Paris Theatre
6 SW 3rd Avenue,
Portland,
OR
97204
6 SW 3rd Avenue,
Portland,
OR
97204
1 person
favorited this theater
Located on the fringe of Portland’s downtown area on SW 3rd Avenue at W. Burnside Street. The Third Avenue Theatre was built in 1890 and operated initially as a burlesque theatre. Later going over to movies, it is listed in editions of Film Daily Yearbook from at least 1941 thru 1950 and beyond.
It became an adult theatre renamed Paris Theatre on January 25, 1963. It had a long 4-year run of “Deep Throat”. In September 2003 the Paris Theatre was serving as a club/concert venue. It has a red vertical sign spelling “Theatre” with “Paris” across the bottom and a large four panel marquee across the entire front of the building.
In the Summer of 2007, the owner of the Jefferson Theatre closed that theatre, moved his adult theatre business into the Paris Theatre, and it became an adult movie theatre again. The main screen showed straight porn films and a smaller screen showed gay porn. By 2016 it had closed as an adult movie theatre. By 2018 it had become a live music venue which closed in 2019 due to structural problems. It was demolished in June 2024.
Contributed by
Don Lewis, Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
My image of the PARIS in Portland www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/252008505
I miss this as a punk venue. I use to go, hang out at Another State of mind, a punk store that is attached to the same building, then go to a show.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ygaqcaz
During the 80s a local theater company named “Storefront” used the theater for live plays and musicals. “Vaudeville Returns” was one of their stage shows. Their shows were always very professionally produced.
1965 & 2016 photos added. The latter has a marquee that reads “No Longer A Porn Theatre”.
Porn is gone from the Paris Theatre. It is back to hosting live music. Here is the web site.
The Paris Theater is now closed, and should be marked as such. The music venue version of The Paris closed last year (2019) amid structural issues with the building. There is one report that the ceiling has collapsed inside the auditorium.
This became the Paris on January 25th, 1963 showing adult movies. The Googlemobile passed it in May 2024 showing a construction crew at the site.