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PARAMOUNT THEATRE
Cedar Rapids, IA, USA



In the storage room next to the booth is this carbon arc spot. The theatre switched to modern xenon bulb spots when it was bought by the city in 1975.



The booth contains 2 1935 Simplex projectors with Peerless carbon arc lamp houses. The theatre originally opened with Vitaphone and some of the rheostat controls for that system are still in place in a room off of the booth. The projectors are rarely used now as the theatre is a performing arts center. They still worked when they were last fired up 2 years ago. In the basement are two DC generators which are in very good condition. In the background you can see the bathroom. A very luxurious house, the bathroom has a door on it, instead of just a toilet in the room!



In the same storage room we find the slide projector, alas someone chucked the glass slides out a few years ago! This room also contains several carbon arc projector lamp housings from other shuttered downtown houses. Dean, the head projectionist, salvaged them so that he would have parts when needed.



The grand foyer stairs to the mezzanine and balcony straight ahead, go left to enter the hallway behind the main floor.



Wonderful shot of the auditorium from under the projection booth overhang. The auditorium seats 1901 currently, down from the original 1945 when the theatre opened in 1928.



Marquee of the Paramount Theatre- replica marquee installed in 1987



Reverse view of the booth. To the right, the motorized rewinder sits on top of the asbestos lined film safe.



Ticket lobby, marble base is original from 1928, the pagoda top was restored to the base in 1983. The booth is only used for same day ticket sales, all advanced sales are handled by the Ticketmaster office in the city arena.



The console of the original 1928 Wurlitzer on its lift, at stage level.


Photos from the Jeffrey Korns collection.

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