John Hamrick
Encyclopedia
John Hamrick was an American
entrepreneur
in the theater business. He leased and owned a large number of vaudeville
and movie theaters in the Northwest from at least the early 1920s until the late 1940s.
Hamrick lived in Seattle, Washington and evenutally assembled a string of theaters that included the Rex Theatre, the Oriental Theatre
in Portland, Oregon, the Beverly, several Blue Mouse Theatre
s (including one in downtown Tacoma, Washington
and the Blue Mouse (Jr.) that is still open in Tacoma's Proctor District), the Music Box Theatre, the Riviera Theatre, and the Roxy Theatre. Hamrick also owned several theaters in Seattle and is generally credited as being the first Seattle theater owner to show "talking pictures."
The Oriental Theatre in Portland had 2,500 seats and in 1932 tickets cost 25-35 cents. Offerings included horror movies such as White Zombie
. The Blue Mouse Theatre in Tacoma had 650 seats and brought in $2,100 during White Zombie's one-week run.
Some of Hamrick's theaters were named Blue Mouse. The silent movie
The Grub Stake played at Hamrick's Blue Mouse theaters. His company had theaters in Tacoma, Washington
including the Proctor Street Blue Mouse Theater (called Blue Mouse Jr. to distinguish it from the one in downtown Tacoma) that has been in continuous operation (except during renovations) since 1923. The theater was may have been named after one in Paris
, France
that Hamrick attended in 1919. Fitzherbert Leather, an architect from London, designed the "garden style arts and crafts
" building and it was built by Henry Sanstrom for $20,000. Movies were changed three times a week by manager George C. Greenlund.
Theater chain growth was reported during 1922 when Hamrick "bought the Apollo at 11th Street and Broadway, renamed it the Blue Mouse, then opened the Blue Mouse..."
Hamrick's Blue Mouse Theatre in downtown Portland was reported to be "a 1960 victim of Tacoma's regrettable experiment with moving sidewalks." The Blue Mouse (Jr.) was recently restored and is being proposed for historical landmark status.
film showcase the Orpheum Theater (built 1927) in 1934, after it was closed for nearly a year. He "engaged film comedians Bert Wheeler
…and Robert Woolsey
…for a personal appearance at the Orpheum, a popular move that helped revive the house's fortunes, however briefly" while "also attempting to revive the ailing Music Hall Theatre just a couple of blocks away." The Orpheum was torn in 1967 to make way for the Washington Plaza Hotel (now the Westin Hotel). The theater had the "largest theater vault in the world, containing a money chest weighing 1,500 pounds that would put Treasure Island
pirates to shame" and its furnishings and decorations were auctioned.
Hamrick took over the Globe Theater, built in 1912, at 11th and Washington Streets in downtown Portland, remodeling it and reopening it as the Blue Mouse on November 28, 1921. "In each Northwest city, when the Hamrick chain came in and established themselves, their first house was always called the Blue Mouse..." according to one theory, " Mr. and Mrs. Hamrick were visiting in London where they attended a musical play titled "The Blue Mouse"… They were so entranced by the play that they thereafter named their theatres Blue Mouse… There was also a Shubert production of "The Blue Mouse"."
In 1934 Hamrick announced plans to include Tacoma, Washington in a vaudeville circuit.
's Daily Record quotes Hamrick as one of the business leaders opposed to a proposed Washington State tax measure at a meeting in Olympia, Washington
. Hamrick was one of those representing the motion picture industry in speaking out against the luxury, occupational and business tax measures during a six-hour meeting. John R. Jones
, a Democrat from Okanagan
and chairman of the house revenue and taxation committee, conducted the hearing.
Hamrick said, "We don't think we are a luxury. It isn't fair to tax one industry and not another." He recommended a one- or two-percent tax on grosses at all businesses instead. Frank Newman, owner of 50 theaters in Oregon, Washington, and Montana
, said the tax would close "most of the showhouses in the state" and said the businesses were not taking in enough money to cover expenses. Smaller theater owners agreed, noting that the number of theaters in the state declined from 472 in 1930 to 212 at the time of the meeting.
& Pries
in a Spanish Eclectic style. Bain & Pries design partner Lionel H. Pries was deeply involved in all aspects of the design, which, at the time was characterized as "Santa Barbara
Spanish." The house has complex rooflines, few windows (in favor of interior courtyards) and an interior with "exposed beams, arched openings", and thick walls. Decorative carvings and paintings adorn the beams, lighting fixtures are made of hammered metal, and tiled steps lead to a sunken living room. It may have been designed to evoke aspects of the Hollywood film industry. The house was said to evoke the Spanish Renaissance
design motifs of his Music Box Theatre with "wrough iron balconies and gates, round stair tower," stenciled beams, heraldic shields, and castone fireplace.
Hamrick also had a house in the "Little Tuscanny" area of Palm Springs, California
. It was built by 1942 and featured in California Pictorial Magazines Spring edition showing "photographs of it by Maynard L. Parker, with interiors by decorator R. D. Harrell and featuring furnishings by Barker Brothers of Los Angeles." The text read: "the entire effect of the house is light, high-spirited, gay and cheerful, a faithful reflection of the mood of the desert resort." The Hamricks were said to have commissioned Alber Frey and John Porter Clark
to add a sun room – or lanai
in 1947, and several rooms were reportedly redesigned by Arthur Elrod, a local interior deisgner, in 1956-57.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
in the theater business. He leased and owned a large number of vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
and movie theaters in the Northwest from at least the early 1920s until the late 1940s.
Hamrick lived in Seattle, Washington and evenutally assembled a string of theaters that included the Rex Theatre, the Oriental Theatre
Oriental Theatre (Portland)
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...
in Portland, Oregon, the Beverly, several Blue Mouse Theatre
Blue Mouse Theatre
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...
s (including one in downtown Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
and the Blue Mouse (Jr.) that is still open in Tacoma's Proctor District), the Music Box Theatre, the Riviera Theatre, and the Roxy Theatre. Hamrick also owned several theaters in Seattle and is generally credited as being the first Seattle theater owner to show "talking pictures."
The Oriental Theatre in Portland had 2,500 seats and in 1932 tickets cost 25-35 cents. Offerings included horror movies such as White Zombie
White Zombie (film)
White Zombie is a 1932 American independent Pre-Code horror film directed and produced by brothers Victor Halperin and Edward Halperin, respectively. The screenplay by Garnett Weston tells the story of a young woman's transformation into a zombie at the hands of an evil voodoo master. Béla Lugosi...
. The Blue Mouse Theatre in Tacoma had 650 seats and brought in $2,100 during White Zombie's one-week run.
Blue Mouse
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
The Grub Stake played at Hamrick's Blue Mouse theaters. His company had theaters in Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
including the Proctor Street Blue Mouse Theater (called Blue Mouse Jr. to distinguish it from the one in downtown Tacoma) that has been in continuous operation (except during renovations) since 1923. The theater was may have been named after one in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
that Hamrick attended in 1919. Fitzherbert Leather, an architect from London, designed the "garden style arts and crafts
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
" building and it was built by Henry Sanstrom for $20,000. Movies were changed three times a week by manager George C. Greenlund.
Theater chain growth was reported during 1922 when Hamrick "bought the Apollo at 11th Street and Broadway, renamed it the Blue Mouse, then opened the Blue Mouse..."
Hamrick's Blue Mouse Theatre in downtown Portland was reported to be "a 1960 victim of Tacoma's regrettable experiment with moving sidewalks." The Blue Mouse (Jr.) was recently restored and is being proposed for historical landmark status.
Other theaters
Hamrick reopened Seattle's vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
film showcase the Orpheum Theater (built 1927) in 1934, after it was closed for nearly a year. He "engaged film comedians Bert Wheeler
Wheeler & Woolsey
Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were a famous American film comedy team of the 1930s....
…and Robert Woolsey
Robert Woolsey
Robert Woolsey was an American stage and screen comedian and half of the 1930s comedy team Wheeler & Woolsey....
…for a personal appearance at the Orpheum, a popular move that helped revive the house's fortunes, however briefly" while "also attempting to revive the ailing Music Hall Theatre just a couple of blocks away." The Orpheum was torn in 1967 to make way for the Washington Plaza Hotel (now the Westin Hotel). The theater had the "largest theater vault in the world, containing a money chest weighing 1,500 pounds that would put Treasure Island
Treasure Island
Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island; or, the...
pirates to shame" and its furnishings and decorations were auctioned.
Hamrick took over the Globe Theater, built in 1912, at 11th and Washington Streets in downtown Portland, remodeling it and reopening it as the Blue Mouse on November 28, 1921. "In each Northwest city, when the Hamrick chain came in and established themselves, their first house was always called the Blue Mouse..." according to one theory, " Mr. and Mrs. Hamrick were visiting in London where they attended a musical play titled "The Blue Mouse"… They were so entranced by the play that they thereafter named their theatres Blue Mouse… There was also a Shubert production of "The Blue Mouse"."
In 1934 Hamrick announced plans to include Tacoma, Washington in a vaudeville circuit.
Political activities
A February 4, 1933 article in Ellensburg, WashingtonEllensburg, Washington
Ellensburg is a city in, and the county seat of, Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 18,174 at the 2010 census. The population was 18,250 at 2011 Estimate from Office of Financial Management. Ellensburg is located just east of the Cascade Range on I-90 and is known as the...
's Daily Record quotes Hamrick as one of the business leaders opposed to a proposed Washington State tax measure at a meeting in Olympia, Washington
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
. Hamrick was one of those representing the motion picture industry in speaking out against the luxury, occupational and business tax measures during a six-hour meeting. John R. Jones
John R. Jones
John Robert Jones was a Virginia businessman and soldier who was a controversial brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.Jones was a native Virginian and a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute...
, a Democrat from Okanagan
Okanogan, Washington
Okanogan is a town in Okanogan County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,552 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Okanogan County.It has a small commuter airfield, Okanogan Legion Airport - with one paved runway of in length....
and chairman of the house revenue and taxation committee, conducted the hearing.
Hamrick said, "We don't think we are a luxury. It isn't fair to tax one industry and not another." He recommended a one- or two-percent tax on grosses at all businesses instead. Frank Newman, owner of 50 theaters in Oregon, Washington, and Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, said the tax would close "most of the showhouses in the state" and said the businesses were not taking in enough money to cover expenses. Smaller theater owners agreed, noting that the number of theaters in the state declined from 472 in 1930 to 212 at the time of the meeting.
Hamrick residences
The John and Fannie Hamrick residence in Seattle's Broadmoor neighborhood (constructed 1929-30) was designed by the Seattle partnership BainWilliam J. Bain
William J. Bain was a notable Seattle architect and a founder of the architecture firm, Naramore, Bain, Brady and Johanson, the predecessor to today's NBBJ....
& Pries
Lionel Pries
Lionel H. Pries , was a leading architect, artist, and educator in the Pacific Northwest.Pries was born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland. He graduated with a B.A. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1920, where he studied under John Galen Howard...
in a Spanish Eclectic style. Bain & Pries design partner Lionel H. Pries was deeply involved in all aspects of the design, which, at the time was characterized as "Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
Spanish." The house has complex rooflines, few windows (in favor of interior courtyards) and an interior with "exposed beams, arched openings", and thick walls. Decorative carvings and paintings adorn the beams, lighting fixtures are made of hammered metal, and tiled steps lead to a sunken living room. It may have been designed to evoke aspects of the Hollywood film industry. The house was said to evoke the Spanish Renaissance
Spanish Renaissance
The Spanish Renaissance refers to a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries...
design motifs of his Music Box Theatre with "wrough iron balconies and gates, round stair tower," stenciled beams, heraldic shields, and castone fireplace.
Hamrick also had a house in the "Little Tuscanny" area of Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
. It was built by 1942 and featured in California Pictorial Magazines Spring edition showing "photographs of it by Maynard L. Parker, with interiors by decorator R. D. Harrell and featuring furnishings by Barker Brothers of Los Angeles." The text read: "the entire effect of the house is light, high-spirited, gay and cheerful, a faithful reflection of the mood of the desert resort." The Hamricks were said to have commissioned Alber Frey and John Porter Clark
John Porter Clark
John Porter Clark was an American architect. He worked with Albert Frey on several projects in Palm Springs, California and was part of the Van Pelt and Lind firm. He has been referred to as a "mid-century modernist"...
to add a sun room – or lanai
Lanai
Lānai or Lanai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The only town is Lānai City, a small settlement....
in 1947, and several rooms were reportedly redesigned by Arthur Elrod, a local interior deisgner, in 1956-57.
Car accident
Hamrick and his theater business were involved with numerous lawsuits. He, his 11-year-old daughter and another girl were also involved in a car accident in 1920, during a period when he was proprietor of the Rex theater. The car, being driven by Hamrick, plunged downhill, over sidewalks and embankments, and crashed into the house of Hans P. Fogh on Howell Street tearing "through the wall into the house, brining up against a piano". No one was injured, although "five were endangered", including Miss Anna Fogh who was thrown from a couch, and damage to the residence was estimated at $1,500 with $100 of damage to the automobile.Theaters
- Temple TheaterMasonic Temple Building-Temple TheaterThe Masonic Temple Building in Tacoma, Washington, also known as Temple Theater, Helig's Theater, and John Hamrick's Temple Theater, is located at 47th Street and Helens Avenue. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Ambrose J. Russell is credited as the architect of the...
(1932), also known as Masonic Temple Building, Heilig's Theater, John Hamrick's Temple Theater, 47 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, Washington. Designed by Ambrose J. RussellAmbrose J. RussellAmbrose J. Russell was an architect in Tacoma, Washington. He was Scottish and was born in the East Indies. He was trained in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts where he was a classmate of Bernard Maybeck....
and listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, 1993 - Blue Mouse Theater downtown Tacoma, Washington
- Blue Mouse TheatreBlue Mouse TheatreThe 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...
(originally known as Blue Mouse Jr.) in Proctor District of Tacoma, Washington's oldest continuously operating theater. - Blue Mouse Theatre Portland, Oregon. Opened in the Globe Theater (1912) after a complete remodel (1921). Moved with signage to the Capitol Theatre building in 1958. Demolished 1977.
- Blue Mouse Theatre Corvallis, Oregon. (1921) Closed 1923.
- Blue Mouse Theatre Seattle (1920) Demolished in 1970.
- Arlene Schnitzer Concert HallArlene Schnitzer Concert HallThe Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall , opened as the Portland Publix Theater before becoming the Paramount after 1930, is a historic theater building and performing arts center in Portland, Oregon, United States...
purchased existing theater to be part of Evergreen theater chain in 1936. - Egyptian Theater in University District, Seattle.