At the advent of the 20th century, the city of Portland, Oregon, was among the first on the United States West Coast to embrace the advent of the silent and feature film. The city's first movie palace, the Majestic Theatre (later known as the United Artists Theatre), opened in 1911. By 1916, Portland had "the finest array" of movie houses on the West Coast relative to its population, pioneering venues dedicated exclusively to screening films. [1] The popularization of the sound film in the early 1920s resulted in another boom of new cinemas being constructed, including the Laurelhurst, the Hollywood Theatre, and the Bagdad Theatre, the latter of which was financed by Universal Pictures in 1926.
By the mid-20th century, several of the cinemas and movie palaces in Portland were demolished, including the Majestic, the Playhouse Theatre, and the Oriental Theatre. The Portland Publix Theater (later known as the Paramount), is the only cinema in downtown Portland that has survived into the 21st century, having served as the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall since 1984.
Since the 1990s, construction of several multiplexes has taken place in the city, mainly by Regal Entertainment Group, who opened multiplex cinemas in the Fox Tower and Pioneer Place in 2000 and 2006, respectively. Several cinemas have also seen extensive renovation since the 1990s, including the Bagdad Theatre by the Portland-based restaurant and hotel company McMenamins, who have opened additional cinemas at their Kennedy School and National Cash Register Building properties. Many of Portland's historic cinemas have continued operations into the 21st century screening both revival and art house films, including the nonprofit Hollywood Theatre, Cinema 21, and the Fifth Avenue Cinema, the latter of which is owned by Portland State University and operated by the university film department. In 2013, the real estate company Movoto ranked Portland the no. 1 city in the United States for movie lovers. [2]
In the early 20th century following the advent of film, Portland, Oregon was one of few western U.S. cities to embrace the exhibition of films. [1] Historians Gary Lacher and Steve Stone partially attribute this to the region's predominant rainy weather, which resulted in residents seeking indoor forms of entertainment. [3]
Though the Star Theater was showing Synchroscope films as early as 1908, [4] the first exclusive movie palace in Portland was the Majestic Theatre located at the northeast corner of Southwest Park Avenue and Washington Street, which opened on June 10, 1911. [5] The venue contained 1,100 seats, and was constructed for $62,500 by Edwin F. James, a businessman from Seattle. [1] It was the first movie palace in Portland to show a silent feature film — the two-reel Italian feature The Fall of Troy — in 1911. [1] The same year, the Majestic introduced a pipe organ to accompany film screenings; the Star Theater also introduced an organ. [1] The Baker Theatre, which had hosted live theater by the Baker Players, began showing films shortly after (the cinema would become known as the Playhouse Theatre in later decades). [5]
The following year, in 1912, the Sunnyside Theatre (contemporarily known as the Avalon Theatre) was opened, followed by the Alhambra and Columbia Theater in 1913. [6] At the time of its opening, the Columbia, built for $125,000, was marketed as being "without peer" as the city's "strictly photo playhouse." [7] Around 1914, construction on the Clinton Street Theater began, and the cinema began showing features in 1915. [8] By 1916, it was reported in The Moving Picture World that Portland had "the finest array of photoplay theaters of any of the cities on the Pacific Coast given its population. This statement is based on the fact that the homes of photodrama in Portland were built for that purpose within recent years and are not rehabilitated broken down theaters that once housed "legit" and burlesque shows." [1]
After commercial production of the sound film began in 1923, numerous cinemas were constructed in Portland throughout the remainder of the decade. The Art Deco-inspired Laurelhurst Theater was constructed that year in east Portland, [9] followed by the Roseway Theater in 1924, and the Moreland and Oregon Theatres in 1925 (all in east Portland). [10] In 1926, the Hollywood Theatre was built in the city's the Hollywood District, designed by John V. Bennes, with an exterior resembling Spanish Colonial architecture, and the interior being based on the Baths of Caracalla and Bernini. [11] The Broadway Theatre was also constructed in 1926 in downtown Portland, at 1008 SW Broadway. [12] The exotic Mission Revival-inspired Bagdad Theatre was constructed in 1927 in the city's Hawthorne District, [13] a project funded by Universal Pictures. [14] Other cinemas built in the city in 1927 include the Oriental Theatre and the Aladdin Theater, the latter of which opened on Christmas Day that year. [15]
The lavish Portland Publix Theatre (contemporarily the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall) was constructed in downtown in 1928, and featured an unprecedented seat count of over 3,000. [16] Construction of the theater used over 700,000 common bricks and over 350,000 exterior bricks. [17] The construction of the venue cost around $1.4 million, [16] and it opened on March 28, 1928. [18] In 1930, it was recommissioned as the Paramount Theatre, and eventually ceased functions as a cinema, becoming the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in 1984. [19] Contemporarily, it is the last movie palace in downtown Portland to survive into the 21st century. [20]
With the growing popularity of the sound film, some establishments that had earlier functioned as burlesque or vaudeville houses were retrofitted to screen films, including the Fox Theatre (originally an opera and vaudeville venue), which began showing feature films in 1929. [21] The Union Theatre (later known as the Paris Theatre), a burlesque house built in 1922, also began showing films, and became known as the Third Avenue Theatre in 1930. [22] 1948 saw the opening of the 673-seat Academy Theater in Portland's Montavilla neighborhood, one of the few neighborhood cinemas to be built in the city after the 1920s. [23]
Beginning around the 1950s, many cinemas in the city underwent renovations, while others were outright destroyed. The Playhouse Theatre (originally the Baker, and formerly known as the Dufwin, Alcazar, Music Box, and El Capitan in the interim [5] ) was closed in June 1950. [5] The building was used for church services before being demolished in 1954. [5] The following year, the Majestic Theatre closed, and was eventually demolished in 1957 to make way for the Union Bank Tower. [24] Three months after the demolition of the Majestic, the People's Theater, a movie house built in 1911 [25] (subsequently named the Alder Theatre and the Music Box in the 1930s), was razed as well. [26] The Oriental Theatre was also demolished several years later in April 1970. [27] In the weeks prior to its demolition, various pieces of furniture and other fixtures from the cinema's interiors were auctioned to locals. [27] The Academy Theater closed in 1977, and was used as a printing facility for the ensuing two decades. [23]
In the 1960s, some of the city's older venues turned toward screening pornographic films, and became adult movie theaters; among these were the Paris Theatre, which screened adult films from 1963 into the 1980s, [22] and the Star Theatre, which operated primarily as an adult theater from the 1960s until 1983. [28] The Oregon Theatre began showing adult films around the 1970s, following the success of Deep Throat (1972). [9]
Drive-in cinemas began to grow in popularity in the late 1940s and throughout the 1960s, and the first in Portland—the 82nd Street Drive-in—was constructed in 1948. [29] Construction on the Powell Boulevard Drive-in began in southeast Portland in 1954, despite legal protests from neighborhood residents. [30] A third drive-in on the city's east side, the 104th Street Drive-in, was built in 1959. [31] The Foster Drive-in, located on SE Foster Road, was established in 1969. [32] The first multiplex in Portland, the Eastgate Theater, opened in 1966 on SE 82nd Avenue, and featured two screens and state-of-the-art sound. [33] The Fifth Avenue Cinema, located in southwest Portland along the edge of the Portland State University campus, was opened as a Moyer Theater in 1970. [34] After ten years of operation, the cinema was acquired by Portland State, and has been operated by the university film department since. [34] In 1974, the Bagdad underwent renovation, and was divided to contain two separate screens. [35]
In the late 1980s, a multiplex was opened in northeast Portland across the street from the Lloyd Center mall, known as the Lloyd Center 10 and owned by Regal Entertainment Group. [36] Four years later, a second Regal multiplex opened inside the Lloyd Center mall, named the Lloyd Mall 8. [37] Regal also opened the Broadway Metroplex 4 around this time, which occupied the space where the original Broadway Theatre had been prior to its demolition in 1988. [38] Regal subsequently acquired the Division Street Stadium 13, in east Portland (near Gresham), which had opened as an ACT III cinema in 1997. [39] Also starting in the late 1980s, several local cinemas were established and/or renovated by McMenamins, a restaurant, brewery, and hotel company based in Portland. [40] Among these were the Mission Theater and Pub, established in a former church in 1987, [41] and the Bagdad Theatre, which they acquired in 1991. [23] The company also opened small cinemas in the Kennedy School in 1997, and the National Cash Register Building in 1998. [42]
Century Theatres opened the Eastport Plaza 16 in 1998, a multiplex on SE 82nd Avenue near the Eastgate Theater, [43] the latter of which subsequently closed in 2001. [33] The 2000s saw Regal opening an additional two multiplexes in Portland: the Fox Tower Stadium 10 in 2000, which specializes in art house films, and the Pioneer Place Stadium 6. [44] [45] The Academy Theater, which had been closed since 1977, was renovated and reopened as a three-screen cinema in 2006. [23] The Regal Broadway Metroplex was closed in 2011. [38] The sound system for the Broadway Metroplex was salvaged by the Hollywood Theatre, which underwent renovations in 2013. [46]
Since the 2010s, several cinemas in the city also serve craft beers to patrons, including the Hollywood, Laurelhurst, Cinema 21, the Academy, and the Moreland. [47] The Living Room Theaters, a small independent multiplex that opened in 2006, has a full restaurant and bar that serves prepared food to patrons' seats during screenings. [48]
Note: Status refers only to whether or not the venue still screens films; some noted as inactive still function as other types of arts venues.
Opened | Name | Location | Status | Notes | NRHP # | Ref. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
26th Avenue Theatre See: Clinton Street Theater | |||||||
1948 | Academy Theater | 7818 SE Stark Street | Active | Renovated in 2006; temporarily closed due to fire in 2017. | N/A | [49] | |
Alcazar Theatre See: Playhouse Theatre | |||||||
Alder Theatre See: People's Theater | |||||||
1912 | Avalon Theatre | 3451 Belmont Street | Active | Originally the Sunnyside Theatre. | N/A | [50] | |
1927 | Aladdin Theater | 3107 SE Milwaukee Avenue | Active | Originally the Geller's Theatre, a vaudeville venue; opened Christmas Day 1927. | N/A | [15] | |
Alameda Theatre See: Alberta Rose Theatre | |||||||
1927 | Alberta Rose Theatre | 3000 NE Alberta Street | Inactive | Originally the Alameda Theatre. Stopped showing films in 1978, and contemporarily functions as a performing arts venue. | N/A | [51] | |
1913 | Alhambra Theatre | 4811 SE Hawthorne Boulevard | Inactive | Later known as Sabala's, the Mt. Tabor Legacy, and Mt. Tabor Theater. Subsequently, served as a live music venue, and houses an arcade as of 2016. | N/A | [52] | |
1926 | Bagdad Theatre | 3708–26 SE Hawthorne Boulevard | Active | Acquired by McMenamins in 1991. | 89000099 | [40] | |
Baker Theatre See: Playhouse Theatre | |||||||
1991 | Broadway Metroplex 4 | 1000 SW Broadway | Inactive | Located in the block once occupied by the original Broadway Theatre built in 1926; owned by Regal. Closed in September 2011. [38] Sound system was salvaged by the Hollywood Theatre. [46] | N/A | [53] | |
Broadway Theatre (1916) See: Liberty Theatre | |||||||
1926 | Broadway Theatre | 1008 SW Broadway | Inactive | Located across from the Portland Publix Theater. Demolished in 1988. | N/A | [12] | |
1926 | Cinema 21 | 616 NW 21st Avenue | Active | Independent cinema primarily showing art house films. | N/A | [54] | |
1914 | Clinton Street Theater | 2522 SE Clinton Street | Active | Known as the 26th Avenue Theatre in 1945 and the Encore in 1969 before returning to its original name. | N/A | [8] | |
1913 | Columbia Theater | 106 SW 6th Avenue | Inactive | N/A | [55] | ||
1997 | Division Street Stadium 13 | 16603 SE Division Street | Active | Previously owned by ACT III; acquired by Regal. | N/A | [39] | |
Dufwin Theatre See: Playhouse Theatre | |||||||
1966 | Eastgate Theater | 2025 SE 82nd Avenue | Inactive | First multiplex in Portland; originally a two-screen cinema, though a third was subsequently added. Closed in 2001; building is contemporarily used as a Slavic church. [56] | N/A | [33] | |
1998 | Eastport Plaza 16 | 4040 SE 82nd Avenue | Active | Originally owned by Century Theatres; subsequently acquired by Cinemark, but retains Century brand. | N/A | [43] | |
1924 | Egyptian Theatre | 2511 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard | Inactive | Closed in 1962 and was used as a warehouse. | N/A | [57] | |
El Capitan Theatre See: Playhouse Theatre | |||||||
Empress Theatre (759 SW Broadway) See: Orpheum Theatre | |||||||
Empress Theatre (411 SW Broadway) See: Liberty Theatre | |||||||
Encore Theatre See: Clinton Street Theater | |||||||
1970 | Fifth Avenue Cinema | 510 SW Hall Street | Active | Originally owned by Moyer Theaters. Acquired by Portland State University in 1980 and has since been operated by the university film department. | N/A | [34] | |
1910 | Fox Theatre | SW Broadway and Taylor Street | Inactive | Originally an opera house, leased for films and vaudeville beginning in 1929. Also known as the Heilig, Rialto, and Mayfair Theater. Demolished in 1997. | N/A | [58] | |
2000 | Fox Tower Stadium 10 | 846 SW Park Avenue | Active | Located within the Fox Tower building; owned by Regal. | N/A | [44] | |
Geller's Theatre See: Aladdin Theater | |||||||
1912 | Globe Theatre | 1032 SW Washington Street | Inactive | Renovated and renamed the Blue Mouse Theatre in 1921. Showed the first sound picture in Portland in 1926: John Barrymore in Don Juan . | N/A | [59] | |
1927 | Guild Theatre | 829 SW 9th Avenue | Inactive | Originally known as the Taylor Street Theatre. Closed in 2006. | N/A | [60] | |
Heilig Theatre See: Fox Theatre | |||||||
Hippodrome Theatre See: Orpheum Theatre | |||||||
1926 | Hollywood Theatre | 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard | Active | 83002172 | [61] | ||
1997 | Kennedy School | 5736 NE 33rd Avenue | Active | Kennedy School was acquired by McMenamins, who converted the property into a hotel and restaurant c. 1997; gymnasium was converted into a cinema. | 88003472 | [42] | |
1923 | Laurelhurst Theater | 2735 E Burnside Street | Active | N/A | [62] | ||
1914 | Liberty Theatre | 411 SW Broadway | Inactive | 2,200-seat cinema, commissioned as the Broadway Theatre, but opened as the Orpheum. Renamed the Empress in 1915; reprised Broadway name in 1916; then reprised original Liberty name in 1916. Closed in 1959. | N/A | [63] | |
2006 | Living Room Theaters | 341 SW Tenth Avenue | Active | Showcases independent films, and offers a full food menu and bar serving concessions to patrons' seats. | N/A | [64] | |
1987 | Lloyd Center 10 | 1510 NE Multnomah Street | Active | Owned by Regal. Due for redevelopment as of 2018. | N/A | [36] | |
1991 | Lloyd Mall 8 | 2320 Lloyd Center Mall | Inactive | Located within Lloyd Center mall; originally owned by Act III before being acquired by Regal in 1998. Converted into office space in 2015. | N/A | [37] | |
1911 | Majestic Theatre | 739 SW Washington Street | Inactive | First movie palace in the city of Portland; renamed the United Artists Theatre in 1929. Demolished in 1957. | N/A | [65] | |
Mayfair Theater See: Fox Theatre | |||||||
1987 | Mission Theater and Pub | 1624 NW Glisan Street | Active | Former Swedish church acquired by McMenamins in 1987, partially converted into a cinema. | N/A | [41] | |
1925 | Moreland Theater | 6712 SE Milwaukie Avenue | Active | N/A | [66] | ||
Mt. Tabor Legacy or Mt. Tabor Theater See: Alhambra Theatre | |||||||
Music Box Theatre (SW Morrison Street and 11th Avenue) See: Playhouse Theatre | |||||||
Music Box Theatre (901 SW Alder Street) See: People's Theater | |||||||
Newsreel Theatre See: Rivoli Theatre | |||||||
Northgate Theater See: St. Johns Twin Cinema | |||||||
1971 | Northwest Film Center | 934 SW Salmon Street | Active | Formerly located in the Guild Theatre building from 1998 to 2006. | N/A | [67] | |
1925 | Oregon Theatre | 3530 SE Division Street | Inactive | Originally used for vaudeville and films; served as an adult movie theater beginning in the 1970s. Closed in March 2020. [68] | N/A | [69] | |
1927 | Oriental Theatre | 828 SE Grand | Inactive | Demolished in 1970. | N/A | [70] | |
1913 | Orpheum Theatre | 759 SW Broadway | Inactive | Renamed the Empress Theatre shortly after opening; the T & D Theatre after 1916; the Hippodrome Theatre after 1917; and the Pantages Theatre from 1927 to 1929. Reprised Orpheum name after 1929. Demolished in 1976. | N/A | [71] | |
Orpheum Theatre (411 SW Broadway) See: Liberty Theatre | |||||||
Pantages Theatre See: Orpheum Theatre | |||||||
Paramount Theater See: Portland Publix Theatre | |||||||
1922 | Paris Theatre | 6 SW Third Avenue | Inactive | Originally a burlesque house; later known as Third Avenue Theatre. Served as an adult movie theater from 2006 to 2016, after which it was converted to a live music venue. [72] | N/A | [66] | |
1911 | People's Theater | 901 SW Alder Street | Inactive | Was extensively renovated in 1929 by John V. Bennes and Herman Herzog and reopened as the Alder Theatre; in 1935 it was renamed the Music Box Theatre. | N/A | [73] | |
2003 | Pioneer Place Stadium 6 | 340 SW Morrison Street | Active | Located within Pioneer Place mall; owned by Regal. | N/A | [45] | |
1910 | Playhouse Theatre | SW Morrison Street and 11th Avenue | Inactive | Opened as the Baker Theatre; subsequently known as the Dufwin, Alcazar, Music Box, and El Capitan. [5] Demolished in 1954. | N/A | [5] | |
1928 | Portland Publix Theater | 1037 SW Broadway | Inactive | Known as the Paramount Theater after 1930. Has served as the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall since 1984. | 76001585 | [74] | |
Rialto Theatre See: Fox Theatre | |||||||
1920 | Rivoli Theatre | 809 SW Washington Street | Inactive | Opened in January 1920, and featured 1,200 seats. Renamed the Newsreel Theatre in 1941, and later the Roxy. | N/A | [75] | |
1976 | Rose Moyer Theater | 16501 SE Division Street | Inactive | N/A | [76] | ||
1924 | Roseway Theater | 7229 NE Sandy Boulevard | Active | N/A | [77] | ||
Roxy Theatre See: Rivoli Theatre | |||||||
1998 | St. Johns Theatre & Pub | 8203 N Ivanhoe Street | Active | Formerly the National Cash Register Building; acquired by McMenamins and converted into a pub and cinema in 1998. | N/A | [78] | |
Sabala's Theatre See: Alhambra Theatre | |||||||
1913 | St. Johns Twin Cinema | 8704 N Lombard Street | Active | Formerly known as the Northgate Theater and St. Johns Theater. | N/A | [79] | |
St. Johns Theater See: St. Johns Twin Cinema | |||||||
1908 | Star Theater | 13 NW 6th Avenue | Inactive | Originally a silent film house; subsequently operated as an adult movie theater. Serves as a performing arts venue as of 2018. | N/A | [80] | |
Sunnyside Theatre See: Avalon Theatre | |||||||
T & D Theatre See: Orpheum Theatre | |||||||
Taylor Street Theatre See: Guild Theatre | |||||||
Third Avenue Theatre See: Paris Theatre | |||||||
United Artists Theatre See: Majestic Theatre |
Opened | Name | Location | Status | Notes | NRHP # | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1948 | 82nd Street Drive-in | 9600 SE 82nd Avenue | Inactive | City's first drive-in cinema; second screen installed in 1976 before the venue was closed in 1985. | N/A | [29] |
1959 | 104th Street Drive-in | SE Powell Boulevard & SE 108th Avenue | Inactive | Original drive-in sign remains as of 2017. [81] | N/A | [31] |
Unknown | Division Street Drive-In | 16501 SE Division Street | Inactive | Demolished for construction of Rose Moyer Theater in 1976 | N/A | [76] |
1969 | Foster Drive-in | 11501 SE Foster Road | Inactive | 1,800-car capacity drive-in, originally owned by Tom Moyer Group; expanded to three screens [82] in 1974. Subsequently, owned by Regal. Closed in 1998 and demolished in 1999. | N/A | [32] |
1954 | Powell Boulevard Drive-in | 11040 SE Bush Street | Inactive | N/A | [30] | |
A movie theater, cinema, or cinema hall, also known as a picture house, the pictures, picture theatre, or the movies, is a building that contains auditoria for viewing films for entertainment. Most, but not all, theaters are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing a ticket. Some movie theaters, however, are operated by non-profit organizations or societies that charge members a membership fee to view films.
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Leawood, Kansas, and the largest movie theater chain in the world. Founded in 1920, AMC has the largest share of the U.S. theater market ahead of Regal and Cinemark Theatres.
A movie palace is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped and many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple screen venues or performing arts centers.
1000 Broadway is a 24-story office building in Portland, Oregon. The distinguishing feature of the building is a series of rings that form a dome over the center portion of its roof. Because of this, the building is nicknamed "The Ban Roll-on Building".
The Blue Mouse Theatre title was used for several historic vaudeville and movie venues opened by John Hamrick in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The name may have been inspired by a lounge in Paris. Hamrick is said to have used the colored rodential title for his first theatre in each city.
A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens within a single complex. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into smaller ones, or more auditoriums are added in an extension or expansion of the building. The largest of these complexes can sit thousands of people and are sometimes referred to as a megaplex.
The Bagdad Theatre is a movie theater in the Hawthorne District of Portland, Oregon, United States. It originally opened in 1927 and was the site of the gala premiere of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975, and of My Own Private Idaho in 1991.
The Oriental Theatre was a movie theater located at 828 SE Grand Street in the East Portland commercial district of Portland, Oregon. Built in 1927, the Oriental was a 2,038-seat movie palace designed by Lee Arden Thomas and Albert Mercier. The building's exterior was in the Italian Renaissance style. The interior had an "almost surreal appearance" created by interior designer Adrien Alex Voisin. It was built by George Warren Weatherly. Demolished in 1970, the theater was adjacent to the Weatherly Building, which remains standing.
Lee Arden Thomas (1886–1953) was an architect in Bend and Portland, Oregon, United States. He graduated in 1907 from Oregon State University, known then as Oregon Agricultural College. He completed many projects in Bend, often partnering with local architect Hugh Thompson. His work in that area includes the planning for Bend Amateur Athletic Club Gymnasium (1917–1918), Redmond Union High School, and the Washington School in Corvallis.
The Star Theater, formerly known as Princess Theatre and several other names, is a historic former silent film theater in Portland, Oregon, United States. The address was originally 9 Northwest Sixth Avenue, but since 2001 has been 13 Northwest Sixth Avenue. The theater operated as a film theater as well as a burlesque theater and an adult movie theater.
Avalon Theatre, established as the Sunnyside Theatre in 1912, is the oldest operating movie theater in Portland, Oregon, and is believed to be the state's oldest theater and the first with more than one screen.
The Whiteside Theatre is a historic theater building in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. Constructed in 1922 and closed as a commercial theater in 2002, the 800-seat venue was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Aladdin Theater is a theater in the Brooklyn neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon. It originally opened as a vaudeville house called Geller's Theatre on December 25, 1927. Its name was changed to Aladdin in 1934. Later the venue operated as a pornographic cinema for more than 30 years, screening the film Deep Throat for fourteen of them. It was revived as a classic movie and live music venue with a capacity of 620 in 1991.
The Clinton Street Theater is a theater located in southeast Portland, Oregon. It is believed to be the second oldest operating movie house in the city and one of the oldest continually operating cinemas in the United States. The theater was designed by Charles A. Duke in 1913, built in 1914, and opened as The Clinton in 1915. It became known as the 26th Avenue Theatre in 1945 and the Encore in 1969, before reverting to a resemblance of its original name in 1976. The Clinton often screens grindhouse, cult and experimental films, and has become known for hosting regular screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Repo! The Genetic Opera. The venue also hosts the annual Filmed by Bike festival, the Faux Film Festival and the Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival.
Moreland Theater is a single-screen movie theater, located in the Sellwood neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The theater was designed by Day Walter Hilborn or Thomas and Thomas. It opened on September 10, 1925 and initially hosted vaudeville acts and screened silent films. Moreland continues to screen first-run films.
Act III Theatres was an American company that owned movie theater multiplexes and screens principally located in the U.S. states of Texas, Oregon and Washington. The company was in business from 1986 to 1997, when it was sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Television producer Norman Lear owned a controlling stake in Act III Theatres through his company Act III Communications. At the time of sale in 1997, Act III Theaters consisted of 124 multiplex theaters operating 793 screens located primarily in San Antonio and Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon, and was the tenth-largest chain of cinemas in the United States.
The Oregon Theatre, or Oregon Theater, was an adult movie theater in the Richmond neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon, United States. The theater was completed in 1925 and originally housed a Wurlitzer pipe organ and vaudeville stage. It would later screen Hollywood, art-house, and Spanish-language films. The building was acquired by the Maizels family in 1967 and became an adult cinema in the 1970s. It continued to operate as the city's longest running pornographic cinema and remained owned by a member of the Maizels family until 13 February 2020, when it went into foreclosure. It closed in early March 2020.
Paris Theatre, formerly Third Avenue Theatre and also known as Paris Theater or Ray's Paris Theatre, is an historic building in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, in the United States. The theatre was constructed in 1890 and opened as a burlesque house. It was later converted to a cinema, then a club and music venue, before serving as an adult movie theater until 2016. The building was a live venue and nightclub until it closed in October 2019.
The Fox Theatre was a theatre building located at the intersection of Southwest Broadway and Taylor Street in Portland, Oregon, in the United States.
United Artists Theatre, originally known as the Majestic Theatre, was a movie palace in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was the first establishment in Portland exclusively intended for motion picture screening.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cinemas in Portland, Oregon . |