Moore Theatre

Part of the More Hotel which at one time had a swimming pool in the basement.

Neat theater, bit run down but with a little elbow greese, could be a jewel for Seattle.

A photo of the Moore theater can be seen here:
http://www.stevesafarik.net/seattle_activities/moore.jpg

Current seating for this theater is given as 1419 seats. The history of the Moore theater can be found here:
http://staging.axisweb.com/stg-comps/moore/about/moore.asp

Another website with the history of the Moore theater can be found here:
http://www.historylink.org/_output.CFM?file_ID=3852

The only other name mentioned in either history site for this theater is Moore Egyptian. I'm curious as to where the aka names of President and Old Orphuem come from.

Current photo of the Moore Theatre, Seattle, Wa.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Chuck1231/Washington%20Theatres/MooreTheatreSeattleWa.jpg

This is the theatre where "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" played its original run in Seattle in 1976. The theatre was known as the Moore Egyptian at that time, and "Rocky Horror" played on a double bill with Brian DePalma's "Phantom of the Paradise" for quite a long time. I saw it multiple times during the summer and fall of that year. Around this same time, the Moore Egyptian was also one of the first Seattle theatres to show "underground" midnight movies. They had the first Seattle showing of all the early John Waters classics, such as "Pink Flamingos" and "Female Trouble" as part of this series. Ah...the memories!

Cascadekid is right, the Moore Hotel has a swimming pool in the basement.

In addition to showing films, the Moore was Seattle's touring house for legit theatre for some time, before the 5th AVenue and the Paramount were renovated and got into that business. The Moore is --- or was, in the 80's & 90's when I knew it --- a "hemp" house, meaning it used a ropes-and-sandbags flying system instead of a system using steel counterweights to raise and lower the curtains. At one point in the mid '80's, a touring show --- was it "Elephant Man?" --- came through whose sets and lighting overtaxed the capacity of the flyrail. During the load-out, a substantial chunk of the flyrail was pulled out from an unbalanced load.

I know someone who claims the theatre is haunted; a former maintenance man told me there were scarey things that happened at night. Another person I know related a tale that he was working on the fly floor on one side of the stage, and looked across to the other side of the stage and saw someone looking at him. The apparition then turned and walked away --- only it walked through the brick wall and disappeared. OTOH, this was the 70's and 80's and my friend was tired and may have been chemically enhanced.

There are some photos of this theater on this site. Enter theaters as a search term and browse the photos:

http://content.lib.washington.edu/imls/kcsnapshots/index.html

The second link posted by Lost Memory on May 25 2005 no longer works.

Here is the new Moore Theatre Home Page.

Here is the Moore Theatre History Page.

There are a TON of ghost stories about this place. Everybody I ever knew who worked at this place (mostly in the early to mid 80's, when it was mostly showing movies) had a story to tell. I remember when they started showing movies again in the 70's - I must have been 8ish - the place was really run-down and spooky and you could run around anywhere - the basement pool with the creepy egyptian style murals (or did I just imagine that? Does anyone else remember that?), dark corridors leading to various balcony levels, including the concrete seats in the 3rd balcony that seemed so high you could hardly see the screen and box seats that seemed to be hidden from below... it was great.

Here is a recent photo of the Moore Theater.

When I was a teenager in the mid-seventies, I worked at the Moore Theatre. I opened the theatre closed the theatre, cleaned the theatre, took tickets, and spent a fair amount of time exploring. There’s a lot more to the Moore than meets the eye. In the auditorium, backstage, above and around the dome and underneath in the basement I came across some unusual situations. I don't believe in ghosts, but on a couple of occasions, when the theatre was empty, there is no denying that my friend Robby and I saw some things in the foyer and on the mezzanine that could not be explained. I'm not sure why but to me the theatre seems to be older than the turn of the 19th century (1907).
By-the-way, most of the live shows at the Moore while I worked there were awesome, Billy Joel, Supertramp, Electric Light Orchestra, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Climax Blues Band, Golden Earring, Chaka Kahn and so many others, some of which whose names I’ll never remember. Not all the shows were great some were horrible. I think the two worst were the Strawbs and the New York Dolls. The movies ranged from the unusual (200 Motels, Rocky Horror) to disturbing (EL Topo) and downright awful (Eraserhead). For a teenager such as me, working at the Moore was a dream come true.
Thanks Ken

vv475@earthlink.net

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974

Moore Theatre and Hotel (added 1974 - Building - #74001958)
1932 2nd Ave., Seattle
Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Houghton,E.W.
Architectural Style: No Style Listed
Area of Significance: Architecture, Engineering
Period of Significance: 1900-1924
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Domestic, Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Hotel, Theater
Current Function: Domestic
Current Sub-function: Hotel

This is a recent photo of the Moore Theater.

Here is a recent interior view of the Moore Theater.

The Moore's history page, to which I posted a direct link on February 2, 2006, has been moved once again. This new link should work for a while.

When you were "8ish" and running around the Moore Theatre who were you with? Some of the places in the theatre you mentioned were not open to the public, let alone to an eight year old kid. You would need to have keys to access some of the places you mentioned. When I was a teenager, during the 70's, I worked at the theatre and know of the places you mentioned. I didn't care much for the pool area. After a few explorations, I only went in that part of the basement to turn on and off the steam. Since it hadn't been in use for many years, the whole area was decrepit. I do remember murals on the walls but I don't recall what they looked like. I thought it a dangerous area to be if you were by your self. It was obvious that people who had no business there frequented the pool area, perhaps for shelter, or maybe for other reasons. My dad told me when he was a teenager (early 1940's) he would go swimming in the Moore's pool.
It's possible we crossed paths.
Vern

vv475@earthlink.net

Tonight on the Sci Fi channel a program about the Moore Theatre was broadcast. It was about ghosthunters and their evening spent in the theatre. Interesting to read that in the basement there was or is a pool? What is a pool doing in the basement of a theatre?

Correction: I see that the Moore Hotel had a swimming pool in the basement, not the theatre?

I took swimming lessons as a young teenager at the Moore basement pool from an aged Helene Madison, a former Olympic gold medal swimmer, in the 1950's. As I remember the pool had a very low ceiling and several large pillars in the pool holding up the ceiling. Some years later as a young lawyer, I represent the Seattle production of the musical Hair when it performed at the Moore and had received bomb threats for ripping off the hippy movement. Tom
Wikipedia:
She won three gold medals in freestyle at the 1932 Summer Olympic Games.. . . In sixteen months in 1930 and 1931, she broke sixteen world records in various distances. Following the 1932 Olympics she appeared in the films The Human Fish and The Warrior's Husband and hence, as a professional, was not allowed to participate in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. After her swimming career, she did odd jobs as a swimming instructor, department store clerk and a nurse. Divorced thrice and living alone, she died of cancer in 1970 in Seattle, Washington.

The Hotel and Theater are connected. A brick wall divides the Theater and Hotel basement. I may be wrong, but I don't think this wall is part of the original construction.
Vern

Another story on the hauntings at the Moore tonight (December 5, 2007) at 9PM Eastern on the Sci-Fi channel.

Another photo of the Moore Theater can be seen here.

This is a June 2008 photo.

The Moore history notes that the segregated "gallery" has been removed. No, this "gallery" was the 2nd balcony, which is still there - but friends who've been going to the Moore for years are often surprised when I point it out, they never noticed it. A few of the lights in its dome's stained glass still function. This balcony has a ridiculously steep rake that must be experienced to be believed, and it is not normally used due to the only access being a long staircase. From just inside the entrance ( after going through the balcony doot on the left) one must climb a narrow, steep flight of stairs, ending at a landing (where resides the bay window on the north side of the building), do a dogleg turn and go up a second flight, then do at least five switchback flights to reach the top. I saw Alan Parsons a few years back and, despite unusually light attendance, this was open - the only time I've seen it open - and I made certain to go up. As I wear a top hat and opera cloak to the theatre, I hope I inspired more ghost stories, though I'm certain the Moore has its share of real ones!
The Moore really needs restoration; the box seats have been removed, the second balcony looks worn-out (not that it sees much use, due to fire codes, see above) and ugly 70s chandeliers with olive-green "crystal" have been hung. Many light fixtures are missing, and everything but the lobby floor is under many coats of thick, white paint. I don't believe it ever had a pipe organ at all. This place is a diamond-in-the-rough, and could really shine again. But despite its decline, it's still a fine house for shows.

This is a circa 1910 photo.

Here is a 2009 photo.

A February 2009 marquee shot is here.

This is a 1982 photo.

Here is a September 2009 photo.