Flashy: Paramount gets a new marquee

In preparation for a new paint job, workers applied a primer coat to the marquee of the Paramount Theater July 6, as the 1931 Main Street landmark enters its final stages of renovation into a $14 million performing arts center.

The marquee work comes just a dozen years after the last marquee repairs. In June 1992, the City dipped into its Historic Preservation Fund and handed out $35,700 for rebuilding the Paramount Theater's marquee the last time.

The current work, says the Paramount's director, Chad Hershner, will restore not only the original paint colors but also the fancy flickers of hundreds of bulbs.

"It would chase and flash and blink, and I think it originally had something like 29 settings," says Hershner. "It'll do that again."

The Theater­ closed since 1974­ is set to re-open in November.

PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

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