Paramount Theatre (Seattle)

Performance hall in Seattle, Washington

The Paramount Theatre is a 2,807 seat performing arts venue located at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in the downtown core of Seattle, Washington, United States. The theater originally opened on March 1, 1928, as the Seattle Theatre, with 3,000 seats. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 9, 1974, and has also been designated a City of Seattle landmark. The Paramount is owned and operated by the Seattle Theatre Group, a 501(c)(3) not for profit performing arts organization which also runs the 1,768 seat Moore Theatre in Belltown and the Neptune Theatre in the University District. Initially it was built expressly for showing film and secondarily, vaudeville. As of 2009, the Paramount is operated as a venue for various performing arts, serving its patron base with Broadway musical theatre, concerts, dance, comedy, family engagements, silent film and jazz. It is one of the busiest theatres in the region.

During the roaring twenties, particularly before the first "talkies" were invented in 1927, vaudeville and silent movies were the dominant form of national and local entertainment. Seattle alone had more than 50 movie palaces, the finest grouped together on 2nd Avenue. To achieve the broadest possible distribution of its films, Hollywood based Paramount Pictures constructed a grand movie palace in practically every major city in the country, many erected between 1926 and 1928. In late 1926 or early 1927, Paramount Pictures decided to build in Seattle. Led by its president, movie magnate Adolph Zukor, Paramount Pictures invested nearly $3 million for construction. The Paramount Theatre has an original installation of the Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. The organ is a 4 manual/21 rank Publix 1 style organ and is one of only three remaining original organs of this style. Jim Riggs has been the house organist for the Paramount, accompanying the Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays series. The organ is presently maintained by a group of volunteers from the Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society. On April 10, 1985, American singer songwriter Madonna kicked off her first tour, as well as performed her first headlining show with The Virgin Tour. On April 12 and 13 she performed two more shows totalizing almost 9,000 people in the audience. As of 2009, the Paramount has a new sign out front. The 1940s Paramount sign originally used 1,970 incandescent bulbs, which were eventually replaced by 11 watt fluorescents. The new sign is a replica of the original iconic sign, but uses LED lights. The Paramount Theatre was also used to hold televised auditions for the sixth season of America's Got Talent.