The Paramount Theatre opened in January 1923 as Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre. It was the second-largest movie palace in California, San Francisco’s fabulous Fox Theatre was the first. Both were demolished in the 1960s.
Elvis Presley appeared in person at the Paramount in the 1950s. Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood were featured on the gigantic screen in “The Girl I Left Behind.”
The Paramount was built by impresario Sid Grauman, who had already built the Million Dollar Theatre a few blocks away, but who is best remembered today for his two Hollywood movie palaces, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre.
It was also home to variety acts. In 1941, Fats Waller, Rochester, and Kitty Murray were all on the bill together. The theater became famous as the birthplace of “All That Meat and No Potatoes” – a Waller onstage wisecrack about the “brick house” physique of singer-dancer Murray.
The largest movie theater ever built in Los Angeles, the Metropolitan was acquired by the exhibition arm of Paramount Pictures in 1929 and renamed.
The building had been designed by architect William Woolett, and the massive six-floor commercial and office block in which it was encased was a major landmark across from Pershing Square for several decades.
Paramount operated the venue through the 1950s.
It was closed in 1960 and demolished the following year to make way for a high-rise office building which was never built.
After the site served as a parking lot for many years, a building from the wholesale jewelry trade was erected on there in the late 1970s and remains today.
Common to most of Los Angeles, regarding any building over fifty years old that was torn down – it was replaced with a parking lot. Los Angeles has a major history of corruption when it comes to development with politicians accepting large handouts from developers.
The huge auditorium had a seating capacity of over 3,387 seats.
It was the largest movie theatre in Southern California, followed by the RKO Hillstreet with 2,890 in downtown Los Angeles.
The Hillstreet theatre met the same fate as the Paramount and was torn down.
The third-largest movie theatre to be built in Southern California was the Fox Theatre in San Diego with 2,883. It is still operating as a concert hall.
The fourth-largest was the Pantages in Hollywood. Its capacity as a movie theatre was 2,812 seats. As a legit house, the Pantages capacity is smaller.
The largest theatre to be built in the West was the Fox Theater in San Francisco. Torn down in the early 60s, this spectacular movie palace had 4,651 seats.
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