"Fast Company" was the first "talkie" shown at the Paramount Theatre.

George Orcutt was there. He was 21 years old and went to the movie with brothers Galen and Judene Martin. Galen drove his new roadster convertible.

Their tickets cost 10 cents each and popcorn was 5 cents a bag.

Like thousands upon thousands of other Austinites and southeastern Minnesota moviegoers, they would return time after time.

The Paramount Theatre was their favorite.

When the historic movie house celebrates its 73 anniversary Saturday, it will conjure up memories of another era in history for Orcutt.

Born in 1908, he was honored last Saturday night, when the Austin Area Commission for the Arts held a Celebration concert on the occasion of the successful completion of a fund-raising blitz this summer.

The AACA raised $308,000 and has completed much of the restoration of the building listed on the National register of Historic Places.

A standing room only crowd witnesses the crowning moment in the history of the restoration last Saturday night. Orcutt, 94, was one of them.

He may be the only living person to have seen the premier film shown at the Paramount Theatre in 1929.

"We came back the next night to see the 'Green Murder Case'," said Orcutt, reading from a journal he kept of that single year in his life. "I lived with my parents on the farm about nine miles south of Austin."

"All we were used to seeing was silent movies in those days," he said. "This was something new and different and we liked it."

"The Paramount was everybody's favorite," he said. "I went to matinees, but Saturday nights were the best nights to see a movie in Austin. there were big crowds and long lines to get in the theater, but it was worth it."

"This was the Great Depression era and we needed an escape and the movies provided it," he said.

Children and teenagers plunked down their dimes at the box office beneath the marquee out front and races inside and down the long aisles to the front rows. The closer the better to immerse one's self in the images on the silver screen.

Couples retreated to the balcony for the obvious reasons and spawned the admission of many that "I fell in love five times at the Paramount."

Years later, George Orcutt took his, first, girlfriend Neva and later, wife Neva.

Still later, the couple took their children, Joanne, Nancy and Bill.

"I remember seeing 'Gone With the Wind' at the Paramount," said Orcutt. "There were big crowds for the movie and it was real long, but it was a great one."

"I saw vaudeville acts at the Paramount, too," he said. "There was always good entertainment there."

Then, came television and it was the beginning of the end for the grande dame of movie entertainment in Austin.

The Austin Theater closed, the State Theater, closed, and the Roxy Theatre, too.

Finally, the Paramount Theatre's lights flickered off.

It was reborn briefly as a disco, comedy club and nightclub before it grew silent.

Then, a decade ago, the AACA entered the scene and acquired the building and embarked on a restoration project.

Today, the Paramount Thteatre is enjoying a resurgence of interest as a culture and fine arts center.

The success of the restoration project has been credited, in part, to the individual contributions of so many people like Orcutt, who has donated money to have two seats named for himself and his wife, Neva.

His daughter, Joanne Orcutt Stevens and her husband, Harry, are among the most energetic volunteers

pursuing the complete restoration of the building listed on the National register of Historic Places.

"It was fun to see something different like the music last Saturday night at the concern," said Orcutt, who had a front row seat for the Celebration concert. "It reminded me of some of the old times we enjoyed in the theater when I was young."

Mr. Orcutt worked for Hormel Foods Corporation at its Austin flagship plant for four decades before retiring. his wife, Neva, died November 5, 2000, at the age of 91.

He is a charter member of the Austin Izaak Walton League chapter and still an ardent defender of the environment and protecting natural resources.

Orcutt carries of copy of Emerson Hough eloquent plea -- written in 1922 -- to invoke the "Great Spirit of the Angler" to preserve and protect America's great outdoors.

Orcutt holds the same passion for old buildings.

"I'm glad to see that they did what they did to protect this building. We've lost too many others that mean a lot to our local history," he said.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at

lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com