The Paramount Theatre: A Timeless Legacy and Its Friendly Ghosts

By Angeliki Craddock

Reporting Texas

In the heart of Austin, the Paramount Theatre, the crown jewel of Congress Avenue, has played a major role in the city’s culture and is home to at least three ghosts, making it a place where history and hauntings harmonize.

“And then I turn around… and there is a woman in white just floating where the seats are, like half in the seats, just looking at me, with fully black eyes, like looking into the void itself,” says Nate Reid, Senior Production Manager at the Austin Theatre Alliance, describing his experience of encountering the woman in white while working at the Paramount. 

Reid continues saying she didn’t seem malicious, and his response was to respectfully explain that he worked there, apologizes for bothering her, and inches his way out. 

In this episode of In the Texas Twilight: Urban Legends, a podcast about Austin’s culture and haunted lore, host John Melendez and I, co-host Kiki Craddock, dive into the Paramount’s fascinating history and ghostly tales. Listen to the full episode here.

The Paramount opened on October 11, 1915, originally known as the Majestic Theatre, as part of the Interstate Vaudeville circuit. Over time, it hosted icons like Harry Houdini, the Marx Brothers, and Anna Pavlova, and later became a venue for classic film screenings, including King Kong, Dracula, and The Wizard of Oz.

The venue’s revival in the 1970s, supported by a $1.85 million federal restoration grant, helped transform the Paramount into a vibrant cultural hub by 1980. Today, it hosts a wide variety of performances, from live concerts to classic film screenings.

After researching the theatre’s haunted past, John and I visited the venue. Though the building was closed, we were fortunate to meet Cheryl Wood, Lead House Manager at the Paramount and State Theatres, who offered us a tour of the empty Paramount.

Wood, who has worked at the Paramount for four years, recalls an unsettling experience early in her tenure, “I literally stopped in my tracks, hair on my arms stood up, hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I smelled cigar smoke in the theater. There was nobody in there. All the lights were out.”

 

She had been told about a ghost that “loves to sit in the opera box left, and he wears a top hat and tails, and he smokes a cigar,” remembering that at the time she was so scared, “I literally could not bring myself to look in the opera box.”

 

Wood also spoke of the woman in the white gown, “She walks from house left to house right… most think she’s looking for her husband,” Wood says, referencing the hotel next door that once housed war veterans.

Walter Norris, a former projectionist at the Paramount, is another well-known presence. 

Wood recalls how, during the Summer Classic Film Series, when it was time to switch the reel during Casablanca, “it kept going, click, click, click, click, and they ran up, and he had died of a massive heart attack while showing his favorite film in his favorite place.” 

Norris, who worked there for over 30 years, is said to continue his duties from beyond. “The projectionists will not show a film here without having a Snickers bar in the projection booth,” says Wood. Norris is known to disrupt equipment, and if candy isn’t offered, “something will absolutely go wrong,” Wood says.

 

As we toured the theatre, its beauty and history became more apparent. From the intricate ceiling details to the painting of St. Celeste, the patron saint of travelers and musicians, the Paramount is a space rich with cultural and architectural significance.

 

Whether you’re drawn to its legacy as a cultural venue or intrigued by the hauntings that follow its halls, the Paramount remains an integral part of Austin’s landscape.

“We’ve had nine generations of Austinites that have been able to go and experience the Paramount… all these different eras and generations, it’s meant so many different things to so many people,” says Reid on what it means to him to work at such a historical place.

To hear more about the stories of the Paramount Theatre, listen to the full episode of In the Texas Twilight: Urban Legends.