The Hollywood Theatre opened on 17 July 1926 as a vaudeville theater. The first silent film shown at the Hollywood was More Pay - Less Work (1926). Organists Leon Drews and Robert Clark played at the Hollywood Theatre.

Portland’s street numbering changed in 1933. In later years, the theater was owned by Hamrick-Evergreen Theatres.

The theater was later converted into a (three-projector?) Cinerama-capable theater in the early 1960s. The theater was a popular venue for 70mm film presentations in the 1970s. In 1975, the theater’s balcony was enclosed to turn the venue into a triplex. The Hollywood Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The Oregon Film & Video Foundation purchased the Hollywood Theatre from Act III Theatres in April 1997.

You may make a tax-deductible donation to assist in the Oregon Film & Video Foundation’s Hollywood Theatre restoration efforts.

References: Hollywood Theatre website; Oregon Historical Society website; Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society website.