Sharkey Theater
Nimitz Street and Moore Street,
Pearl Harbor,
HI
96860
Nimitz Street and Moore Street,
Pearl Harbor,
HI
96860
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Here is some information from a recent article in a military-related magazine on the naming of Sharkey Theatre:
“Sharkey Theatre and Our Fallen Heros"
By Anna Marie General
From Liberty Call magazine, January-Fenruary, 2010
“For years people believed that Sharkey Theater was named after boxing legend Thomas Joseph Sharkey, who was a master at arms assigned to the USS Philadelphia, a Navy cruiser in the late 19th/early 20th century. It was generally accepted for years that it was named after him, but data recently was uncovered that there was a Lt. William Sharkey who was killed in a battery explosion aboard a submarine in 1918. There is speculation that Cmdr. (later Fleet Adm.) Chester W. Nimitz,the first commanding officer of Pearl Harbor Naval Submarine Base, named the theater in honor of his friend Lt. Sharkey.”
I think that the Navy would have been more likely to name a building on a base after a sailor who died in an explosion there than someone who gained fame after he left the Navy.
A brief history of Tom Sharkey after his Navy and boxing career:
“Sharkey moved out west, acted in some of Hollywood’s silent films and was at one time, the mayor of Vallejo. He toured the vaudeville circuit with his former boxing opponent, Jim Jeffries, and among his many friends were such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Bat Masterson and Teddy Roosevelt. It is said that during the days when $3 a week was a decent salary, Sharkey won purses totaling over a quarter of a million dollars.
Sharkey owned a bar across from Tammany Hall on 14th Street in New York City and also a place called Sharkey’s Athletic Club on Broadway.There is no hint of his illustrious career and rich life at his burial place in Golden Gate National Cemetery in California. The inscription on the standard-issue headstone reads, “Thomas Sharkey, California, MAAS US Navy, January 1, 1871-April 17, 1953".
This link has the movie schedule for the Sharkey Theater. It is in PDF format so you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it:
http://www.greatlifehawaii.com/docs/SHARK_8_28.pdf