The Oregon Theater was located just off of the eastside of Pendleton, and because of their location away from the main part of town, they had to employ an interesting promotional strategy, which included selling tickets to events at alternative locations. This is shown in some of the newspaper ads, it was possible to either buy reserved seats at Welch’s cigar store or go to the theater at the time of the event and pay general admission for presumably worse seats. There has been no connection found between Welch’s cigar store and the owner at the time, F.E. Welch, but one could infer that if that were the case that Mr. Welch was trying to boost the profits of two businesses at once with this promotional strategy.
Another notable detail about the Oregon Theater was its prominence for hosting boxing matches. While most boxing matches today are held in grander arenas, the scene for some smaller “boxing bouts” occurred in Pendleton at the Oregon Theater. The matches were usually hosted by the P.A.A.C. which could stand for Pendleton Amateur Athletic Club, and they would charge twice as much for ringside and box seats.
