Paramount Theatre
1621 Glenarm Place,
Denver,
CO
80202
1621 Glenarm Place,
Denver,
CO
80202
9 people
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Showing 1 - 25 of 46 comments
Grand opening ad posted.
25+ minute video tour of the Paramount Theatre in Denver from 2017’s Doors Open Denver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSjuN-hggEc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2—7JJn1TqWl1iEfod6THcgUJNtdV_cpjgD4ED47v1lslmp2jjaGxheBI
1938 photo and copy added courtesy of The Denver Eye Facebook page.
Was once part of Wolfberg Theatres chain-this should be added to the previous operators.
Reading the comment from 2008 on aspect ratio’s, and have to say that CinemaScope is 2:35 to 1 while Flat is 1:85 to 1. That said scope is supposed to be much wider than flat. I have seen the use of maskings that make scope smaller. This is due to the lenses the theatre is using and their desire to provide the largest image all the time. Some theatre’s have non-moveable maskings and so the flat image fills the entire screen and scope is either cropped on the sides or full width but shorter in height. These are incorrect presentation practices. Both flat and scope should fill the screen top to bottom, but flat should have black maskings on the sides while scope should be much wider with the side maskings open. Unfortunately real showmanship is gone from most Theatres today.
Thanks, Chuck.
There’s a theater that’s not on the site which should be. A twin screen arthouse called “The Flicks at Larimer Square”, which I seem to remember being at the Northeast corner of Larimer and 15th St. It had large white windows with caricatures by Al Hirschfeld all over them. I saw many movies there, like “If”, “Performance”, “King of Hearts”, that sort of stuff. How can I add a theater to the site?
Love the interior photo that “lost memory” once posted…sure miss that CT member who gave so much of his time and theatre knowledge to CT!
Wasn’t “A Hard Day’s Night” shown at the Paramount? I seem to recall the line that was filled with many of us fans.
This brought “They Paved Paradise” to mind, looking over cars on the parking lot where the Denver Theatre once sat. Anyone remember the entrance to the “Edelweiss Club” right next to the Paramount? I wonder if they’re still there. Thank goodness for photos to preserve our mental memories of places long gone.
Very nice.
From the 1950s a view of the Paramount and Denver Theatres in Denver.
The marquee on the 16th street side (main entry) was very large. It had the words PARAMOUNT on a revolving yellow sign and white on the other side that moved and small bright lights surrounded it. It was great a night. I have not seen any photo’s of the large concession stand within the main doors or a photo of the large majestic staircase that went to the mezzanine. On the mezzanine were large bathroom all with marble casing and below on the first floor were lounges for both men and women. There are no photo’s of this beautiful theatre interiorally, if anyone has please post them.
Did many of the downtown theaters actually show CinemaScope full height as well as full width? I ask because in the late 1970s, a friend of mine was writing a story on film formats and asked me to photograph the Paramount’s screen in both flat and scope configurations. The Paramount management was very helpful and masked the screen for me in both formats.
I struck by the fact that at 1.85, the screen was larger and that they masked it vertically for scope — resulting in a smaller image. I still see many theaters of recent vintage doing this today.
Makes me wonder just how impressed folks were back in the day with scope films that were projected smaller than a masked presentation.
randini—I played a concert at the paramount in 1990 for the Rocky mountian chapter of the ATOS on that great Wurlitzer.
Interior photo of The Paramount Theatre
Interior views of the Paramount Theatre
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Nobody mentions the unique fact that the Denver Paramount was, and still is, the one of two existing US theatres with twin console Wurlitzer theatre organs. The other, of course, is Radio City.
The main console is the lefthand one (from the sudience) and is, naturally, the one most frequently played. The righthand console was, once, at my vociferous insistence, brought up to play in tandem for a Denver Film Festival Opening Night.As you might imagine, the resulting cacaphony went unnoticed by most in attendance.
Except by a few, among them…
Randini
Does anyone have a photo of the Paramount 16th strre side..the main entry was on 16th street, most of the pictures shown are the Glenarm street side. I used to manage the paramount theatre from 1968 to 1977.
the towne theatre was located in 16th and welton street right across the street from the RKO International theatre. It was located in the middle of the block.
When i stood in the auditorium the stage curtain was up and the stage was very shallow indeed. Theres no way it could hold major musicals etc. I guess its just luck its still standing and in such good condition playing the concerts it does. As i mention now the condition its in i just took a look at the official Paramount website and the photos of the auditorium show that work has been done on the auditorium very recently. It does look strange tho as you look down the street and if you know that theres a theatre theres no fly house!
Ian, thanks for your post. I wondered earlier if the narrow proscenium indicated that it was built only to show movies. Your note about the lack of a stage house further suggests that.
When in Denver last year i walked to the Paramount and found it a very beautiful building stretching a good way down the street, quit impressive tho i found it strange not to see a fly house at the stage area. The theatre was open as there was a concert of something there that night, i approached a young girl who was cleaning the foyer area. I asked if i could possibly take a quick look at the auditorium. After i told i used to work in the cinema industry she walked me in. A very long and narrow auditorium leading up to a not too exciting prosenium arch. Reminded me a little of the Waner Grand in San pedro L.A.The decor was in very good condition. The girl told me that Denver was very proud of the Paramount and in the future a large amount of money was due to be spent on renovation.
Well the size of movie screens were not that big in the 1930’s. In the early 50’s Cinerama and CinemaScope and Todd-AO expanded the size of the movie screen.
The stage/proscenium seems unusually narrow. Is that true? If so, what’s the reason—built only to show movies, perhaps?
I’m till trying to find information about the Towne Theater in Denver. It was around in the 60s. I went to a Beatles' movie premiere there. Sally