Riverside Theatre
813 W. Riverside Avenue,
Spokane,
WA
99201
813 W. Riverside Avenue,
Spokane,
WA
99201
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Evergreen State Amusement Corp., Favorite Theatres
Styles: Spanish Colonial
Previous Names: Casino Theatre, Clemmer Casino Theatre, Granada Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Archives of the Spokane Daily Chronicle trace the Riverside Theatre back to at least March of 1891 when it was called the Casino Theatre. In that year a man shot and killed two actresses in the theatre before committing suicide himself. His intended victim escaped unharmed and the deceased were just bystanders.
In 1900 the Chronicle noted that a drug store was opening on the site but by 1907 J.H. Clemmer had taken a seven-year lease on the building. He spent $10,000 to convert it to the Clemmer Casino, which was called “one of the finest moving picture shows in the Northwest".
By April 22, 1927 the Chronicle reported that you could catch a glimpse of “Spain Itself” inside the former Casino Theatre. It would open the next day as the remodeled and redecorated Granada Theatre. It had a Spanish motif whose theme would be carried over to the costumes of the usherettes.
When it went through another $6,000 remodeling in August of 1937. It brought “silhouette changeable letters” to Spokane. They were described as black letters standing out against a background of Belgium flash glass. The Granada sign was also neonized for the first time.
Listings show at one time or another time the people of Spokane had up to ten local theatres to attend. During the early-1940’s the Granada Theatre was among four independent theatres in town with four other theatres under the Evergreen banner. After the war the Granada Theatre was listed under Favorite Theatres and finally became the New Riverside Theatre on November 21, 1955. The Film Daily Yearbook of 1951-53 lists the Granada Theatre as having 550 seats.
While being operated by Favorite Theatres the Riverside Theatre closed in June of 1957, which was probably a trend of things to come because Spokane’s venerable Orpheum Theatre was the to close next January. From October of 1957 to April of 1967 it was a community theatre known as the Riverside Playhouse but was finally demolished in 1967 to make room for a bank. Today the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce occupies the site.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
An article about Spokane’s movie theaters in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this to say about the Casino Theatre:
A few more details. Boxoffice, Dec. 10, 1955: “Spokane, Wash. - The Granada Theatre, 813 Riverside, which has a history dating back to silent film days, has acquired a new owner and a new name - the Riverside. New owner and operator is Joseph J. Rosenfeld, president and general manager of Favorite Theatres. Announcement of the purchase came jointly from Rosenfeld and Howard D. McBride, owner and once a partner with Rosenfeld in operation of the hose. McBride took over the theatre a year ago after ending a partnership with Rosenfeld … McBride came here in 1931 as Spokane manager for Evergreen Theatres … He resigned in 1935 and purchased the Granada, formerly the Casino … McBride operated the Granada until 1946, when he formed a partnership with Rosenfeld and Favorite Theatres.”
I’ve been unable to find a single period reference to a “Casino Opera House” at Spokane on the Internet, even though that name shows up on a number of web sites (though not here) in reference to this theater. The name even appears on the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, usually a reliable site. A theater of that name in Portland, Oregon shows up quite a few times, as does a house of that name in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, but all references to the one in Spokane are modern.
Aside from one 1891 reference, in a weekly newspaper from The Dalles, Oregon, I can’t even find a “Casino Theatre” in Spokane before the 1910s. There are many lists of theaters in Spokane from the period, but the Casino is conspicuous by its absence. For example, the 1906-1907 Cahn guide lists two legitimate house at Spokane: the Spokane Theatre and The Auditorium. It lists six vaudeville houses: La Boheme, Oberon, Comique, Edison, Washington, and Cineograph.
I suspect that The Casino building that Clemmer converted into a theater in 1907 was The Casino described on this page at the Spokane History Timeline web site. It doesn’t give the address of The Casino, and says (perhaps erroneously) that it was built in 1894, but I doubt there would have been two places called the Casino in Spokane at that time. It is described as “… a 4 story building which had a Hotel, Casino, dance hall, bar, Variety Hall, Turkish bath and even a section for down-and-outers to stay when they came to town.”
It is likely that the name Casino Opera House that shows up on some web sites is spurious, and just one of those bits of misinformation that somebody put on the Internet, after which it propagated. If contemporaries ever called it an Opera House they probably had their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks. The Variety Hall that was part of the operation might have been a theater of sorts, but most likely was just a big saloon with a stage, a type of venue quite common in late 19th century America, especially in the west. It’s likely that Clemmer just gutted the building and built an essentially new theater inside the original walls.