After buying out The Globe theater in October of 1921, owner John Hamrick closed it down to change it to a “first-class first-run show” theater (1). The Globe would soon become the Blue Mouse -- named after another one of Hamrick’s successful theaters in Seattle, WA -- and would go under a $30,000 dollar remodel (roughly $450,000 dollars today) changing the seats, seating arrangement, and entrance to the theater (1). After construction, the theater reopened as the new Blue Mouse on November 28th, 1921, premiering William Fox’s Queen of Sheba for its big opening night (2).
After its grand opening, the Blue Mouse theater was fairly successful, as one of the big downtown theaters filmgoers could attend. Throughout the 1920s Hamrick made sure to make the theater known, as several promotional advertisements for different films showing at the theater were in The Oregon Daily Journal and even the Film Daily. Some of the advertisements would take up a whole page, such as the one for the film A Sailor-Made Man (3). Others would even take up two full columns within newspapers, such as the one for Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight (4).
Other interesting promotions the theater had were free matinee tickets and cash prizes. In September of 1922, an advertisement for the film A Tailor-Made Man appeared in The Oregon Daily Journal, illustrating how to get a free ticket for a matinee showing at the Blue Mouse theater (5). To get the ticket, one would need to bring in a ‘want ad’ or ‘classified cash ad’ to The Oregon Daily Journal on the verified days, and the ad would come with your free ticket (5). A few months later, Hamrick himself would hold a singing contest at the Blue Mouse for a cash prize, where patrons of the theater could vote upon their favorite contestants through an admission ticket (6). According to the article, the competition is only open to, “bona fide vocalists,” where the first-place prize would be $500 dollars, second place $250, third $150 and fourth $100 (6).
After 1922 -- though the theater remained under the ownership of John Hamrick for some time -- Blue Mouse went through several managers, switching between local theaters. Fred Teufel, manager of Blue Mouse would switch with Al Raleigh in 1923 (7). However, there are still some inconsistencies with exact dates and changes in management due to finding Fred Teufel’s name listed in the 1925 Film Daily Year Book as the manager for Portland’s Blue Mouse (8). There are other discrepancies with the timeline of theater owners for the theater, such as an article from the Film Daily stating the theaters ownership getting transferred to the Ranier Theas. Corporation in 1935 (9). Though, around 1938, an article from the Motion Picture Herald indicates that the owners Hamrick-Evergreen of Blue Mouse would be closing the theater (10). Hamrick-Evergreen would reopen the theater once more in 1939 as a newsreel theater, which would also be the last article that mentions the theater in much depth (11).
