. One hall wall has a large mural depicting the fire. Some of the brick walls were left bare, showing the scorch marks from the fire.
Here is an undated photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2mdxo8
I managed this theater for a short time in 1973. We ran “American Graffiti” to packed houses. I still remember the laughter and footstomping to the music as it filled the theater.
This was a very beautiful little theater. It featured scenes along the walls that had small backlights. It also had an effects machine so that we could make “clouds” move across the ceiling and when the lights were dimmed, stars filled the night sky.
There was also an old organ in the pit at the foot of the stage.
At that time, the theater was owned by Western Mass Theater Associates, under the management of Nelson Wright Enterprises.
The Paramount in Brattleboro is listed in the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac as being part of Western Massachusetts Theatres of Springfield, run by well-known exhibitor, Nathan Goldstein. At the time, the Paramount was the only WM movie theatre in Vermont.
The Paramount had fairly restrained, classical type decorations in its long, narrow auditorium, columns down the sides with brown curtains in betwen. Decorations were fairly attractive. There was a shallow balcony at the back, which seemed unusual for a theater this narrow. Was sad that it was destroyed, it continued showing first run movies right to the end. The front has had the red facing and marque removed showing the original beige stone front, and the Paramount sign is removed from the cornice. The main shell of the building is otherwise intact, but the interior is all new.