Hey gang!
I HAD to share this!
I live in Pittsburgh Pa and every day I commute with my wife into the city for work... and every day we pass a building with a very ornate stone marquee for Paramount Pictures. It's GORGEOUS, and I always say I want to try and get closer to see it.
The building has looked vacant for years, but it's inches from a major highway and so trying to stop and look has been no easy task.
Today, we were bound and determined... I found a neighborhood where we could park and walk up...risked my life to get some pictures (would have crossed the road to get better ones, but I'm 99% certain I would have been hit by a car LOL)
I love how ornate everything is! Imagine walking through these doors in the 1930s!
Close up of the detail in the tile work... so much care...they WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THIS TODAY
Now this is the point where things got AWESOME....thinking the building is abandoned, I decide to scour for a window that I can peer in... I manage to find one and there is a man inside doing some painting...I also notice a Raiders One Sheet hanging. I'm completely taken aback and he comes over and waves us toward a door. He introduces himself and I tell him that I'm a big fan of film posters and the history of old Hollywood... It turns out that the building was the Pittsburgh Distribution office for Paramount from the 1930's -1960's. He explained that Nickelodeon owners came there to purchase the films... they would actually screen them onsite and remove any film they deemed racy or inappropriate. The building was purchased by a nearby hospital and has been vacant for about 50 years. They were going to demolish it and this gentleman got a grant to restore it and make offices for start up companies.
He wanted to keep the history intact and there are posters hanging through the building. Additionally, a local theater is sending all of the Paramount posters to them after the films play and they will rotate in a marquee hanging in the lobby!
The gentleman took my wife and I on a tour and talked us through everything!
The posters were really cool, but the best part of the tour came when he took me to the screening room... He left everything as it was, but added a fresh coat of white paint (which it was painted white before)
I'm not going to lie..I got chills standing in this screening room... Just imaging the things that were projected right onto that wall, the deals that were cut, the stories, rumors, lies, jokes...etc. Those walls talk.
I asked if anything had been found in the building...posters... and he led me to this, which I just thought was the pinnacle of cool
Last, he explained to me that the film vault is still in tact...he didn't have the key on him, but he gave me his business card and told me to call him and I was welcome to return later and he'd gladly show me!
If anyone has any old Paramount posters they want to donate, let me know...he will display them and credit your name on the walls. I'm going to dig up something for them for sure.
If you told me this morning I was going to be exploring a 1930's film distribution center this morning, I would have said you were crazy... Life is a strange and beautiful journey and this was a cool little nugget for me... Hope you guys enjoy the pictures and story. 
Such a great story and how cool and amazing would it be to be able find and explore a building like this, that had been closed up and sealed for decades!
Talk about the possibility of finding hidden or long lost poster treasures!
