The Chehalis Theater, also as the Chehalis Theatre, is a single-screen, Art Deco movie theater in Chehalis, Washington. The theater is situated at the north end of the Chehalis Downtown Historic District near the Hotel Washington. Known locally for the hand-painted illustrations of popular children's fantasy characters that once populated the ceiling,[2] it is the only surviving movie house in the city.
The Pix Theater was the last single-screen movie house built in the city, coming at the end of a 50-year run of opera houses, auditoriums for vaudeville, and other movie theaters. Chehalis's first theater was the short-lived, mixed-use Dobson & Donahoe Opera House built in 1886,[3][4] followed by a formal entertainment house known as the Tynan Opera House, built by the matriarch of the city, Eliza Tynan Saunders Barrett, in 1889.[5][6]
Opera-style theaters such as the Brunswig Grand Opera House and the Geissler New Grand Opera House followed. The first theater built for use to show films was the Orpheum, opening in 1907.[7] Additional movie houses were constructed quickly in the decade to follow, including the Dream, Bell, and Liberty theaters. The last movie theater built before the Pix was the St. Helens Theater in 1924.[8]
The first moving picture recorded as being shown in Chehalis was at the New Grand in November 1904. The Edison Studios silent film was titled, "In the Hills of Old Carolina". A newspaper account remarked that the movie would be popular once "the public gets a little better acquainted with what is going on".[9] The George Jessel comedy-drama, Lucky Boy, was shown at the St. Helen's Theater in 1929, becoming the first talkie exhibited in the city.[10][11] A spread advertisement was published in the Chehalis Bee-Nugget newspaper, with local businesses congratulating the theater on its installation of a vitaphone system.[12]
History of the Chehalis Theater
A wood structure that housed a horse livery and stable occupied the site as far back as 1907.[13] The terra-cotta building was constructed in 1923 and was originally named the Beau Arts Building, and it is also known as the Gabel Building.[14][15] First home to a Ford car dealership, the location became known as St. John's Garage[14] and the Chehalis Garage.[16] The Gabel Building was purchased in 1937 by Harold St. John, an owner of automobile dealerships, garages, and other theaters in the Twin City area.[17][18]
After the structure was renovated to become a movie house, it opened on December 7, 1938, as the Pix Theater, seating 653;[14][15] the first film shown was Bob Hope's Thanks for the Memory.[19][20][b] A large newspaper spread in The Centralia Daily Chronicle was printed welcoming the theater. The Twin City Theatre Company, under the direction of Arthur St, John, were the owners of the new movie house and promised to provide first and second-run movies at "popular prices".[20]
The Pix originally had a triangular marquee with fluorescent lighting.[20] The theater's initial decor included a lobby with red and blue carpeting, and the theater viewing area, equipped with a balcony,[20] had red silk lined, blue-and-gold fleur-de-lis accented walls, red velour seats, and women had access to a cosmetic room.[13][20] The building had air conditioning, was fireproofed, and great measures were taken to provide clear sound and viewing angles.[20] A pipe organ was initially installed but was relocated and rebuilt after an unknown time to a church in Fremont, Seattle.[22] Typically shown at the theater during its early beginnings were a sequence of newsreels, cartoons, and westerns.[23]
The Pix was sold by St. John to Ted Gabel in approximately 1948, only for St. John to reacquire the movie house five years later.[17] The building sustained damage during the 1949 Olympia earthquake but continued to operate.[16] Closed for a short time in 1953,[13] it was named Chehalis Theater in 1954 after a brief renovation during its closure.[13][14][c] The remodel included a new screen that could show a variety of film productions, including CinemaScope and 3-D.[1] A marquee from the St. Helen's Theater in Chehalis was added to the building facade during the project.[1][24] The Roewe family purchased the Chehalis Theater from the estate of St. John in the early 1970s, owning and operating the movie house through the decade.[17] The venue, in the 1980s, was run by a theater chain for a time, projecting films until 1988.[13][14]
Interior, Chehalis Theater, 2019
Due to economic hardships and maintenance backlogs, the theater shut down and became a video rental store named Video Time.[14] During this period, several murals of children's cartoon characters were painted on the ceiling.[25] After the theater was sold in 1994 to Daryl Lund, also the owner of the Yard Birds Cinema 3 at the time,[26] it hosted a flea market and Lund referred to both the Cinema 3 complex and the Chehalis Theater as the Chehalis Cinemas.[13][14] Lund leased the theater to Jerry Rese who, along with Lund, began a large restoration in 1996, finding and reusing decor and machinery stored at the theater. The movie house at the time listed the screen to be 16ft ×32ft (4.9m ×9.8m) and the venue had a footprint of 5,000 square feet (460m2).[25] Art Deco chandeliers, original to the theater, were found in the attic and restored.[21] The interior had a green decor and Rese removed the original patterned theater carpeting. As the venue lacked seating,[17] he installed 298 seats that were original to another closed theater and had the concession stand in the lobby rebuilt. There were plans to reopen the playhouse as a second-run theater.[25] The neon marquee was restored in 2000.[13]
The independent movie, The Immigrant Garden, premiered at the theater in 2001.[27] There were brief periods of screening films into 2008, including some new releases, when the location ceased operations until 2016 due to competition with the larger, upgraded Midway Cinemas at the Lewis County Mall.[14][23][28][29] There were two brief attempts to reopen the Chehalis Theater in 2009 and into the next year, but the potential revivals never came to fruition.[30]
In 2003, the Chehalis Historic Preservation Commission awarded the Chehalis Theater with a listing and plaque recognizing the historical importance, and restoration efforts, of the movie house.[13]
2016 and 2018 renovations
Chehalis Theater, Chehalis, Washington LCCN2017708133
The first renovation began in 2016 after a new owner, Ralph Hubbert, leased the building to a local proprietor. The theater contained original and antique film machinery, including a toilet in the projection room, and the balcony was intact.[16] The restorations focused on reviving and saving much of the Art Deco style,[15] while adding an upstairs bar, dining area, and kitchen. The theater began film showings in October, the first since late 2008, and charged $5 for admission. The first films shown were Hotel Transylvania and The Addams Family.[31] The new proprietor added musical acts as well as live screenings of Seattle Seahawks games.[23] The cartoon murals on the ceiling, added at an unknown time but not original to the theater, were preserved owing to the community support for the work. The occupancy was listed as 285.[16]
In late 2018, a new lease agreement with a local Chehalis family led to additional renovations. The owners continued to screen movies and provide live musical entertainment while concentrating on pizza as the main cuisine option.[32]
2021 renovations and reopening
Interior, Chehalis Theater, 2023
In 2020, a local restaurateur bought the theater and started the third restoration in five years in 2021. Renaming the location as McFiler's Chehalis Theater, early plans included a reopening later that year or early 2022, with the expectation to continue to screen movies while providing restaurant dining and live entertainment. Adhering to ADA requirements and new building codes, extensive remodeling was done to large portions of the theater, including a modified marquee. The ceiling illustrations were to be painted over but photographed and displayed along with antique equipment from the building.[2]
The theater had a soft opening in late 2022,[2] and an official ribbon-cutting ceremony took place in March 2023.[33] The theater, since its reopening, has hosted events tied to the 75th anniversary of the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting[34] and a symposium on Bigfoot that included speaker Cliff Barackman.[35] The theater hosted the first Northwest Flying Saucer Film Fest in 2023, coinciding with the city's Flying Saucer Party.[36]
As of 2023[update], the Chehalis Theater listed an occupancy of 450[37] and was opened to fine dining, comedy shows, musical performances, charity events, live televised sports, and film presentations.
Notes
↑ The original address was 798 Market Street before a city-wide renumbering of addresses.[1]
↑ Additional reports state that the first movie was the musical comedy, The Big Broadcast of 1938, which also starred Bob Hope.[21]
↑ There are conflicting reports that the name change may have occurred in 1958, but the vast majority of publications refer to 1954.
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