Misplaced Pages

The Paragon Theatre

The Paragon Theatre, Queenstown in 2013
Address	11 McNamara Street Queenstown, Tasmania Australia
Coordinates	42°4′48.53″S 145°33′17.58″E / 42.0801472°S 145.5548833°E / -42.0801472; 145.5548833
Owner	Joy Chappell & Anthony Coulson
Capacity	1,150 (1933), 750 (1937), 850 (1966), 60 (2009)
Current use	cinema, live entertainment
Construction
Opened	28 October 1933; 91 years ago (1933-10-28)
Years active	1933–1985, 2003–2015, 2017–present
Architect	A. Lauriston Crisp
Website
Official site

The Paragon Theatre is a historic cinema and live entertainment venue in Queenstown, Tasmania, Australia.

History

Commissioned by the Paragon Picture Co Pty Ltd, the art deco theatre was constructed entirely with reinforced concrete by Carter & Peace. At a cost of over £A5,000, it was advertised as the “city theatre in the country” and was compared to Burnie's Municipal Theatre in design. The auditorium originally seated 1,150 patrons (750 in the stalls and 400 in the dress circle), which would accommodate for two-thirds of Queenstown's population in 2017. The Paragon Theatre opened as a "talkie theatre" on October 28, 1933, with She Done Him Wrong and Tiger Shark. It was also advertised as the Paragon Talkies in the years after opening. Exhibiting Hollywood films and local newsreels, The Paragon was in direct competition with the neighbouring 1890s Metropole Theatre and Capitol Theatre. In 1935, the Paragon was the first cinema in Tasmania to install Western Electric's "Wide Range" sound system.

The Paragon enjoyed capacity crowds until home videocassette recordings and video rental stores rose to prominence in the late 1970s. Theatre patronage declined and the venue was repurposed as an indoor cricket stadium in 1985. During this conversion, a new concrete floor was poured directly onto the original wooden floorboards. The original 35mm projectors were removed and are on display at the Galley Museum in Queenstown. Throughout the 1990s The Paragon was greatly unoccupied and became a target for vandals. Originally from Zimbabwe, local general practitioner Dr. Alex Stevenson bought The Paragon in 2003. Stevenson and his wife Alice spent five years renovating the theatre into a 60-seat luxury cinema, function venue and café. Part of their restoration included hand-painting the venue's striking floor. The Stevensons returned to Zimbabwe in 2012.

The theatre exchanged hands on several occasions throughout the 2010s. It was purchased by geologist and former cinematographer Francisco Navidad in 2012, however with the decline of the Bluestones Mines at Renison Bell, Navidad was forced to relocate and closed The Paragon in 2014. The theatre was advertised for sale on Gumtree in 2015. Joy Chappell and Anthony Coulson bought the theatre in 2017. Significant cracks in the concrete floor appeared in 2018 as the original floorboards beneath succumb to rot. At a cost of $75,000, funds were raised from a government grant and local charity to drill 136 holes into the floor to underpin the structure. Less than three months later, Jeff Lang and Mark Seymour & The Undertow performed at the venue as part of The Unconformity festival.

Contemporary use

Since its reopening in 2017, The Paragon has become a venue for events and dinnertime screenings of bygone films.

The Paragon has been a key venue for The Unconformity, a biennial three-day arts, music and food festival since 2012. The Unconformity 2021 festival was cancelled due to COVID-19, and is set to return in 2023.

See also

List of theatres in Hobart

References

1. ^ "PARAGON THEATRE. Queenstown Building Official Opening". The Mercury. 30 October 1933. p. 2. Retrieved 11 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Queenstown (Urban Centre/Locality)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
3. "QUEENSTOWN". The Advocate (Australia). 12 July 1935. p. 8 (DAILY). Retrieved 7 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "QUEENSTOWN". The Examiner (Tasmania). Vol. LXXXV, no. 167. 15 July 1927. p. 6 (DAILY). Retrieved 7 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
5. ^ Hooper, Fred (13 October 2015). "Historic Queenstown theatre in Tasmania goes on the market". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
6. "QUEENSTOWN. METROPOLE THEATRE". Zeehan and Dundas Herald. 4 January 1918. p. 4. Retrieved 11 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
7. "QUEENSTOWN. PARAGON THEATRE". The Advocate (Tasmania). 9 August 1935. p. 8. Retrieved 11 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
8. ^ Tayler, Pen (31 August 2020). "The Paragon Theatre". Tasmania 40° South. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
9. Kempton, Helen (12 October 2015). "Queenstown's Paragon Theatre for sale". The Mercury. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
10. Gelston, Scott (12 October 2022). "Mark Seymour and Jeff Lang head to Queenstown for The Unconformity". The Examiner. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
11. Bennett, Lachlan (29 December 2017). "Queentown's historic Paragon Theatre to once again show film". The Advocate. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
12. Warren, Asher (2 November 2018). "The Unconformity festival embraces the power and peculiarity of Tasmania's wild west". The Conversation. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
13. Augustine, Judy (15 April 2022). "Queenstown to come alive for the Unconformity in 2023". The Mercury. Retrieved 7 June 2022.

• 1933 establishments in Australia
• Cinemas in Tasmania
• Former cinemas
• History of Tasmania