Paramount Theatre

323 W. 6th Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90014

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Showing 76 - 100 of 127 comments

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 11, 2006 at 8:30 pm

The proposed office tower at 6th and Hill, designed by Chuck Luckman, (this might have been his very first solo project after dissolving his partnership with Bill Periera) would have been the tallest building in Los Angeles at that time, had it been built. The Paramount was razed specifically to make way for the office development, but the deal did indeed fall through and the site was used as a parking lot for years, until the Jewelry Center was finally built there. It’s possible that one of the reasons the deal fell through was because of the unforeseen delays in the demolition of William Woolett’s rock-solid building. I’d like to think that it was.

Life's Too Short
Life's Too Short on October 11, 2006 at 8:03 pm

There is a photo above which shows the Paramount around the time of the pre-demolition auction. There is a sign on the building advertising an office tower. But my understanding was that the theatre was a parking lot for years after being torn down. Was there a plan for an office building which later fell through?

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 11, 2006 at 6:08 pm

Here is a 1926 photo from the USC archive:
http://tinyurl.com/jvgch

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 3, 2006 at 7:05 pm

Here is a re-post of the 1925 photo showing the Grauman’s sign, as the link has expired:
http://tinyurl.com/q2ht5

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on September 1, 2006 at 7:04 pm

Here is a 1960 photo showing the Hill Street and 6th Street marquees:
http://tinyurl.com/f6vqd

William
William on August 10, 2006 at 9:13 am

The Paramount Downtown was a well built theatre. That the demolition company lost money and later went out of business because it was a far bigger job than they had planned or could handle.

dennis906
dennis906 on August 10, 2006 at 8:12 am

I remember reading that story in the same newspaper and seeing a published picture of the excavation pit. It was the concrete foundation for the Sunkist bldg where the 45 story Wells Fargo bldg was later constructed. Well’s Fargo later sold the building to Citi-Group and moved a few blocks south into the newly constructed 45 and 55 story Wells Fargo twin Towers. As far as I know there was no problem excavating the Paramount site where the International Jewelry Center bldg now stands.

LawMann
LawMann on August 7, 2006 at 7:04 am

In 1978 there was a story in the Downtown Los Angeles News about a construction company that had difficulties breaking up these huge bell shaped concrete foundation casings that were found fifty feet down after digging up a parking lot so that an office tower could be built on the site. The concrete casings were finally blasted apart with explosives. Could that have been the former site of the Paramount theatre or was it the former site of the Sunkist building on West 5th at Flower? I’m confusing the two locations because both were being developed at the same time and it happened so long ago.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on July 18, 2006 at 6:42 pm

Here is a better photo of the Hill Street entrance:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011007.jpg

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on July 18, 2006 at 6:35 pm

Here is a photo of the Hill Street entrance. This had me fooled for a while as I didn’t realize the theater had three entrances at one time or another. William’s post above mentions the Hill Street entrance:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011006.jpg

William
William on July 10, 2006 at 5:31 pm

In that last shot you can see the Metropolitan’s vertical sign for the Broadway entrance.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on July 10, 2006 at 5:14 pm

Here is another USC photo looking north on Broadway:
http://tinyurl.com/nchzj

William
William on June 28, 2006 at 6:57 pm

Not a problem, I thought I missed something. Great work with the pictures.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 28, 2006 at 6:53 pm

I read your comment above after I posted that. No slight was intended to your fine recap of the theater’s history. I originally posted the USC photo on the Broadway theater page. That’s where Ken Roe mentioned the Broadway entrance. Apologies for my oversight.

William
William on June 28, 2006 at 6:10 pm

ken mc, where does “Ken Roe say the Broadway entrance existed from only 1923 to 1929” on this thread?

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 28, 2006 at 5:49 pm

Here is another photo from 1926 that shows the marquee on Broadway:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059101.jpg

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 26, 2006 at 7:43 pm

This is another LA Library photo from the 1930s:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics17/00008028.jpg

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 26, 2006 at 7:36 pm

This is a photo of the Broadway entrance, which Ken Roe has said existed from only 1923 to 1929:
http://tinyurl.com/jua7f

William
William on March 29, 2006 at 5:50 pm

The Fanchon & Marco management also included the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood during 30’s to the early 50’s.

William
William on March 29, 2006 at 4:51 pm

The Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre opened on Jan. 26th, 1923. It featured a Wurlitzer 4/32, style 285, opus 534 organ. From it’s opening till 1929 this theatre also featured 3 marquees. The main marquee was located on Sixth Street a second was located on the Hill Street side and one at the long forgotten Broadway entrance. The Broadway entrance was developed and remained in use only till 1929. If you entered the Broadway lobby the patrons were brought to the mezzanine via a bridge over the alley on the east side of the theatre. Not many theatres in 1923 could boast of an escalator. Sid Grauman sold his interest in his Downtown theatres to Paramount Pictures in July of 1924. Upon renaming the theatre Paramount, they refitted the marquees with light bulbs and in the early 1930’s Fanchon & Marco took over management of the theatre. Soon after they took over management they had the marquee and vertical signage restyled in neon. After the Fanchon & Marco term finished in the early 50’s the Downtown Paramount Theatre was given a remodel. During this remodel the Paramount received a total make-over. Everything in the loby and mezzanine got hidden behind dropped ceilings or got painted over. The auditorium received a repainting scheme of Red and White. During the theatres final years the chain trashed the theatre with poor bookings till the end.
The auditorium had a depth of 135 feet, a width of 125 feet and a height of 78 feet to the trusses. The working stage opening was 52 feet by 32 feet.

William
William on January 17, 2006 at 12:31 pm

The Downtown Paramount Theatre building was a six story building.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 8, 2006 at 9:35 pm

For some reason, my E-mail address doesn’t display on my user info page here (I thought it did.) I don’t know how secure Cinema Treasures message board pages are from address-collecting bots, so I don’t want to post it here. You can use the E-mail address I have posted on this page at LiveJournal.

andypcl
andypcl on January 8, 2006 at 5:49 pm

Joe,
Thanks for the great response. It says: M.J. Benjamin – 514 – Paramount Theatre Building – 323 W. 6th – Los Angeles. If you have a direct email, I’ll send a scan along. I tried to post it here but as I figured, we can’t add pics.
Thanks again,
-Andy

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 8, 2006 at 4:56 pm

andypcl: The Paramount Theatre Building in Los Angeles was just an ordinary office building wrapped around two sides of the theatre. I don’t know if the Paramount Theatre Circuit had any offices of its own in the building or not. The company’s headquarters was in the New York City Paramount Building.

There were other office buildings connected to other Paramount Theatres in other cities, too— Oakland and Palm Beach (though the last only had two floors, so wouldn’t have had a room 514), that I know of for sure, and there were probably many others. Unless your object specifically names the Paramount Theatre Building in Los Angeles, Mr. Benjamin’s office might have been in some other city.