The Paramount Theatre is a 2,807-seat performing arts venue located at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in the
downtown core
The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with two integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive buil ...
of
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
,
Washington, United States. The theater originally opened on March 1, 1928, as the Seattle Theatre,
[Shipley, Jonathan. "A Sign of Change", ''Seattle City Arts'', November 2009, p. 11.] with 3,000 seats. It was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
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)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...
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
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
and secondarily,
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
. As of 2009, the Paramount is operated as a venue for various performing arts, serving its patron base with Broadway
musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...
, concerts, dance, comedy, family engagements, silent film and jazz. It is one of the busiest theatres in the region.
History
During the 1920s, particularly before the first sound films, or "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
Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
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
Adolph Zukor (; ; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produced one of Ameri ...
, Paramount Pictures invested nearly $3 million for construction.
It hired
Rapp & Rapp, a Chicago-based architectural firm, to design the theatre building. Seattle resident
B. Marcus Priteca, an established architect of movie palaces in the 1920s, designed the building's adjacent apartments and office suites.

The Paramount Theatre is the first venue in the United States to have a convertible floor system, which converts the theater to a
ballroom
A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called ''balls''. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially histori ...
. Therefore, the maximum concert capacity can hold up to 3,000 fans with the main floor serving as an unreserved standing room area while keeping the seats in the balcony regardless of either a 2,807-seated theater or a general admission event by separated levels.
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.
It was renamed the Paramount in 1930.
It was renamed the Paramount Northwest in 1971. In 1993, it was purchased by Ida Cole, a former Microsoft vice-president, and closed for repairs in May 1994. It reopened as the Paramount on March 17, 1995.
On December 2, 1972, Black Oak Arkansas recorded a concert here that provided four of the seven songs on the band's 1973 album, "Raunch 'N' Roll Live."
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
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...
lights.
The Paramount Theatre was also used to hold televised auditions for the
sixth season of ''
America's Got Talent
''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distributed by) and ...
''.
See also
*
5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle's other theater producing Broadway musicals
References
External links
*
Paramount (Seattle) Theatreat
HistoryLink
HistoryLink is an online encyclopedia of Washington (state), Washington state history. The site has more than 8,100 entries and attracts 23,000 weekly visitors. It has 500 biographies and more than 14,000 images.
The non-profit historical organi ...
{{Authority control
1920s architecture in the United States
B. Marcus Priteca buildings
Buildings and structures in Downtown Seattle
Cinemas and movie theaters in Washington (state)
Former cinemas in the United States
Concert halls in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Seattle
Movie palaces
Music venues in Washington (state)
Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state)
Tourist attractions in Seattle
1928 establishments in Washington (state)
Music venues completed in 1928