Downtown Los Angeles's Paramount Theatre opened as Grauman's Metropolitan Theatre on January 26, 1923. The building was financed by the Hill Street Fireproof Building Company, designed by
George Edwin Bergstrom with the theater and building interior designed by
William Lee Woollett, all for impresario
Sid Grauman, known at the time for the
Million Dollar Theatre and best remembered today for his two
Hollywood movie palaces: the
Chinese and
Egyptian theaters. The theater's first screening was the
film premiere of
Gloria Swanson's
My American Wife, with the actress in attendance.
Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanian Orchestra accompanied the film on stage, as did three
vaudeville acts. Upon opening, Metropolitan Theater sat more than 3,600, making it the largest movie theater in Los Angeles for many years. The theater also featured an
orchestra lift, one of the largest balconies ever built, the longest
projection throw in Los Angeles, and the theater was one of the first to be
air conditioned in the United States. In 1924, Grauman sold all his downtown holdings to
Paramount Publix, who then employed
Fox West Coast Theaters to operate this theater. In 1929, the theater was renamed Paramount Theatre, and was informally known as Paramount Downtown to distinguish it from the other Paramount Theatres in Los Angeles. In 1950,
Cabart Theaters Corp took over the theater, and two years later
United Paramount Theatres took it over from them, after which they modernized the building with a new
marquee and updated
lobby. The theater closed in 1960 and the building was demolished in 1962. It was replaced by a parking lot, which itself was replaced by sixteen story tower in the early 1980s. The tower currently houses the International Jewelry Center. ==Metropolitan Annex==