Paramount Pictures Building

During the 1920s and 1970s, this building and many others served the film industry by offering storage, distribution, and other services that connected tens of thousands of movie theaters to studios from Hollywood to New York. From the 1920s to the 1970s, Hollywood and the Crossroads Art District in Kansas City were connected through a series of buildings known as Film Row. Kansas City was an essential part of the vast entertainment distribution industry given its geography and position as a railroad hub.

As early as 1920, there were about 800 films made annually in the United States. Movie theaters became so popular, that in 1941, The Daily Year Book stated that there was one theater for every eight thousand people in the United States. The population was 133.5 million at the time, and the demand presented a challenge for distribution and storage. One movie could be from 6 to 10 reels long, and these reels could contain cartoons, news, and media other than the feature film. As a result, Hollywood produced tens of thousands of reels every year that were stored and distributed in buildings like the ones that surround this building that served Paramount Pictures.

Kansas City's Paramount Pictures Building was used to store films distributed by Hollywood and New York studios. At the time, it was not uncommon for these studios to make their movies. The term "exchange centers" was used for this location because studios like MGM, Walt Disney, and Warner Brothers stored and distributed their films to the theaters. The buildings on Film Row played a crucial role in ensuring the curtains rose for the masses.

The Paramount Pictures Building, erected in the early 1920s and renovated again around 1930, was a unique design for film exchange centers. Offices and screening rooms were located near the front of the building. A firewall separated street-level entrances from the protected and flame-proof film vaults. Later, more film vaults were constructed in the basement. Thus, Kansas City's Paramount Building was one of the most secure facilities for its films.

Paramount Studios also provided distribution centers with exciting publicity events for upcoming films, particularly in Kansas City. Studio head Adolph Zukor often passed through Kansas City as he traveled between financial offices in New York and the rest of his studio offices in California. In the summer of 1922, Billy Schaubert, a former local racer driver, parked in front of the building and - surrounded by youthful, enthusiastic eyes - proudly held up a banner that read "Across the Continent." The moment was one in a long line of public engagements that made Paramount thrive in Hollywood's golden age. The man behind the wheel of the car, Billy Schaubert, was later hired as one of Paramount's salesmen in the Kansas City area.

The Paramount building was one of the last in the Film Row District to remove the studio's iconic name from the side of the building. The building and district has seen many changes since the end of Film Row's heyday, but the film vaults remain and demonstrate Kansas City's role in the early years of the film industry.

Kansas City’s Crossroads has a Historic Tie to Hollywood, Flatland KC. June 6th, 2022. Accessed August 30th, 2022. https://flatlandkc.org/curiouskc/kansas-city-film-row-links-crossroads-arts-district-to-hollywood/.

Across the Continent. Paramount Pep. June 22nd, 1922. 8 - 8.