Former names | Princess Theatre 4 Star Theatre New Star Theatre |
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Address | 13 Northwest 6th Avenue Portland, Oregon United States |
Coordinates | 45°31′25″N122°40′35″W / 45.52361°N 122.67639°W |
Capacity | 500 |
Opened | 1911 |
Website | |
Venue Website |
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 theater currently operates as a live music and performance space; in the past, it has operated as a film theater as well as a burlesque theater and an adult movie theater.
It opened in May 1911 as the Princess Theatre at Sixth and Burnside Street, with 300 seats. [1] It was one of many "semi-fireproof picture shows" that opened that year in Portland and the first in downtown Portland to comply with the new fire codes. [1] It was run by the Sax Amusement Company circa 1923; it became the Star Theater in 1939 but was also known as the Star Burlesk, 4 Star Theater, or New Star Theater at various times. [1]
In the 1940s, it became a live burlesque theater. Tempest Storm was one of the dancers. [2] [3] It closed briefly during Dorothy McCullough Lee's mayorship but reopened in 1953. [3] Jim Purcell, Portland's Chief of Police, was a regular at the Star Theater. [2] [4]
In the late 1960s, the Star Theater became an adult theater which showed erotic movies and also had strippers on stage. In the 1970s, the Star Theater experimented with presenting everything from underground and classic comedy films to controversial "live sex shows." Eventually, the Star Theater went back to somewhat less controversial adult movies and live strippers. The Star Theater was closed around 1975. [1]
The property was owned for several years by Portland film director Gus Van Sant. Van Sant sold it to "embattled restaurateur" Andrew Sugar in 2001. [5] [6]
The theater briefly reopened as another nightclub called Five Star Theater, which held some shows in October 2008 [7] but then was shut down again on September 27, 2009, by the Portland Police Bureau and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission for selling alcohol without a liquor license and violating building codes. [8] Local news outlet KATU described Five Star as a modern speakeasy. [8]
As of 2011, the theater seating and original interior have been removed. [1]
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "exotic" or "burlesque" dancer.
KATU is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside La Grande–licensed Univision affiliate KUNP. Both stations share studios on NE Sandy Boulevard in Portland, while KATU's transmitter is located in the Sylvan-Highlands section of the city.
John Elwood "Bud" Clark Jr. was an American businessman and politician who served as the 48th mayor of Portland, Oregon, from 1985 to 1992. A left-leaning populist with little political experience before his mayoral bid, he was one of Portland's most colorful political figures.
Gretchen Hoyt Corbett is an American actress and theater director. She is primarily known for her roles in television, particularly as attorney Beth Davenport on the NBC series The Rockford Files, but has also had a prolific career as a stage actress on Broadway as well as in regional theater.
Tempest Storm, also dubbed "The Queen Of Exotic Dancers," was an American burlesque star and motion picture actress. Along with Lili St. Cyr, Sally Rand, and Blaze Starr, she was one of the best-known burlesque performers of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Her career as an exotic dancer spanned more than 60 years, and she was still performing in the early 21st century.
Minsky's Burlesque refers to the brand of American burlesque presented by four sons of Louis and Ethel Minsky: Abraham 'Abe' Bennett Minsky (1880–1949), Michael William 'Billy' Minsky (1887–1932), Herbert Kay Minsky (1891–1959), and Morton Minsky (1902–1987). They started in 1912 and ended in 1937 in New York City. Although the shows were declared obscene and outlawed, they were rather tame by modern standards.
The Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre was a strip club at 895 O'Farrell Street near San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. Having opened as an X-rated movie theater by Jim and Artie Mitchell on July 4, 1969, the O'Farrell was one of America's most notorious adult-entertainment establishments. By 1980, the nightspot had popularized close-contact lap dancing, which would become the norm in strip clubs nationwide. Journalist Hunter S. Thompson, a longtime friend of the Mitchells and frequent visitor at the club, went there frequently during the summer of 1985 as part of his research for a possible book on pornography. Thompson called the O'Farrell "the Carnegie Hall of public sex in America" and Playboy magazine praised it as "the place to go in San Francisco!"
Kaitlin Willow Olson McElhenney is an American actress. She began her career in The Sunday Company at the Groundlings, an improvisational theatre and school in Los Angeles, California. She had minor roles in several television series before being cast as Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds on the FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005–present).
Laurelhurst Theater is a movie theater located in the Kerns neighborhood in northeast Portland, Oregon. Known for showing first and second-run films and for serving food and beer, the theater was constructed in 1923 with an Art Deco design.
American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall, and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in the United States in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the late 1920s, the striptease element overshadowed the comedy and subjected burlesque to extensive local legislation. Burlesque gradually lost its popularity, beginning in the 1940s. A number of producers sought to capitalize on nostalgia for the entertainment by recreating burlesque on the stage and in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s.
Occupy Portland was a collaboration that began on October 6, 2011 in downtown Portland, Oregon as a protest and demonstration against economic inequality worldwide. The movement was inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City on September 17, 2011.
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.
Leroy Charles Griffith is an American theater and nightclub proprietor, former Broadway theater producer, and film producer. In a career spanning 75 years, he has owned, leased, or operated more than 70 adult entertainment stage and cinematic theaters across the United States, dating from the burlesque era of the 1950s to the present day. During burlesque's heyday, he was a prolific producer of live stage shows featuring showgirls, strippers, comedians, and other stars of the era. After burlesque's decline, he made the crossover to exhibiting adult films and operating adult nightclubs.
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 "Portland" sign is displayed on the exterior of Portland, Oregon's Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, in the United States.
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The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon on February 28, 2020.
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