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Americans have grown since the 1900s, in both population size and in the sheer size of the human body. Elife.org aka eLife Digest reports that the human body has grown considerably from 1920 to 2020 both in height and in circumference.

And I personally will attest that within the last approximately 40 years the seats have been shrinking in size at the Historic Paramount Theatre. As I recall when I first went to the paramount as a skinny little junior high and high school student the seats at the Paramount Theatre were huge and comfortable.

LOOK: New, Bigger, Better, More Comfortable Seats Are Coming Soon

Now, as I've grown older the seats at the paramount theater seem to have shrunk and are quite a bit smaller and less comfortable. George Levesque the Executive Director at the Paramount Theatre says "we heard you Abilene, and we are going to be replacing those uncomfortable seats at the paramount theater downstairs and in the balcony as well."

The renovation will take approximately 2 weeks and will be done in late October in hopes that the Paramount can reopen in time for the Halloween film classic Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho on Halloween day, October 31st, 2022.

As for the seats, the new ones are bigger, better, and more comfortable. How much more comfortable? Well, the 679 seats downstairs will be replaced with 628 seats allowing a little more space for the new bigger seats.

Replacing the new seats at the Paramount has been a considerable task. In order to keep the Paramount historically correct, the seats have to match the era in which the theater was built.

This project will also help the theatre achieve greater historical accuracy. The Balcony seats are original but the orchestra seats are not, as you can see in the photos. We believe that somewhere between 1940 and 1950, 1,000 seats were taken out of the orchestra section and replaced with 700 seats of a different look and size; those 700 are the chairs that will be removed. Source: George Levesque Executive Director-Paramount

Interestingly enough, the company that originally built the seats in 1930 is Irwin Seating Company and that same company is manufacturing the new seats with the same golden end caps to match the era of the 1930s. What's even crazier, is that the Irwin Company still has, and will use the original mold from 1930 of the ornate golden end cap to create the new seats.

For the first time in over 80 years, the Paramount Theatres' main floor seats will match the balcony seats

For the first time in over 80 years, the downstairs seats will match the balcony seats. Furthermore, the incredible staff and board at the Paramount Theatre have already raised the money to fund the entire project through a private donor.

Get ready West Texas for some popcorn and some classic films under the starlit ceiling at the historic more comfortable Paramount Theatre in downtown Abilene. Finally, if you would like to test drive the new seat that's coming, there's one in the Paramount lobby waiting for your test drive.

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