The Fun Theater is known as a moving-picture house, located on 209 1st Street in Portland, Oregon. According to the Portland directories, Mrs. Elizabeth Sax was the theater owner. I believe the programming tended to be well balanced because there was a newspaper ad specifically looking for a lady piano player. With the theater playing movies and live music, I would assume Sax always kept her eye out for more talent to showcase. It is also important to note that the theater owner was a woman and that she was looking for female talent. Although I did not find any other owners attached the the theater, one could assume Mrs. Elizabeth Sax attempted to involve females in any of the talent that was displayed.
I did not find any specific newspaper advertisements that was selling certain entertainment at the theater, but there were some newspaper tie-ins. One of the newspaper articles discussed that a reel of films caught on fire causing a panic among attendees after 6pm. It seems as if there was not much damage to the theater from this accident. Another newspaper tie-in mentions that someone stood in front of the theater with signs on both sides of their body, also referred to as a “sandwich man” with an “unfair-to-organized-labor” sign. After this occurred, the owner replied by sending armed bodyguards outside of the theater. I was not able to find any other information on this event, but it is clear that people who worked for the theater felt as if they were not treated fairly and that their experience of the theater was the opposite of “fun”.
