Billiken Theater

As a current resident of STL, I thought exactly the same thing, so I looked up “Billiken.“ The explanation for its name being applied to this Alaskan theater can be found on this Wikipedia page, and it is not what I would have thought.

The Billiken, built in 1957, remains in operation as of May 2025 with a single screen, and digital projection. The auditorium is a simple box with sound absorbent tiles on the walls, and a featureless black ceiling. The auditorium appears to be largely unchanged since its construction. It has no architectural embellishment, unusual light fixtures, or even decorative curtains. There is a concrete stage with a significant thrust allowing the auditorium to be used as a large lecture-hall-style. There is no fly space so the movie screen is dead hung and has adjustable side masking, allowing a full range of aspect ratios from Academy Standard, to Cinemascope. The stage has no wings. A row of rooms upstage from the screen may have been conceived of as dressing rooms, but there is no evidence that they were ever used for anything other than storage. There is a main house curtain of simple navy blue (or it may be black) The auditorium floor has a reverse curve as it approaches the stage. The seats are neither original, nor brand new. The booth has four projection ports (with the companion operator ports, total of 8 openings) and a single follow-spot port. There is an additional port which might have been for a re-wind room, but most of the original booth partition walls have all been removed so the original configuration is hard to establish. The booth now contains only single digital projector and the space is largely used as the manager’s office.

The exterior and lobby were renovated in 2018-2019. The lobby appears to have been stripped to bare walls and rebuilt. All the fixtures are new and clean, but unremarkable. The restrooms (one on each side) are all-new, A.D.A. compliant and spotlessly clean.