By Cathy Ingalls, Albany Regional Museum board member
On Aug. 3, 1999, Bill and Ellen Lilja, Sam Lanahan and Charlie Bottomly shouldered an 18-foot by 20-foot hand-painted vaudeville theater backdrop that had been stored in the Flinn Block and carried it to its new home at the Albany Regional Museum.
The hope was that the backdrop, thought to have been painted in oil during the 1920s for the forerunner of the Venetian Theater, could become part of a vaudeville exhibit.
At the time, the Liljas owned the Flinn Block, Lanahan was restoring the Venetian and Bottomly was the museum’s treasurer.
“We still have it, but at some point before or during the move it wound up with several rips along the bottom,” said Keith Lohse, the museum’s executive director. “We don’t have the space right now to display it appropriately.”
When unrolled, the backdrop would nearly fill all of the floor space in the museum’s community room, which measures 21-feet by 33-feet, he said.
The backdrop contains historical scenes, including the Columbia River Highway with Multnomah Falls in the background. On the highway is a 1920s-era touring car, while four advertisements run across the top, one for an optometrist and another for a chiropractor. The other two ads were painted over.
Early in 1913, a big maple tree was removed and an old wooden, one-story building that housed Conrad Meyer’s Star Bakery and Grocery on the corner of First and Broadalbin streets was torn down. Meyer and theater tycoon T.G. Bligh formed a partnership and began construction of a two-story playhouse with a full cement basement at a cost of $25,000.
During the work, news articles reported the finding of a 20-foot brick wall that was part of a well Meyer had dug in 1878 when he lived on the property. A fire truck was called in to pump the well dry before construction could resume.
At the front of the building would be four small stores as well as the main entrance. On July 26, 1913, Conrad Meyer Jr. was named theater manager and he announced “moving pictures will be shown only when other live attractions are not available.”
In the spring of 1923, Charles G. Rawlings took over the building. He changed the name to the Globe Theater, and he purchased a $25,000 Robert Morton pipe organ to entertain theatergoers. It was thought at some point that the organ was taken to Linfield College in McMinnville.
Potts Photo Collection: 2007.015.224 The theater was opened as the "Bligh" in 1913. It was renamed the "Globe", then the "Venetian". In this photo, the corner was occupied by Billy Eagles Cigar Store. Eagles manufactured his own cigars for many years.
Vaudeville acts and a few movies were shown until the 1930s when the building became a full-time movie theater. In the west corner of the structure a cigar store opened that made a reportedly 250,000 cigars a year from selected Havana tobacco.
In 1936, the theater was renamed The Venetian, and in 1937, the building received a stucco finish to cover the brick exterior.
Museum Photograph Collection: 2012.022.1286 Venetian Theater on 1st Avenue. Advertising showing of The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.
The theater’s future began to dim until Corvallis developer Sam Lanahan converted the 11,000-square-foot theater into a live, performance venue. He said in 1999 that he hoped that his $1.2-million restoration effort would prompt other entrepreneurs to follow his lead and start more clubs and restaurants downtown.
But when Lanahan opened his new music center, he got a surprise. It seemed that customers were not interested in a nightclub atmosphere. Rather, they wanted to listen to a concert and then go home. They didn’t want to drink, mingle or dance.
And when he brought in country and western bands, he noticed that the two-step crowd didn’t want to associate with the line dancers.
And then he got another surprise: Many people wanted to listen to blues and old-time rock and roll.
Shifting gears, Lanahan put the word out that he was open for private parties, weddings, corporate events, political fundraisers and business meetings.
Unable to make a financial go with the building, the Plainview Mennonite Church took over. The old theater now is known as the Fusion Faith Center.