The Paramount Theatre

About this audio guide

This guide to the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas begins on the vaudeville house's opening night in nineteen fifteen, through Houdini, the Marx Brothers, the switch to Paramount pictures, and a real demolition scare in the nineteen seventies. It centers on a longtime projectionist named Walter Norris and a ritual staff still keep in his old booth, alongside a woman in white and a cigar-smoking gentleman said to linger elsewhere in the house. Stand in the opera box or beneath the balcony, and you will hear why nobody on staff is eager to test what happens if the ritual gets skipped.