Anderson's Paramount Theatre hires Herald Bulletin ad employee as new director

After six months without a director, Randy Hammel was named as Gayle Jones Burris’ replacement. Jones Burris now works in the advertising department of The Herald Bulletin.

“I’m anxious to see the movement we’ve done with Randy, because I feel like he’s a real plus for us,” board member Richard Symmes said Thursday. “And I think he’s going to take us in a direction we really need to go.”

Hammel has music and management experience, two qualities that are rarely found in one person, Symmes said.

His experience includes being musician, adjunct professor at Anderson University, a music consultant in the recording and entertainment industry, producing and worked with the Gaithers at PineBrook Recording Studios.

The board hopes Hammel will help usher the Paramount into a new era.

Board president Marissa Skaggs said the No. 1 priority is to pay off the theater’s debt. The debt is down to $700,000 from its original $3.8 million mortgage.

Part of Hammel’s responsibility is to find events and ways to raise money to pay off the venue’s debt. But the board also wants the new director to help usher in younger generations.

“They’re thought of, but we’re competing with these,” Hammel said as he pointed to a smartphone. “And iPads and television and everything else. The younger crowd has never been initiated into going out to an event. We have to find a way to work that.”

For now, the Paramount is moving forward with its already in-place system: have outside people and businesses sponsor and bring in acts. The sponsors pay artists up front, while ticket sales, concessions and part of the proceeds from merchandise sales go to the theater.

Since the theater only seats 1,452, it’s difficult for the Paramount to bring in well-known – and often more expensive – acts itself without taking a loss.

That challenge only intensifies when it comes to attracting young adults and teens.

“If we try to bring in, say, artists they know, we can’t afford it,” Hammel said. “The Paramount is an entity that can’t afford to bankroll or sponsor talent to come in.”

Hammel and the board hope to eliminate the debt as soon as possible, possibly within the next four or five years. Once that happens, they said they’ll be able to take more calculated risks to pay guest entertainers.

“We as a board are excited about the corner that we just turned with the new director and with his experiences, his expertise and contacts in the community, and even across the country,” board member Russ Willis said. “We are expecting some great things.”