Broadway Theatre
1008 SW Broadway,
Portland,
OR
97205
1008 SW Broadway,
Portland,
OR
97205
5 people
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Showing 1 - 25 of 30 comments
Opening on August 27, 1926, the Wurlitzer organ wowed them along with Constance Talmadge in “The Duchess of Buffalo.” The architectural style was said to be a mix of late Italian and early Spanish Renaissance. Bathed in jade green and orange with the mural work by Robert E. Power of the Power Studio, the theatre was anything but subtle.
The Broadway Theatre a 70mm Todd-AO roadshow theatre for many years.
I worked as a District Manager for Tom Moyer Theatres (Luxury Theatres) this was just before the old Broadway closed, also the Fox. Malcolm Hardy.
December 1987 photo added credit Kevin-Michael Moore.
Yes was a very beautiful and dramatic street at one time and espcially at night. The Fox had the most dramatic marquee. Very art deco.
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.
Remember the dramatic neon designs on the exterior. One of the best in this corridor of great theatres. Only one left here I think.
Another 2010 photo can be seen here.
This opened on Broadway Day, August 27th, 1926. It’s grand opening ad has been uploaded in the photo section.
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.
It would be nice to restore all these places; The Broadway had rodents and was run down, but I LOVED it!
A great theatre in its day. “Psycho” opened there first run in August, 1960.
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.
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 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.
Here is a December 1948 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/4qxero
The organ from the Broadway was sold to Bob Bollinger of Oaks Amusement Park in 1955, the organ was installed in the roller rink and is still there sounding beautifully and is meticulously maintained, and is regularly played by Keith Fortune and Gary Russell. The dedication for the organ was on Thursday, March 24, 1955, at 8:30 P.M. There are 1242 pipes, 2525 magnets, 4700 pouches, and 500,000 feet of wire. What a mess that was to put together! It still floats above the skating floor.
Pipe Dreams Documentary – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL2XQNp0VVs
OK. It also should have said sold to Jensen et al, not by.
This LA Times article is dated 3/19/17, which conflicts with the 1926 opening date:
PORTLAND-March 18-The Broadway Theater at Stark and Broadway, which was built for the Orpheum management and which is Portland’s largest theater, with a seating capacity of 2000, has been sold by Jensen and Von Herberg, owners of the Columbia Theater.
The date for its reopening as a motion picture house under the management of Jensen and Von Herberg will be determined in the near future and it is probable that the name of the house will be continued.
Jensen and Von Herberg are now operating moving picture theaters in Portland, Seattle and Butte, where they recently completed a new building at the cost of $250,000.
The Broadway was the architectural masterpiece of 20s movie mogul J.J. Parker, who made films and operated a chain of theaters. His son John J. Parker gained notoriety for his film Dementia, one of the great cult classics. I had the pleasure of knowing his granddaughter, Laura Parker, in college, who had some amazing stories to tell of growing up in the Hollywood era.
The mural you refered to was a poster case for 24 sheets which were billboard sized displays usually used outdoors. The Broadway used this for advertising upcoming attractions when it was still a first run house. The Broadway did run Tora Tora Tora in the 1970s so this may have been left there after the theatre was triplexed and reduced to running second and third run films.
There is a 1940 photo of Broadway usherettes at View link
There’s a 1933 photo of people in line under cover of the marquee at View link
I recall that in the mid-to-late ‘80s the north wall of the lobby was all but covered with a huge poster-mural of the 1970 movie Tora! Tora! Tora!
Undated photo from the Oregon Historical Society:
View link
After the Broadway was demolished, a new structure was built on the block. There was parking on several levels and a office tower above that. The Broadway 4 theatre was built in the basement level of the structure and was/is one of the most uncomfortable theaters I’ve ever been in.