Northwest Frame of Mind

In the late 1920’s the first “talking pictures” were produced in Hollywood and as part of their efforts to distribute their movies to as many viewers as possible Paramount Pictures began an ambitious program to build movie palaces in almost every major city in America.  Seattle was included in this early expansion project and on March 1st, 1928 The Seattle Theater opened to the public.  The Seattle Theater Group has a great webpage detailing the history of this beautiful building and I will let them tell you its stories here.

My memories of the Paramount begin in the 1980’s when I was in High School and lucky enough to borrow my parents car for 3 hour round trips to Seattle for concerts.   We saw some great shows including Madonna’s premier of her Like A Virgin tour with The Beastie Boys, INXS, The Thompson Twins and David Bowie.  My youngest brother still can’t believe I drove him and a friend to see George Thorogood and left them at the front door to have fun without supervision.  They were 13 and pretty nervous about being alone in “the big city” but still smile today remembering that night 20+ years ago.  Looking back, it would have been nice if we had stopped to look around and appreciate the beauty of the theater instead of being completely involved in the atmosphere of the concerts.

I love this old building and always look forward to seeing a new performance here.  This weekend was my son’s first opportunity to experience The Paramount as a concert venue and what better way to continue the tradition than to see his heroes in action.

Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman and their Discovery Channel tv show have been on constant rotation at my house for years and when they announced their tour stop in Seattle my brother made plans immediately for an early Birthday surprise.  The show was a lot of fun and now Ryan has a great start to his own concert t-shirt collection.