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Locals reflect on the memories they shared at the Paramount Theatre before its 1979 closure


When talking about the 1979 closure of Baton Rouge’s iconic Paramount Theatre, many locals quote Joni Mitchell’s 1970 hit song “Big Yellow Taxi”: “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

The downtown movie theater was the birthplace of adolescent memories for several longtime residents. Originally known as the Columbia Theatre, the building was renamed the Paramount in 1929. It was the site of 50 years of memories under its new moniker, before it was ultimately torn down and replaced by a parking lot.

Today, those memories are kept alive in old newspaper clippings and on Facebook message boards.

The Paramount was where local Beatles fans came to squeal over their favorite band’s first movie, A Hard Day’s Night, in 1964. It’s where many came the following year to see The Sound of Music for the first time, in awe of how the movie was shot on location in the rolling hills of Austria.

It’s also where many first dates occurred, the girls donning nice dresses and the boys wearing slacks and dress shirts as they shared popcorn over the original Planet of the Apes. Some dates went so well they blossomed into lifelong marriages.

There were other theaters downtown back then, like the Hart Theatre and The Gordon. But there was something special about the Paramount, explains Capital Region resident Nancy Jones, who frequented the theater as a teenager.

“The Paramount was always the one everyone thought was the prettiest, because it was not just a theater. I think it was an old opera house,” Jones says. “It was decorated like that—very ornate. It had the big opera box seats upstairs, down the side and in the back.”

The theater stood tall on Third Street, with a white exterior that included columns and a relief sculpture across the top. Its classical style was reminiscent of the buildings you’d find in Washington, D.C. At night, a giant art deco sign announced the name of the “Paramount” in bright white lights. Below it, a marquee heralded the movie of the week.

Inside, Jones remembers being greeted by a concession stand selling popcorn, fountain drinks and an assortment of boxed candies. Past that were heavy red velvet curtains leading guests down to the 1,450 seats in the theater.

Jones was one of The Beatles fans donning Mariner’s caps—or “John Lennon hats,” as she calls them—to the showing of A Hard Day’s Night when she was in her early high school years.

Back then, the week’s movie would play continuously at the theater, so she and her friends would have their parents drop them off in the afternoon, and they’d stay in the theater all day watching the movie repeatedly. Jones recalls watching it at least 13 times.

“At the theater, people would squeal and clap,” Jones says. “It would take them a while to settle down. I probably still can recite lines from that movie from seeing it so many times.”

Signs of the 1960s “British Invasion” were everywhere then, even in the outfits guests wore to the Paramount. “You saw a lot of skirts with knee socks and loafers and shirts buttoned up with a tie kind of around the neck. There was definitely a British influence,” Jones says.

Daryl Tipler, who worked at the Paramount as a teenager in the 1970s, remembers how the manager would hire actors to wear costumes on Halloween weekend and spook guests. They would lower items—such as a handkerchief or a plastic bat—on strings hanging from the ceiling, inducing screams from the audience.

A ticket stub from a 1958 showing of The Long Hot Summer

Going out to the movies was the main source of entertainment for Baton Rouge residents at the time, especially those who lived in the downtown area.

With the theater gone for nearly 40 years, it lives on only through pictures and stories told by residents like Tipler and Jones.

“It was such a pretty place and very unique at that time,” Jones says. “You’ll see those old theaters in a lot of other cities. They’re just nice bits of people’s memories, because going out to the movie was a major part of our social lives. That’s what we did.”


SOURCES: News reports, “You Grew Up In Baton Rouge, La. if you remember when……” Facebook group

This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.