Paramount Theatre
Main Street,
Fort Fairfield,
ME
04742
Main Street,
Fort Fairfield,
ME
04742
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A June 25, 2023 article in the Bangor Daily Newssaid that Fort Fairfield has lost about half of its population since 1962, and that most of its historic buildings have been destroyed, many in disasters. Fort Fairfield’s downtown was (there’s really not enough left of it to say is) on low lying land along the Aroostook river and has flooded periodically. A particularly devastating flood took place in 1994, when broken ice jams swept through town, and buildings were actually being struck by icebergs.
In any case, I’ve cruised Google street view along the length of Main Street, now lined mostly with vacant lots, and see nothing that could have been the Paramount. CinemaTour lists all of Fort Fairfield’s theaters as demolished. I think we should too.
The Paramount Theatre opened its doors by Raymond R. Johnston Jr. on April 2, 1930 with Nancy Carroll in “Honey” (unclear if any short subjects were added) with an estimate $140,000 on the building.
The Paramount did receive a couple of ups-and-downs between 1958 and 1962 causing the theater to close a couple of times. The theater ended up closing for the final time on May 31, 1962, and was last operated by Donald L. Dorsey Jr.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Paramount; it’s Card # 370. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated April 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it was under 10 years old (slightly incorrect), was showing MGM product, and had 958 seats. The 1940 population was 2,600.
This page from the Maine Memory Network says that the Paramount opened in April, 1930.
In 1929, Publix was operating a house at Fort Fairfield called the Park Theatre. It had 557 seats. The Paramount was its replacement. The October 27, 1929, issue of The Film Daily had this item:
This was soon followed by this notice in a list of projects Publix had underway, published in the November 8 issue:I’ve been unable to discover the opening date of the Paramount, but if it was on schedule it should have been 1930.Interestingly, the firm of Bunker & Savage is still in operation, though I don’t see any theaters among their recent projects.
The Paramount in Fort Fairfield is listed in the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac as part of the Mullin & Pinanski Circuit (M&P Theatres) of Boston MA, a Paramount affiliate.