paramount theatre, denver co
1930 Zig Zag Art Deco masterpiece by Denver architect Temple Buell.
The material here is is the waterproof ceramic, Terra Cotta.
Temple Buell was a master architect, he invented the shopping mall
with his ideas for the Cherry Creek Shopping Center in 1946!
Temple Buell was also quite charitable, you will notice many Denver halls,
centers and theaters named after this great man.
I enjoyed the event last weekend, Doors Open Denver. A two-day yearly event, Denver opens it’s doors to many of it’s most important buildings, with volunteers giving tours and providing many valuable historical details.
My interior Paramount Theatre shots are a little dark as I did not want to disturb audience members with a flash as they were enjoying the show on the Paramount’s two Wurlitzer Organs!
The interior is filled with exotic ornamentation and beautiful ’30s-era tapestries.
A fantastic vaulted sunburst ceiling
Cut glass chandeliers
Remarkable tapestries (photographed in low light)
I have previously posted photos of another similar Temple Buell art deco masterpiece, the Horace Mann Junior High School, where he used brick instead of Terra Cotta
One of the main reasons I wanted to make this visit to the Paramount was to witness the twin-console Wurlitzer Organs! I love the sound of the Wurlitzer and own many LPs by artists such as George Wright!
The Wurlitzer organs were originally installed to accompany silent films, but when the theatre was first opened in 1930, the silent film was quickly replaced with The Talkie.
The Paramount Theatre currently houses two priceless Wurlitzer Organs which both raise out of the theater floor! I asked the masterful organist, Deloy Goeglin (playing in the earlier photo) how much these were worth and he said there is no way they can be priced as the only other similar organ is in New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
Denver organ events are run by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. Their next event at the Paramount is on August 10th and is free to members.
One nice thing about Doors Open Denver is that they often really let you get close up and personal. The Paramount encouraged you to walk around behind stage, get up on the stage, check out the dressing rooms . . . a wonderful experience.
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One notable thing about the Paramount Wurlitzer is that it isn’t really quite like Radio City. The latter can be said to have TWO organs - there are two consoles with separate relays (controls), and both operate independently. This was the only Wurlitzer - the only theatre organ of any brand - ever built with two master consoles, both in a magnificent Streamline Moderne style (Wurlitzer only built five Streamline consoles - not their rarest or most unusual console design, but close).
The Denver Paramount is one of the few remaining of ten Wurlitzer installations using two consoles with only one relay. The second console, on the right in this installation, is a slave to the first. What does this mean? The stop tabs are all dummies, and the stops chosen at the main console work on the slave at the same time. If the master’s lowest keyboard currently is set to play a trumpet, the slave’s lowest is also set to play the trumpet. The slave can only change stops using the thumb pistons beneath each manual, but these mirror the main’s pistons. How can you tell which is the slave? Most slave consoles were simpler in design in some fashion - sprayed-on decoration instead of applied ornament, in the case of the Brooklyn Paramount with its French-style consoles. Those like this one, with the “Modernistic” (Wurlitzer’s term) or ‘waterfall’ console, used a three-manual console shell for the slave. The slave here also has a simpler bench.
Other signs: The master has two full horseshoes of tabs, two straight rails in back, and a partial curved rail on each side. The slave has what most three-manual consoles have: single back straight rail and no partials on the sides. The master has four pedals: three swell pedals (main, solo, and general) and one crescendo, plus a row of toe studs on the left and thunder/drumroll pedals on the right; the slave has nothing but a single general pedal. Last, the master has swell indicators; the slave doesn’t.
I’m not sure if any other master/slave Wurlitzers exist anywhere else any more; if they do, I can’t find mention of any offhand. In some cases, the slave consoles were sold off - the slave from the State Theatre in Melbourne now controls as a master at Australia’s Capri Theatre. A theatre in NYC had one just like this; it was taken to Salt Lake City and rebuilt into a 5-manual Modernistic console in a bizarre metallic purple finish, with five ranks of Robert Morton strings added, and is in a catered club called the Organ Loft.