Neighborhood Movies and Irving Park
Story contributed by Eleanor (Tober) Lake
The Egyptian Theater on Union Avenue
There was the Egyptian Theater on NE Union Avenue (now Martin Luther King Blvd.) near Russell St., the Walnut Park Theater on NE Union Avenue near Alberta St., the Alberta Theater on the northwest corner of NE 18th and Alberta, the 30th Avenue Theater on NE 30th and Alberta, the Mississippi Theater on NE Mississippi and the Irvington Theater on NE 14th and Broadway.
I heard from my uncle that there were other theaters in the neighborhood, but that was before my time, and I don't know their names or where they were. Probably the most remembered and talked about was the Egyptian Theater. The earliest memory I heard was from my uncle, Hank Miller, who recalled sneaking up to the "Gyp" to see movie serials, or to another theater in that same area (which theater is no longer there and I wonder who living remembers it), saying how much he and his buddies enjoyed them. His parents never knew he went as they considered movies a sin. That was in his teen years which were in the early 1920s. A few years later, my aunts talked about their crossing through Irving Park at night to go to a movie at the Egyptian, apparently never worrying about being in a park at night, or walking in the neighborhood at night. My earliest memories in the 1930s were of walking to all of the above theaters to see movies with girl friends, aunts, or my mother. When I was growing up, nobody I knew was ever driven to the theater by car. A lot of people didn't have cars or would ever think of transporting their kids to activities by car.
The Saturday or Sunday matinees at the Egyptian could be raucous from what I was told, but the price was right - 10 cents for kids under 12. I don't know how long the last owners (the Graepers) owned the theater before it closed, but I remember Mrs. Graeper always in the box office window. The age of 12 was difficult to judge as some kids matured more quickly than others, despite their years. In the worst years of the depression, I remember stage shows at the Egyptian in addition to the movies, and drawings among the audience for prizes of dishes, but can't remember how long that lasted.
Going back in time some, (somewhere between 1910 and 1920?) I heard it was the duty of one of the Miller kids to walk their cow each day to the area where Irving Park is now to pasture the family cow. That probably would be my Uncle Hank. Duties were strictly regimented between girls and boys. My aunts, when they were young girls, would cut through the pasturing area when they attended Ebenezer Church, but were very careful where they stepped, as I guess the Miller cow wasn't the only one pastured there. Later my uncle said there was a large race track, where Irving Park is today, that stretched almost to 15th Avenue, which must have been all woods.
Note: Other theaters in the neighborhood included the RIO theater at 3800 Mississippi, the Lombard Theater at Albina and Lombard, and the Colonial Theater at Killingsworth and Albina.
The land in the Irvington neighborhood was originally owned by Captain William Irving, who was famous in early Pacific Northwest maritime history. Part of the land occupied by Irving Park was the site of the Irvington Racetrack, one of four defunct racetracks now sporting Portland parks. The 16 acre park was acquired by the City of Portland in 1920.