page_title: Paris Theatre (Portland, Oregon)
section_title: Adult movie theater
hierarchical_section_title: Paris Theatre (Portland, Oregon) / History / Adult movie theater
caption_attribution_description: English: Riverside Tobacco, now vending electronic cigarettes in Portland, Oregon. Behind Riverside is Voodoo Doughnut and the Paris Art Theatre, a former triple-x movie house where the motto was, "More of the same only better!"
context_page_description: Paris Theatre, formerly Third Avenue Theatre and also known as Paris Theater or Ray's Paris Theatre, is an historic building in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, in the United States. The theatre was constructed in 1890 and opened as a burlesque house. It was later converted to a cinema, then a club and music venue, before serving as an adult movie theater until 2016. The building was a live venue and nightclub until it closed in October 2019.
context_section_description: In 2007, Ray Billings, owner of Jefferson Theatre, closed that venue and relocated his adult movie theater operation to the Paris.
  Cinema Treasures said the building's exterior featured a red marquee with "Theatre" written vertically and "Paris" appearing horizontally across the bottom. An additional four-panel marquee was displayed above the front entrance. The theater screened heterosexual adult films on one large screen and gay pornography on a smaller screen. It featured a stage where guests could engage in sexual activities in front of a crowd, along with a "perky exam table" and a "voyeuristic bedroom". The venue was open 24 hours to patrons age 18 or older; as of 2007, entry cost $8.
  In 2007, Willamette Week included the Paris in its list of Portland sites "Where Ghosts Wouldn't Be Caught Dead". The paper said of the venue, "Unfortunately, the Paris Theater ... hosts a bunch of winos, users and sleazy old guys the same age as your dad (or granddad), with their pants around their ankles and greasy cum rags in hand. A deformed zombie may be slightly more grotesque, but at least he won't flash you." In 2013, the same publication provided the following description of the theater and its clientele:
  Despite the many couples offerings, a recent visit finds a smattering of middle-aged men watching a massive projection of tattooed teenage girls being sloppily choked and slapped in the face. The men in the seats have their pants on and look nervous. The men standing in the aisles do not have their pants on, and look very comfortable.
  As you enter, all faces—translucent in the pale pink flicker of the theater—look away from the interlocking figures on the screen and gaze hopefully, instead, on you. Perhaps you will be something new. Perhaps you will be interesting.
  In 2016, Willamette Week referred to the Paris as "an adult movie theater, sex club and safe space for public masturbators", and a "shining beacon to furtive men hiding their faces from the Voodoo Doughnut line".
caption: The theater and adjacent storefronts at Southwest Third Avenue and West Burnside Street in 2014
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