Summer Classic Film Series finds a temporary home

Austin's Summer Classic Film Series is in the middle of a strange chapter this year, and it's worth knowing where to find it before you head downtown. The series, which has become as much of a summer fixture as a dip in Barton Springs, opened on May 22 and runs through August 30. The opening weekend leaned hard into the classics, with Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Rear Window, and Mulholland Drive among the early titles, and the full schedule of dates and screenings was set back in late April.

The usual home for the series is the Paramount Theatre at 713 Congress Avenue, a century-old movie palace with a history that runs deeper than most people realize. It was built in 1915 by architect John Eberson, construction began that February, and it opened its doors on October 11. It started life as the Gaiety Theatre, opened as the Majestic, and was remodeled and reopened as the Paramount in 1930. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 23, 1976, and designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark that same year. It holds 1,270 seats, and its blade sign, taken down in 1963, was recreated and lit for the first time in more than 50 years back on September 23, 2015. Over the years it has hosted world premieres for SXSW and the Austin Film Festival and produces the Moontower Comedy Festival.

That's where the twist comes in: the Paramount closed in mid-June for its first major renovation in more than 50 years. It's an eight-to-nine-month full restoration, part of a transformational effort to secure the future of both the Paramount and the State Theatre for the next century, and the work is being carried out by Red River Restorations as part of the "Shine On" capital campaign. The building is owned by Paramount, Inc. and operated by the Austin Theatre Alliance, and professional production staff have been provided by Local 205 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees since the theatre first opened.

Despite the closure, the series is carrying on through Labor Day, and the State Theatre is picking up the slack. Located just down the street at 719 Congress Avenue, the State was designed by architect W. Scott Dunne and first opened on December 25, 1935. It's a smaller room, seating 305, but it keeps the tradition alive while the Paramount is under wraps. Both theatres are managed by the Austin Theatre Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit based here in Austin that employs somewhere between 51 and 200 people. So if you've been wanting to catch a classic on the big screen this summer, the series is still running, just a few doors down from where it usually lives. With the Paramount dark until well after the series wraps, the State Theatre is the place to go for your fix of old-school cinema in the heart of downtown.