The Seattle Theatre was a first-run house. The opening night feature was the Paramount comedy Feel My Pulse (1928) with Bebe Daniels and William Powell. The theatre’s presentations were a combination of motion pictures and vaudeville. The house orchestra was led by Jules Buffano. Organists Ron and Don performed at the Seattle Theatre in December 1929.

Showing 1-5 December 1929, The Taming of the Shrew (1929); 6 December 1929, Glorifying the American Girl (1929).

The theatre’s name was changed by Publix Loew to The Paramount Theatre in 1930. The Paramount closed briefly during the Depression in July 1931, only to reopen in October 1932, at which time Gaylord Carter was hired as chief house organist. Circa 1935-1937, the theatre was purchased by Fox Evergreen Corporation. In 1956, Fox Evergreen leased the theatre to the Stanley Warner Cinerama Corporation, which installed the wide, curved Cinerama screen and removed 1600 seats on the main floor to build the required three-projector booth, and began presenting Cinerama films in 1 September 1956. After a short flurry of public interest, Cinerama presentations were terminated by January 1958.

While not officially closed, the theatre was dark for long stretches during the 1960s, running second-run features. The theatre was purchased in 1971 by The Clise Corporation, who in turn leased the venue to Pine Street, Incorporated, a promotor of touring rock concerts. The declining theatre was put on the National Registry of Historic Places on 9 October 1974. Management was changed to West Coast Theatres, Incorporated, in 1976. The venue again changed hands in 1981, and the theatre’s stewardship was transferred to Volotin Investment Company for a mere $1.4 million. Owners Norman Volotin and Eulysses Lewis financed cosmetic refurbishments, which included paint, reupholstered seating, sound system improvements, new carpeting, and preliminary repairs to the long-dormant pipe organ, and reopened the theatre on 11 October 1981, featuring touring Broadway roadshows and more rock tours. In late 1987, the Volotin Investment Company filed for bankruptcy and sought a buyer of the property, ultimately taking a minority position to WLS Theatre Group in the new Paramount Theatre Partners entity in early October 1990. Still losing money, the theatre was rumored to be pending destruction in 1992.

After establishing in 1992 the nonprofit organization, Seattle Landmark Association, whose purpose was top save the historic venue, former Microsoft executive Ida Cole eventually privately purchased the theatre in February 1993 for a debt assumption of $6.5 million. A combination of public fundraising and private loans financed a major renovation of the theatre, which commenced on 14 June 1994 and included the expansion of the rear of theatre to yield a larger stage area to accomodate larger touring roadshows and safer and more-efficient equipment transfer, restoration, repainting and new gold-leaf for the interior’s original plaster decorations, state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems, a pneumatic orchestra pit, freight elevators, and new air-conditioning and heating systems. After $30 million in total restoration and upgrades, the theatre reopened on 16 March 1995 with the touring company presentation of Miss Saigon. In 1997, $5 million of further upgrades to the venue were undertaken, which included a state-of-the-art convertable main floor (which converts from a sloped theatre seating arragement to a flat dinner theatre/dance floor arrangement) with new seating. In the 1990s, the Seattle Landmark Association became the Seattle Theatre Group, which also began operation of the Moore Theatre.

On 20 December 2002, ownership of the theatre was transferred from Ida Cole and the Paramount Defined Limited Partnership to the Seattle Theatre Group. The Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society has assisted in the restoration of the original Wurlitzer pipe organ installed in 1928, which is utilized today for screenings of silent era films and pipe organ concerts.

References: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1 December 1929, p. 6e; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2 December 1929, p. 13 : with additional information edited from material by Nena Peltin (provided by Ken Potts).