Karl Lindstaedt made it a “thrill” for Bill Regner to go to work at the Paramount Theatre.

It was 1944-45 and Regner was a teenager, who took a job as an usher and janitor at the Paramount Theatre.

“I did all sorts of things at the theater,” Regner said. “Mr. Lindstaedt made it a thrill to go to work there.”

Not many “bosses” rate that kind of praise; particularly from a teenager, but Regner was unequivocal in praising Lindstaedt.

“The Paramount was a special place for all of us growing up in Austin at that time, and Karl helped make it so,” Regner said.

A bronze sculpture honoring Lindstaedt was unveiled last Saturday night (Aug. 30).

Lindstaedt’s career as theater manager spanned decades, 1929 to 1967, and eras, vaudeville to motion pictures. Lindstaedt died at the age of 90 in 1988.

“He was the paramount Theatre in all those years,” Regner said.

Janette Horman, Fairmont, is a surviving niece of Lindstaedt’s, recalled a man “I never really knew,” because of his devotion to his work.

“He would come home every Christmas Day and request the family had dinner at precisely 11:30 a.m. so he could get back to work for that evening’s performance,” Horman said. “For that reason, I never really knew him. He was always on the go.”

According to Horman, Lindstaedt’s life was spent, mainly, on the stage in front of an audience before he became a theater manager at the height of motion picture popularity.

She remembered he studied vocal music and then sang professionally as a tenor and then a baritone on stages in southern Minnesota.

The days of 10-cent movies made motion picture palaces the treasure houses they were.

Flickering black and white pictures, silent or with a piano or organ accompanying them.

Then, pictures with sound.

Finally, color pictures and sound.

Technicolor images in a dark theater where imaginations sometimes collided with visions on the screen.

“Actually, Karl came to Austin after working at a theater in Rochester,” Horman said. “That was 1928, when he went to work at the Park theater in Austin.”

When he accepted the theater manager’s job at the Paramount Theatre, he never left, remaining four decades.

As Horman spoke in the lobby of the much revered atmospheric theater, she paused to look around and observed, “This is the place he called home.”

Family and friends of Lindstaedt gathered for wine and memories in the lobby.

Regner assumed the role of master of ceremonies for the informal unveiling of the bust in al alcove decorated by master craftsman Fred Bruckmeier.

Regner told the story of the bust’s conception; first as an idea as Regner walked the streets of Albert Lea, during an “Artist’s Crawl” admiring art works in storefront windows.

Then, he commissioned sculpture Robert Muschleer to cast the theater manager’s likeness in bronze.

Muschler, according to Reger and the sculptor’s wife, slavishly worked on the piece until illness slowed him and then death came.

Enter Paul Williams and his wife, Debbie, who took over the project to its completion.

“This job has been in the works for 3 1/2 years,” Regner said as glasses of wine were raised to toast Lindstaedt’s memory.

Melissa Trihus, the Paramount Theatre’s financial operations manger, hosted the Saturday night dedication and praised the donor and the artist(s) for their efforts.

Before long, guests were sharing their personal memories of Paramount importance.

Not the least of which were many about the man who called the atmospheric theater his “home away from home” and made working there such a pleasure for generations of teenagers.

Today, the man’s bronze gaze follows every theater patron’s entrance into the house of movie and stage magic.