Emerson Paramount Center

Originally one of Boston's magnificent movie palaces, the Paramount Theatre (part of Emerson College) features a 500 seat theatre, a 200 seat cinema, eight rehearsal studios, six practice rooms for individuals and small group, a sound stage for film production and up to a dozen Emerson faculty and staff offices. The Paramount opened in 1932 as a 1700-hundred-seat, single-screen movie theatre. It was one of the first movie houses in Boston to play talking motion pictures. The theatre was named after its original owner, Paramount Pictures. It closed in 1976 and most of the Art Deco interior decoration was destroyed in the 1980s during the removal of asbestos.