King of Kings Silent Film with Accompaniment by Clark Wilson

About the Paramount
John Eberson started building this atmospheric theatre in 1928. It opened on August 20, 1929. We can
relate to 1929 because our history and memory of 1929 was the Great Depression. John Eberson, and
the country, ran out of money and down-sizing of plans began.
The Paramount was primarily built for vaudeville and movies, to escape the real world. The design was to
give the illusion of a Spanish casa or villa complete with wrought-iron gates, statues, a ceiling painted like
a sky with stars that really twinkled, and clouds projected onto the ceiling which slowly moved across the
sky. Thousands of tiles in the original design of the lobby floor were set by hand and the terra cotta façade
on the building facing was so detailed it merited its own blueprints.
The entire complex was originally designed as a seven story hotel and theatre with a ballroom on the 7th
floor. With down-sizing, the building stopped with three floors and the third floor is now the ballroom. There
are 12 of these John Eberson atmospheric theatres left in the USA. Originally, there were 155. John
Eberson also sold plans (around 1,500) for others to be built. Indiana has two of the 12 remaining
theatres: The Embassy in Fort Wayne and the Paramount here in Anderson.
The original owner was Publix Corporation. Local developers had planned to call the theatre The Palace.
When Publix entered the picture, it became The Paramount and opened with that name.
In 1985, the theatre closed for four years. By 1989, the complex had been owned by eight different groups
and was actually facing the wrecking ball to become a parking lot.
Three weeks before the last reading of the ordinance to tear down the Paramount, Leslie Davisson, a
young lawyer with offices across the street, saw a program on TV about other theatres that had been
saved. She called the TV station for the address, wrote to Washington, got a copy of the program, called a
group of people together and said, “Let’s save the Paramount!” That was the start. The name of the TV
program was “The Movie Palaces” narrated by Gene Kelly.
In July of 1989, the group (now called the Paramount Heritage Foundation) entered the theatre and turned
on the lights (those that were working). Carrying flashlights, they saw water running down the aisle into
the orchestra pit. The dressing rooms were filled with water and other debris. When they turned their
flashlights toward the balcony and the ceiling, they saw something cloud-like and thought they had caused
a fire. What they were seeing were mold spores floating in the air. In the balcony, plaster with large holes
was hanging from the ceiling. Pigeons and bats had made this their home. With over four years of no
heat, no cooling, and water damage from a deteriorating roof, the whole complex was in dire straits.
The Paramount Heritage Foundation and, indeed, the people of the city of Anderson, embarked on a
renovation program that, quite frankly, is still ongoing today.
In January of 1995, the theatre was closed, all seats removed, and scaffolding brought in – all the way to
the top of the theatre, front to back, and side to side. A Conrad Schmidt artist used an air brush to paint
the ceiling. He had seen a beautiful sunset as he looked to the West from his hotel room, and his goal was
to duplicate that view. The clouds were painted in two and one-half days.
The theatre re-opened on August 19, 1995, with Sammy Kaye and the McGuire Sisters performing. The
deadline was very close. The last seat was bolted in place at 11:45 AM, rehearsal started at 12:00 noon,
and the show started at 7:30 PM to a sold out audience

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