Dueling Marquees: Everett's Rival Movie Houses Slug it Out
“Roll on, great reels of celluloid, as the great earth rolls on!”
-Frank O’Hara, To the Film Industry in Crisis
For 35 years the Everett Theatre was the king of mill town.
The manager of "The Everett" also owned the city's other two movie houses: the Balboa and the Granada. A monopoly.
Then in 1935 the Roxy opened across Colby Avenue from the Everett Theatre.
A great rivalry was born.
The Everett Theater, built in 1901. For years it was the undisputed king of shows.
Some context.
Colby, in its heyday, was the main drag in Everett. "Crusin' Colby" was the pastime on a weekend night. Thrill seekers drove up and down the avenue, looking for kicks.
Chuck Charles, manager of the 700-seat Roxy, was not a newcomer to the movie-showing business. He was once the manager at the Everett Theatre.
Charles seemed to take pleasure in stealing Colby-crusing moviegoers from his former employer.
Dueling marquess: the Roxy on the left, the Everett Theatre on the right.
Today it seems strange to think that anyone would open a theater in 1935 in the midst of the Depression.
But in the 1930s public demand was high for film as a diversion from hard times in a mill town.
The Roxy and the Everett Theatre got into a sort of box office arms race.
Who could bring in the biggest pictures with the biggest stars?
Everett Theatre concession stand.
It was Garbo vs. Grant, Errol Flynn vs. Mae West. Gone with the Wind pitted against Stagecoach.* If you could throw in a few Mickey Mouse cartoons you may have an advantage over the fella across the street.
The Roxy specialized in cowboy films and offered refrigerated candy at their concessions counter. Anything to pack the seats.
Both the Roxy and the Everett were trumped in 1938 when the Granada played Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, drawing huge audiences for the first feature length animated Disney film.
Popular movies like the Thin Man series packed in moviegoers.
Movie attendance dropped after WWII. Television became a dominant medium in the American home.
The Roxy closed in the 1970s, just as the Everett Mall was drawing moviegoers south of downtown.
The Historic Everett Theatre still stands today on Colby, a testament to when the silver screen was king.
You can still catch shows there, and the occasional film.
Check it out some time.
*Not even a competition. Adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind is the highest grossing film of all time. Sorry, Avatar.
HISTORIC EVERETT THEATRE
2911 Colby Ave, Everett, WA 98201
(425) 258-6766
Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.
