Alberta Rose Theater

The Alberta Rose Theater is a theater and events building on Alberta Street in northern Portland , Oregon . The two-story movie theater, which opened in 1926 under the name Alameda Theater , was designed by Walter E. Kelly and originally had 600 seats. After an interim use as a church building, it was converted. The building reopened in the summer of 2010 as a theater and event location for live music and performances with 280 seats under the name Alberta Rose Theater .

history

In the course of its history, the cinema has changed its name several times. First known as 30th Avenue Cinema since 1964 , the name was shortened to Cine 30 in the following years . Since 1969 the original name Alameda Theater has been used again. The cinema closed in 1978 and was subsequently used temporarily by the Macedonia Church of God and called the Victory Outreach Church .

Blaxploitation

In 1966, Harvey Garnett was the only theater owner of African American origin in Portland at the time. Among other things, the building served as a meeting point for the Afro-American community. Garnett played music by colored artists such as Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye, and Quincy Jones. During the heyday of blaxploitation films in the 1970s, Garnett concentrated the film program on these films because of the higher sales. Today's Alberta Rose Theater took up this tradition and regularly showed blaxploitation films after it reopened.

literature

• Gary Lacher, Steve Stone: Theaters of Portland . Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC 2009, ISBN 978-0-7385-7147-8 , pp. 94 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

• Alameda Theater Memories. In: Alameda Old House History. March 28, 2009, accessed September 5, 2016 . 
• Rebecca Jacobson: Remember the Alameda. Revisiting blaxploitation classics at a former Alberta street institution. In: Willamette Week . December 4, 2012, accessed September 5, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alameda Theater. Oregon Historical Society / Silent Era Company, accessed September 5, 2016 . 

Coordinates: 45 ° 33 '32.1 "  N , 122 ° 38' 4.7"  W.