Coliseum Cinema
310 Main Avenue,
Tillamook,
OR
97141
310 Main Avenue,
Tillamook,
OR
97141
1 person
favorited this theater
Alive and well in September of 2003, the Coliseum Cinema had a showy combination sign and marqee. In white letters outlined in red and accented with neon, “Cinema” was spelled vertically with “Coliseum” on either side and stars on both sides on a light blue background.
Contributed by
Don Lewis
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
There is a small photo of this theater here:
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=2299
I have been in that theatre. What is their schedule now? Do they do movies, live theatre?
My image of the COLISEUM in Tillamook www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/250732456
Don: Is there any change of ownership?
I saw and photographed this theatre’s exterior last week. One of the young women who work there apologized that the COLISEUM name was not lit up on one side of the marquee. She said that the firm who built and maintained the present marquee was from Portland and had gone out of business, and the theatre staff had yet to find a new neon contractor to take care of the problem.
We were let into the tiny and plain lobby. There is a photo on the lobby wall of the theatre exterior when new, which shows a vertical sign to the right of the facade. Below this is a little written tribute to the theatre, written by a longtime patron.
There are some older photos on the pstos page:
http://tinyurl.com/yq7wyx
This is a recent photo of the Coliseum Cinema.
Here is a photo from 2007.
For many years, the Coliseum was operated by a fellow named Dude Smith. That’s how he was styled in many issues of Boxoffice Magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. Other issues give his formal name of Claude H. Smith, but I prefer Dude.
Dude bought the Coliseum and another Tillamook house, the Castle, in the mid-1930s. In 1952, he opened a drive-in nearby called the Tillavue. At some time he added the Columbia Theatre at St. Helens, Oregon, to his holdings. He operated all these theaters until his death, at which time (according to Boxoffice’s issue of March 4, 1963) they were taken over by the administrator of his estate, a Mr. Gus Elbow Jr.
A small photo of Dude Smith accompanies a thumbnail biography of him, commemorating his twenty years in movie exhibition, published in the March 17, 1945, issue of Boxoffice. The last line of the biography reads “His hobby is exploitation.”
I think Dude deserves a plaque in the Coliseum’s lobby.