Venetian Theater
241 First Avenue West,
Albany,
OR
97321
241 First Avenue West,
Albany,
OR
97321
1 person
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Early in 1913 theater tycoon T. G. Bligh and property owner Conrad Meyer Sr. announced plans to build a community theater. Contracts were awarded and construction began in late spring. On July 26, Conrad Meyer Jr. (Meyer’s son) was named local manager. Meyer announced that “moving pictures will be shown only when other (live) attractions are not available.
In September 1913, The Bligh opened with Eugene Walker’s “The Wolf” featuring local as well as company actors.
By 1922 the theater had been renamed the Globe Theater and continued showing vaudeville acts until the 1930’s when the theater became a movie house for motion pictures and Saturday matinees. In 1936 the theater was named the Venetian. In 1937, the building was “modernized” with a stucco finish over the brick exterior. It remained the Venetian through remodelings in the Seventies and again in the Eighties.
It was renovated in 1999 and has returned to its roots as a performing arts center.
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
A few years ago it was bought by a church. It is now a church.
This is a photo of the Venetian Theater.
The Venetian was part of the Adamson theater chain in the early sixties. Adamson Theaters also ran the Rialto in Albany, as well as the Parkrose Theater and Canyon Drive-In in Portland and the Oregon State and Varsity in Corvallis.
A Robert-Morton theater organ size 2/6 was installed in the Globe Theater in 1922.
Some photos can be seen here.
1984 Photo
The Globe Theatre is mentioned in the August 12, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World: “Albany.â€"B. A. Rolfe, of the Rolfe theater, and C. A. Myers of the Globe have formed a corporation to handle both theaters. The Rolfe will only run two days a week and the Globe every day.”