Kelso Theater Pub
214 S. Pacific Avenue,
Kelso,
WA
98626
214 S. Pacific Avenue,
Kelso,
WA
98626
3 people
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The streamline modern elements of the Kelso Theatre were designed by architect Day Walter Hilborn, whose records list the house as a 1940 project.
The earliest mention of the Vogue I can find is from a January, 1918 issue of The Moving Picture Weekly, the exact date of which I’ve been unable to discover:
Given the delays in publication typical of the trade journals in those days, it’s likely that the Vogue opened in late 1917, but surely in January 1918 at the latest.The Vogue Theatre in Kelso was mentioned in the May 6, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World:
The Vogue was rebuilt in 1925 following a fire, as noted in this item from the July 11 MPW:The Kelso opened under the banner of the Vogue and later named the Kelso.
The new marquee has been up for several years. Not as impressive as the old one but adequate and works well with the building colors. The Pub was ahead of the local, rundown Regals in installing digital projection.
When I was in there in 1999, the projection equipment was Ballantyne Pro 35 projector head, Ballantyne Model 7 soundhead, Ballantyne VIP pedestal, Strong Super Lume-x xenon lamphouse.
A few October 2013 photos can be seen here and here.
I agree MPol looks like my kind of place,nice offical web-site.
KT Pub looks like a cool theatre! Do they ever play any classic films? Just curious.
Kelso had a second theater, called the Liberty, until 1954. The March 20 issue of Boxoffice that year said the house was closing after twenty years of operation, leaving Kelso with only one theater. A drive-in was in the planning stage.
Here’s a shot of the building and the new marquee:
http://agilitynut.com/08/8/thpub2.jpg
I hear that they finally got that mew marquee, but that’s it’s dinky and modern. I haven’t been their to verify it though.
The Kelso Theater was built in 1937, replacing a frame theater that had burned. It was locally owned until the mid-40s, when it was sold to Sterling Theaters, which in turn sold to Cineplex Odeon, then Act III and finally Regal. When Act III took over Cineplex they closed the Kelso, which was having trouble competing with a new fourplex in Longview as well as the art-deco Longview Theater (one screen) which got all the blockbusters because it had more seats than the largest room at the fourplex. A couple of discount chains operated the Kelso for a few years but eventually failed. Local investors took over in 1997 and converted it to the Kelso Theater Pub, which offers first-run movies (Regal doesn’t book anything but strictly mainstream fare). The theater is a bit run down but has a loyal following. The owners are trying to raise money to spiff up the front, including a new marquee to replace a damaged one that has been up since the early 1950s.
The food is very good there.