Paramount Theatre

61 E. Center Street,
Provo, UT 84601

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50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on August 9, 2023 at 1:45 pm

During its final year of operation, the Paramount is a dollar house. This didn’t last long and it closed as a movie house on October 16, 1988 with “Caddyshack II” and “Short Circuit II”. It eventually became a cultural arts house by the end of the decade but it didn’t last long.

rivest266
rivest266 on September 7, 2018 at 4:35 pm

This opened on July 8th, 1914 as Columbia and became the Paramount on March 14th, 1927. Both grand opening ads posted.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on November 30, 2016 at 3:33 am

The NRHP nomination form for the Provo Downtown Historic District says that the Paramount Theatre was built by John B. Ashton in 1914, and opened as the Columbia Theatre. The house became the Paramount in 1927.

ghamilton
ghamilton on April 24, 2010 at 1:55 pm

When was the horrible “modernizing” of this theater carried out??Destroyed the character ,for sure.

utahguy
utahguy on July 17, 2007 at 8:05 pm

Another memory. Up in the projection booth, there was a metal box on the rear wall, some sort of an electical connection box or maybe a fuse box (it’s been too long for me to remember). Pull the metal cover open, and someone had written inside, in pencil, (I forget the exact date it stated) “Sound comes to the Paramount, 12/??/29.” I’ll bet that a BIG night that night.

utahguy
utahguy on October 1, 2006 at 5:07 pm

I was the manager of the Paramount in 1977 and did some research in at the Provo library, formerly just up the block. The following is not necessarily in chronological order:
Started out in 1914 as the Pantages Theater (I think). Live performances were given, there was an orchestra pit just in front of the stage (it had been filled in with concrete prior to my time there, but identifiable). There were box seats located to either side of the stage which had been torn out prior to my time but identifiable by the scars on the walls. There were painted backdrops rolled up on the lowest catwalk backstage. To the left (west) side of the auditorium were dressing rooms. It was a Publix Theater for 20-30 years, then a Fox (?), then an ABC Intermountain, a Plitt when I was there. Not sure who had it was it was torn in late ‘04 or early .05