The Temple Theatre in Pendleton, OR had its grand opening show on September 27th, 1915 where it showed 4 part feature "Her Shattered Idol". The theatre is thought to be located on the corner of what at the time was Main st. and E. Webb st. in a room of the Temple building which also served as a hotel. Although its exact address was unable to be found explicitly stated, other newspaper advertisements provided their address and relative location to the Temple Theatre.
The theatre was owned by manager Jas B. Welch, and later in February of 1917 new manager E. L. Cooper took ownership of half of the theater and word was Welch was to retire. The exact reasoning and closure date of the theatre is currently unknown, but it is assumed to be around April 14th, 1917 as it was one of the last showings of one of their hippodrome vaudeville acts, and days later a newspaper clipping advertised the grand opening of the Arcade Theatre named as the former Temple Theatre on the 22nd.
The Temple Theatre held a wide variety of events. Vaudeville shows were very common, and later claimed superior programs of hippodrome vaudeville acts. They also showed multiple real feature films, a popular photoplay show, and many other types of shows. There were events unrelated to cinema as well, they often held community style shows displaying and modeling women and mens clothing, and concert recitals and other music acts like the Native Hawaiian touring band. There was even a christian science lecture held by a church.
As an interesting fact there was one scandal found, the Temple Theatre along with dentists offices that were also located in the same Temple building, had been robbed by thieves. Manger Welch claimed that he knew at least $94 dollars in cash was in the office that had been taken, and gold was taken from the dentists.
