Paramount Theatre

About this property

The Paramount Arts Center is an historic theater located in Ashland, Kentucky, in the United States. Listed as the Paramount Theatre on the National Register of Historic Places, it operates as a non-profit organization, offering symphonies, Broadway plays, ballets, concerts, and other productions. The Paramount opened September 5, 1931 as the Paramount Theater, one of the first transitional theatres built for "talking pictures". It was to be a model for others across the country to showcase films produced by Paramount until the Great Depression led the studio to drop the project. The plans were picked up by an Ashland-based company, with Paramount craftsmen providing interior furnishings, and the building was leased to Paramount Publix Corporation. Due to the change in plans, the original design by Rapp and Rapp was scaled back; otherwise, the Paramount would be three times its present size. The theater closed in 1971 after forty years of operation. In 1972, the Greater Ashland Foundation purchased the Paramount Theatre and established it as a performing arts center. In 1992, the music video for "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus was filmed at the Paramount. The theater has undergone multiple renovations since 1972, most recently in 2002 when a new stagehouse was added, and new dressing rooms, rehearsal space and a banquet facility were added in a nearby building, purchased in 1998, which was then connected to the main building. In 2006, a beauty pageant contestant hung a dress from a water sprinkler while using a steamer to remove wrinkles. Water from the sprinkler system resulted in $30,000 worth of damage.1 It is said that during early work on the Paramount, a death occurred, and the man's ghost has since haunted the venue. According to lore, in the early 1940s, four construction workers from Cincinnati were at work in the auditorium. All but one went to lunch. When the others returned, they found their co-worker hanging from the curtain rigging. Since that time, sounds have allegedly been heard, items have gone missing, unexplained cold drafts have been felt, and the image of a man has been seen. Despite this, most versions of the story refer to "Joe" as a "good ghost" who looks out for the theatre and its occupants. When Billy Ray Cyrus was at the Paramount for the "Achy Breaky Heart" video, he was told about the ghost. It is customary for each performer who appears at the Paramount to sign an 8x10, which hangs on the 'Wall of Fame' in the box office. Cyrus autographed posters to the female employees, plus one with a personal inscription to Paramount Joe. As time passed and the walls became full of 8x10's of other performers, some had to come down. No one wanted to take down their personally autographed picture of Billy Ray Cyrus, so they took down the one for Paramount Joe. The next day, the story has it that every 8x10 and poster that had been hanging neatly on the walls the night before were strewn on the floor, many with their frames shattered. Paramount Joe's poster still hangs in the Paramount, in The Marquee Room, site of Paramount Joe's Rising Star Café.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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