The Dreamland Theatre was in the city of Ontario, OR and operated between roughly 1912-1930. It was a family business that resided on the mainstreet of the city. This theater was primarily operated by a man named A. I. Jaquish. He operated this establishment with the help of his daughter Dorothy who, after the death of A. I. in April of 1918, became the sole owner and proprietor of the business. The Dreamland was managed by S.D. Dorman until 1917 and managed by Herbert Paul from this time until the closure of the theater. The building was demolished in 1937 to build a new theater, “Pix Theater,” in its place.
This theater was built in a time when the population of the small town of Ontario, Oregon was below 2000 people. It was a single room theater that would show films daily and provided a place for the local high school to do plays. Films presented at this theater would include up to 8 reels and the price of admission ranged from fifty cents to a dollar and genres shown would range from comedy to drama. This family owned business was integral to the community. When the first sidewalks and paved roads were built outside of the theater, they were a part of the celebration. The town held a parade, a concert, and free films shown at the Dreamland.
In the process of researching this theater, I found difficulty tracking down the address. There was no mention of its specific address in historical newspapers in online databases besides that it was on the "main street" of the town. I turned to "Special Collections" in the University of Oregon Library in order to find a city directory. While I did not find a directory that included dates that may have shown the Dreamland Theatre property, I did learn that there were maps of Malheur County elsewhere in the library. I scoured said maps and met the same issue, the dates of the maps were not old enough to include the theater. Finally I decided to email the Malheur County Historical Society and send a message to the Ontario, Oregon Public Library. The historical society was able to provide me with photographs of Dreamland and another theater, "The Majestic Theatre," and the Public Library was able to share the addresses of both of these theaters.
