When Orrie was a kid, back in the late 1930s and early 1940s in Portland, he used to walk to the movie theater on a Saturday and watch movies. For something like a nickel, he and his friends would pay to see one cartoon, and then stay and watch cartoons the whole day.
When the Academy Theater re-opened on Stark, I saw a framed picture of a line of kids outside the theater and thought, “Maybe he’s in that crowd! Maybe this was his theater!”
So the next time my parents were in town, I took them there. He said something to the effect of, “Wow, this place is great! But no, Stark was way too far away for me to walk there.” So I took him hostage and made him show me the places he used to go.
He used to live on SE Raymond St. & 100th Ave. His family owned these two houses:
… and the adjoining property. They were on unimproved stretch of road, and the properties were pretty spread out at the time. But the adjoining property was just a gigantic field. Can you imagine how much fun that would be to play in as a kid?
Orrie’s dad gave the property to the city of Portland, making them promise not to develop it. So they made it into a park. Swing to the right on the Google Street View and you’ll see it there. Go on ahead and do it. I’ll wait.
See?
So he and his buddies would walk through the field, down dirt and gravel roads, down past the creepy cemetery and out to the movie theater. Actually there were two different theaters. One was closer to home and did not require walking past the cemetery. It is now known as the Pantheon Banquet Hall and is right next door to the ghetto-fabulous New Copper Penny (where Portland PARTIES!!).
The second one was further down Foster, and it was called the Bob White Theater. This was the one with scary movies. And of course, the one that involved walking past the cemetery.
I keep mentioning the cemetery because it astounds me to think of how scary and remote - possibly even serene - it must have been then, and how now it’s right on SE 82nd, across the street from Baxter Auto Parts, Walgreens, a Mini-Mart, and, most notoriously, the Walmart. Here it is today:
So anyway. The Bob White Theater.
It was in this building that used to be a Russian restaurant. I don’t know why I attributed the shape of the building to its past as a Russian establishment, because only a small amount of research reveals that this building’s interesting shape predated the Russian migration by decades. Since then, it’s been turned into a very popular breakfast spot, Bar Carlo.
Here’s what it looks like now:
… and here’s what it looked like when Orrie was a kid!
For many, many years this place has been shut down, used as a private residence and a storage facility for some huge-ass Wurlitzer. But!! It’s just recently been listed as available for sale!!
Funnily, my friend Erica today stopped me when she saw the interior photo on my computer.
“STOP!” she said. “That’s the Bob White Theater!”
Turns out, all of us in the surrounding neighborhood are thinking the same thing…. so who’s gonna buck up and do it? Who wants to renovate an old movie theater?? I do! I do!
