Blue Mouse Theatre
626 SW 4th Street,
Portland,
OR
97204
626 SW 4th Street,
Portland,
OR
97204
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This entry is a real mess. It has information on two completely different theaters at different addresses.
Boxoffice, Sept. 10, 1955: “The Blue Mouse Theatre, a local entertainment center since 1912, is being razed to make way for a ra? garage to serve the adjoining new Medical Center. The three-story theatre was the scene of the showing of Portland’s first talking picture.”
Blue mouse .25 cents the Round up theatre not too far was .15 cents. I am 81 living in Indiana now but at the end of this 2018 July returning to Portland for a 10 day visit with family there. I love and miss Portland.
I loved this theatre. I visited this place several times. I started in 1946 or 47 I believe and later on. I was around 10 and eleven. I had to take a bus from Vanport city. We were all flooded out of Vanport City in 1948.
I do remember this lady and yes she was always there. I believe she spoke with a slight accent, didn’t she?
I worked for several years in the late 1970’s in the Title and Trust Building a couple of blocks north of the Blue Mouse on Third Avenue at Stark Street. My favorite memory of the Blue Mouse was the lady who sold tickets. She was decidedly older (about my age now), blond, powdered, and always wearing evening attire no matter what the time of day. She seemed to be there all the time. She was so strange we called her “the Blue Mouse lady.” It seemed everyone knew of her. Does anyone else remember this person? Just another wonderful memory of Portland from the late 1970’s. Au revoir Blue Mouse and so many other wonderful places that are no more.
If the tale told in the introduction that John Hamrick named this theater for the play “The Blue Mouse” is true, then a group of ministers and college professors in Ithaca, New York, would have been quite displeased. Here’s a brief story from The New York Times, February 14, 1909:[quote]“WOULD BAR ‘THE BLUE MOUSE.’
"Cornell Professors Say Play Will Have a Bad Influence on Students.
“ITHACA, N.Y., Feb. 14. — An effort will be made by several Cornell professors, backed by the local Ministers' Association, to prevent the performance of Clyde Fitch’s ‘The Blue Mouse,’ which is scheduled to be produced in this city tomorrow and Tuesday. E.H. Woodruff of the Cornell College of Law has interviewed the ministers and has obtained their co-operation. He charges that the play is immoral and that it will have a bad influence on the students and others who will attend.
“Mayor Horton says that, without formal complaint, he can do nothing, so that one performance is sure to be given.”[/quote]It was perhaps as much the reputation of Clyde Fitch, the playwright, as the play itself which had roused the ire of Ithaca’s self-appointed guardians of public morals. For those who may be interested, there is a biographical sketch of the scandalous Mr. Fitch, America’s first internationally famous playwright, about halfway down this web page.
Well,we are talking THEATRE RATS!
Mike I went everywhere in this theatre,but I was not looking for rats or mice, I am sure we had them,I just did not see them.I did see rats down at Printers Alley that were as big a dogs,very scarey.Now back to the Blue Mouse not to be off topic.
I bet if you really explored you would have found them.To cut off the heating/air system at the Imperial one had to go under the stage and it looked just like a Boris Karloff movie down there.
Never saw of heard of any in my downtown theatre,but I did see and hear of rats in the old PARAMOUNT down the street.
At the Imperial Theatre in Augusta,Georgia we had rats that ran under the stage,behind the screen.I mean, the size of a cat.And we were a Plitt theatre so we had staff to keep the place as clean as possible i will bet the Blue Mouse had more than mice running around.
I would say almost any old downtown theatre had a rat problem.Am I right or Am I wrong,Theatre managers?
A great place. Three movies shown continuously for about sixty cents, I believe. The theatre also had a huge cat that likely patrolled the place for rodents, an irony, given the theatre’s name. Fortunately, I never saw one.
I have an exterior picture taken about a year before demolition at Preserving The Past
There are a couple of exterior photos 1. as the Capitol Theatre 2. as the Blue Mouse Theatre and an interior photo of the side wall and proscenium in the Theatre Historical Society of America publication ‘Marquee’ Volume 9 #3 which should be availbable from their archives. Details on their website http://www2.hawaii.edu/~angell/thsa/
In the same article there is an exterior and interior photo of the original Blue Mouse Theatre (ex Globe Theatre).
I do not have a date for demolition apart from the year 1977, but you may find more further details in the archives of the local newspaper or at a library/local history society.
Dear Sir,
Concerning the Portland, OR Blue Mouse theater owned by Mr. John Hamrick—do you know the date, in 1977, it was demolished?
Are there any photos of this theater before or during the demolishion
T. Voigt