New seating planned for Abilene's Paramount Theater, taking the venue back in time

Wider, more comfortable seats are coming to the Paramount Theatre, the entertainment venue announced in an email to patrons Tuesday.

But what's new also is going to be a bit old.

The downtown Abilene theater plans to remove 679 of downstairs seats, with 628 new seats will be installed in their place, made to closely resemble original seating from 1930.

But just because the new chairs will add to the theater's historic appeal, they aren't the "cheap seats," in any sense of the word, said George Levesque, the theater's executive director.

"They're top of the line," he said.

But don't expect any fancy recliners that shake whenever a superhero flies by on-screen.

Instead, the work is "both an upgrade and historical," Levesque said.

While the seats will be new, they help the Paramount travel, in a way, back in time, achieving a greater historical accuracy, he said.

Plans are to have new seats in place by the time the venue's Halloween film, the suspense classic "Psycho," shows Oct. 31, Levesque said.

Upstairs, downstairs

Seats in the balcony are original to the theater, but the current orchestra seats are not, Levesque said.

"In 1930, they installed 1,500 of these tiny seats with these gorgeous, beautiful engraved end caps," he said. "The 500 upstairs are still there."

It's believed sometime between 1940-50, 1,000 seats were taken out of the orchestra section and replaced with 700 of a different look and size.

"The main reason was to give people more room," Levesque said. "They were wider. They were bigger. But they didn't match what was upstairs. They're the wrong chair."

Those 700 seats will be removed, he said, and it's a bit overdue.

"They've outlived their lifespan, which is 50 years," Levesque said. "And we'll be able to get something that is closer to the way they should look so they match (the balcony seats)."

The replacement seats should be, on average, 1 to 2 inches wider, he said.

"Not all the chairs are the same size, which is intriguing," Levesque said. "... There's just slight variations in the size of the chairs so that they can make them correctly lay out."

(Way) back to the future

A time-travel twist enters into the narrative with who's crafting the new seats.

The company that originally made the chairs in 1930 will construct the new ones, Levesque said.

Irwin Seating of Grand Rapids, Mich., still has molds for the ornate gold end-caps seen on chairs still in the balcony section.

That means for the first time in perhaps 80 years, the downstairs seats will match the balcony.

"That's really insane to me, that 92 years later, something so unique, they can still make it," Levesque said.

The chairs will have backs of smooth wood and no exposed fasteners, he said.

The only plastic will be on the underside of the ergonomic seats, supported by a high-density foam instead of the springs used in current downstairs seating.

That means, Levesque said, they should remain comfortable 50 years from now.

And Levesque said he's looking forward to not hearing the squeak of worn-out cushion springs when patrons get up from or back into their chairs.

"They make a lot of noise, so you hear people getting up and down, depending on what seat they're in, throughout an entire play or movie," he said. "These seats? They're quiet. That's going to make a big difference."

Installation for the new seating should begin around Oct. 17, Levesque said.

"They will take out the old seats, they will fill the floor, and then we're bringing in a flooring company that is going to grind off the top couple of millimeters from the cement and then put a new finish down," he said.

Some of the decades-old paint is coming up, Levesque said.

"So, we're going to take the cement back to its original color and just put a sealant on it so that it will last a long time," he said.

Americans with Disabilities Act-designated aisle seats will have retractable armrests, which will better allow wheelchair users to more easily move from their wheelchair into a seat, Levesque said.

Is this seat free?

The project, though expensive, won't cost the theater a dime, Levesque said. An anonymous donor agreed to fund the replacements.

"We started talks on this about 2½ years ago, and sure enough, you start thinking about how are we going to raise the money" Levesque said. "(We ended) up finding an interested party who's willing to pay the entire amount. And that's sure made the whole process simpler for us to manage."

Unfortunately, you can't plan to take a bit of the Paramount home, no matter how many season tickets you've bought.

The 679 chairs that will be removed will not be available for purchase, the seating company taking sole ownership of the old seats after they are removed.

While you can't take it with you, those interested in test driving one of the new seats are in luck − one is in the theater's lobby until the installation begins in mid-October, Levesque said.

The seating changes are part of recent efforts to regularly revamp the Paramount, he said.

"Last year, we got a brand new sound system, and the year before we got a brand new projector," Levesque said. "So, we're continuing to try to upgrade the place and make sure that when (patrons) come see a movie, it's not like the old school."

Only the seats are.

Brian Bethel covers city and county government and general news for the Abilene Reporter-News. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: New seats planned for Paramount Theater, taking the venue back in time