Paramount Theater Invites the Community to Celebrate Its 100th Anniversary

(KNSI) — The Paramount Theater downtown St. Cloud turns 100 years old on Friday, December 24th, and the community is invited to help celebrate.

The theater and lobby will be open for people to come in, look around, share memories, and take pictures. The original Sherman Theater curtain will be down as part of the commemoration. There will also be cake and coffee available between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

The Paramount’s current Covid policy requires that all guests and visitors provide proof of Covid
vaccination or a negative test within 72 hours.

Saturday, December 24th, 1921, the Sherman Theater, with its 1,700 seats, opened to the public for the showing of D.W. Griffith’s silent film “Way Down East.” Admission was 50 cents, and a ten-member orchestra accompanied the film. It was called “St. Cloud’s largest and finest playhouse.”

Nine years later, the building got a $30,000 facelift and changed its name from the Sherman Theater to the Paramount Theater, after the theater in New York City. It also needed sound equipment to accommodate the “talkies,” and a new marquee was also built. The theater was a hub for entertainment during the Depression and World War II.

In 1985, the building was nearly lost to a fire, but the Paramount Preservationists saved it, and plans were completed in 1998.

Before the COVID-19 lockdowns, more than 100,000 people visited the theater each year.

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