Green Parrot Theatre
1419 1st Avenue,
Seattle,
WA
98101
1419 1st Avenue,
Seattle,
WA
98101
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The Green Parrot Theatre was opened around 1914.
It became a popular 24/7 grind house that was favoured by homeless street people looking for a place to spend the night. From June 4, 1971 it was operating as a X-rated adult porn cinema who’s patrons gave it the nick-name ‘the dirty bird’. The first adult movie to be screened was “Dude Ranch” plus some uncensored San Franscisco shorts.
It had a fire in October 1979 and was closed, never to re-open again and it was demolished.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
1972 photo added credit Seattle Municipal Archives. Did not appear in the 20 on the website added in 2005. And the other 2005 link is dead.
Here is as story I wrote about an event at the Green Parrot in 1937 that was told to me by Ash Bridgham. He had entered the Seattle projectionist union in 1927. If I had guess I would say the Green Parrot opened around 1914. http://othercinema.com/otherzine/archives/index.php?issueid=1&article_id=3
In the late 1960’s, the Green Parrot had a different triple bill every day. Much of their audiences were alcoholics. The theater was on First Avenue in Seattle, right above the famous Pike Place Market. There was no concession stand, but that was a popcorn machine. The only bathroom was directly UNDER the movie screen, so if you went to the bathroom, everybody in the audience could watch you enter and leave the facility-at least those who were still conscious.
Around 1973 or so, the theater went porno. Reportedly, some of the lesser Ed Wood pornos were shown there, such as THE ONLY HOUSE IN TOWN. The theater even “played itself” in the film CINDERELLA LIBERY, as James Caan is seen strolling down First Avenue past the theater’s façade.
The July, 2018 Blu-ray release of CINDERELLA LIBERTY (on the Twilight Time label) shows the façade of the Green Parrot Theater on the disc’s cover, as James Caan and Marsha Mason stroll by the theater on 1st Avenue. The Green Parrot had clearly made the switch to adult-only films by the early 1970’s.
CINDERELLA LIBERTY also has a scene filmed at the Seattle 7th Avenue Theater (formerly known as the Music Hall Theater). James Caan is shown buying two tickets at the box office and then walks over to the concession stand. CAHILL starring John Wayne is depicted by a poster.
Became an adult theatre on June 4th, 1971. Ad posted.
Well, I left town in the summer of 1971 to attend college, so I guess I missed the Green Parrot’s conversion to porn.
Coincidently, there’s a brand-new mystery paperback by Robert Dugoni that’s set in old Seattle, entitled A KILLING ON THE HILL. According to an interview in the Seattle Times last Sunday, Dugoni did research about old Seattle and mentioned the Green Parrot Theater. So, perhaps the theater is mentioned in his new book. I’ll report on this page if the theater is cited in the book. It is currently in shipment, so I haven’t read it yet.
The Green Parrot is mentioned several times in A KILLING ON THE HILL. The book is set in old Seattle, when the Green Parrot was considered to be a luxurious first-run theater. When I attended some films there in the late 1960s, it had become a grindhouse/flophouse.
I joined the Projectionists Union in Seattle (IATSE Local 154) in early 1981. The Green parrot was closed by the time I came to town but I recall that the older projectionists always reffered to it by a nickname; “The Dirty Bird”.
In the late 1960s, the theater was still showing different triple bills every day of the year, most of them suitable for all ages. I left for college in 1971, and the theater had turned porno by the time I returned to town. You can see the theater displaying X-rated posters in the 1973 film CINDERELLA LIBERTY.