Broadway Theatre
1008 SW Broadway,
Portland,
OR
97205
1008 SW Broadway,
Portland,
OR
97205
3 people
favorited this theater
The Broadway Theatre opened in 1926, predating its larger neighbor across Broadway, the Paramount Theatre (now the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall), by two years.
The Broadway Theatre operated into the 1980’s, but was demolished in 1988.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft, Dennis Nyback, Gary Parks
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Recent comments (view all 25 comments)
The Broadway Theatre, at Broadway and Stark, that was the subject of the 1917 L.A. Times article ken mc quoted from on Nov 16, 2008, must have been the original Portland Orpheum, pictured in photos on this PSTOS page. It is recently listed at Cinema Treasures (but without its Orpheum and Broadway aka’s) under its later name, the Liberty Theatre.
PSTOS has a Liberty Theatre page, too, but nobody there seems to have realized that the Orpheum and the Liberty were the same theater.
I was in the Broadway in the 1980’s and saw Beau Gest with Marty Feldman. It was playing in the balcony theatre. I remember that the balcony was quite large and had not been changed at all from the original decorations with the exception of the new wall with the screen located on the front edge of the balcony. The theatre was fairly run down by this time and the lobby and entrances to the differant theatres were very cobbled up to try to keep the crowds from crossing from one auditorium to another. To bad as it looked like it had been nice at one time. Tom Moyer wasn’t known for being very simpathetic with his older properties. He liked to chop them up as cheaply as possible.
The Broadway, then operated by J.J. Parker Theatres, was renovated in 1956 and equipped to show movies in the Todd-AO process. After a ten-day closure, the house reopened with the Portland premier of “Oklahoma” in its road show run. The lobby and mezzanine lounge had been redecorated, with new carpeting, furniture, and lighting.
A great theatre in its day. “Psycho” opened there first run in August, 1960.
It would be nice to restore all these places; The Broadway had rodents and was run down, but I LOVED it!
After they demolished the Broadway, they built a highrise with a theater at the bottom, called the …you guessed it…Broadway. It was open until last year. Check it out here.
This opened on Broadway Day, August 27th, 1926. It’s grand opening ad has been uploaded in the photo section.
Another 2010 photo can be seen here.
Remember the dramatic neon designs on the exterior. One of the best in this corridor of great theatres. Only one left here I think.
Yep. The Arlene Snitzer Concert hall is left. A large building with a theater replaced the Broadway (also called the Broadway with a unique sign), but it seems to have gone out of business. And where the fox was is a new building with a Regal Theater in it, called the Fox Tower.