Home / Cities / Denver, CO

Paramount Theatre

From the 1992 National Register of Historic Places documentation form:

Called "Colorado's best example of the Art Deco style," the Paramount Theater designed by Temple Buell featured the work of the Denver Terra Cotta Company. The theater opened in 1930 with the [sound] film Let's Go Native, starring Jeannette MacDonald and Jack Oakie. Publix, Paramount Picture's operating company, sited the theater to compete with more than a dozen other movie theaters in the downtown area. The building was finished during a transitional time in the motion picture business when silent films were giving way to talkies. Although the composition of the theater was altered to reflect this change, it was still equipped with luxuries such as a splendidly ornamented lobby, indirect lighting, and a neon marquee. The Paramount also housed a feature of silent movie days, a Publix One Wurlitzer organ equipped with twin consoles. Among the many outstanding ornaments of the Art Deco style interior were Vincent Mondo's tapestries, a vaulted sunburst ceiling, cut glass chandeliers, Egyptian lights, and Italian marble. The Paramount is the only remaining historic theater of the many that once drew audiences to Downtown Denver.

Next: Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Denver