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1915
Ernest Nalle commissioned John Eberson to design the theater in 1915
The four-story theater was conceived as the Gaiety Theatre by Ernest Nalle, who commissioned the architect John Eberson in January 1915. It opened on October 11, 1915, as part of the Interstate Vaudeville Circuit, and hosted vaudeville performers including the Marx Brothers.
1930
In 1930 the theater was remodeled and reopened as the Paramount Theatre
In 1930, as the theater shifted toward motion pictures, it was remodeled and reopened as the Paramount Theatre, with carpeting, upholstered seating, air conditioning, a sound system and an illuminated blade sign. Its film history includes the 1966 world premiere of Batman: The Movie.
Rescue
A Holiday Inn was planned before a nonprofit group saved the building
By the 1970s the building had fallen into disrepair, and it had been slated to become a Holiday Inn before preservation efforts began. In 1975 John M. Bernardoni, Charles Eckerman and Stephen L. Scott formed a nonprofit group to restore it. Roberta Crenshaw donated her half of the trust.
The stage
Live performance returned in 1976 with a concert by Dave Brubeck
The venue marked the return of live performances with an April 22, 1976 concert by Dave Brubeck. Renovations began in September 1977. In 1982 it staged Greater Tuna, an Austin-created comedy, which the theater's history says outsold all non-sporting entertainment in Austin.
The sign
The blade sign lost in 1963 was lit again on September 23, 2015
The blade sign was removed for refurbishment in November 1963 and never reinstalled. In 2015, with no known architectural plans, designers analyzed old footage of the theatre to recreate it. On September 23, 2015, it was lit for the first time in over 50 years.
Day 3, afternoon
It comes after LBJ Presidential Library. Then Rainey Street.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Paramount Theatre (Austin, Texas), and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.