The Venetian, shown on April 23, 2026, is more than 100 years old but doesn’t show its age.
The Venetian theater is a downtown Albany landmark that I pass almost every day without paying it any attention. Then, last week, I looked up its history.
The theater opened as a vaudeville house in the fall of 1913. It was owned by Conrad Meyer of Albany and leased by the Bligh Amusement Company of Salem, where T.G. Bligh also had a theater.
The following year, 1914, the manager of the Globe Theater in Salem bought the Bligh operation, and “The Globe” became the name of the Albany theater as well.
“It is said,” the Albany Democrat reported on June 9, 1914, “that he intends to put the local theater on a circuit of refined vaudeville attractions but will specialize in the best moving pictures available.”
In May 1919, a Wurlitzer pipe organ was installed in the building. “The orchestra effects produced by the big pipe organ are great aids in presenting motion pictures most effectively and Messrs. Hill &Â Hudson of the Globe recognize this fact and are attempting to give the people of Albany the best to be had,” the Democrat said.
In February 1921, there was a mishap. On the 10th of that month, the paper reported that the film operator at the Globe was “getting along nicely today” after being burned the day before when a film caught fire. The management said a “novice who was learning to operate accidently short-circuited one of the electric switches, thereby causing the destruction of several reels of film.”
“The fact that the flames were confined to the operating room,” the management said, “proves conclusively that the Globe is perfectly safe for patrons.”
The name of the theater changed when it opened under a new owner, Frank Horrigan, as the Venetian on Jan. 19, 1932. The scheduled opening show was a western, Zane Grey’s “Riders of the Purple Sage” starring George O’Brien. Other program highlights included “one of the clever Mickey Mouse cartoons” and the Fox Movietone News.
Mayor Virgil Calavan welcomed the newly named Venetian as a “pleasure rendezvous for every family in Albany” and added: “The extensive program of renovation and redecoration now in progress is visual proof that every effort is being expended toward making the new Venetian the real bright spot in our community.”
The last time I was inside, the Venetian was still a movie house. This was some time in the late seventies. The movie was “Black Beauty,” if memory serves.
Last month the building, at 241 West First Ave., cropped up in a list of applications for the last round of grants from CARA, the central Albany urban renewal district.
A church named The Grove has owned the property since 2020 and says it has spent close to $200,000 in renovations. It is one of 12 owners asking for CARA assistance and says it would like $150,000 toward the cost of replacing the roof.
The CARA governing board, made up of the mayor and six city council members, already voted to grant Sybaris restaurant $261,940 for the cost of a patio at the historic Oregon Electric Railway depot.
CARA had $545,000 to award and will meet again on May 27 to dispense the rest. (hh)
The Venetian was a concert hall when I was growing up. It was a blast
A roof on the Venetian is more critical than a patio at Sybaris. But, our “distinguished” City Council doesn’t agree.
Wonderful history lesson. Thanks! Fun to think about a place that the community could go to for entertainment (vaudeville in Albany!) and a shared experience.
Watched many a movie there and the old Whireside in Corvallis back in the day. Miss the old movie houses.
When we first moved to Albany in 1960, I had a weekend job at the Venetian. I took tickets and helped in the snack bar. We bought our popcorn from Cleo’s (located next door). The manager was Milt Severson, and the owner, whose name I forgot, lived in Vancouver, WA. He also owned the Albany Drive in, which was located right off Hwy 20 near where Staples is currently located. I worked there in the summers as a car parker and snack bar attendant. I worked these part time jobs for 4 or 5 years, as I recall. Ray Flickenger was our projectionist. His son, Rick, was a student of mine at AUHS, and he did “magic shows” on the Venetian stage on Saturday matinees. He later became an announcer for local radio. Ray’s daughter, Janet, became my secretary at the GAPS district office much later, when I was superintendent of schools in the 90’s.
Thanks for publishing this bit of Albany history. It brought back a flood of memories.
Loved Cleo Fogelson. His wife was my 3rd grade teacher at Liberty. My dad’s store was down the street on 1st and so I would go spend 2-3 hours of pay (50 cents per hour) at Cleo’s on a hamburger and coke for about $1.50. Those were the best of times.
The Theater deserves more of a grant than a restaurant that needs a patio… Typical of our City Councilors on giving money to less deserving…. They all need to go next elections… the only one in the mix that had any common sense was Novak… I still miss her..
Hahahaha how funny! Ms Novak’s family received $200,000 from CARA and then closed the restaurant down.
The new thing in Albany is begging for dollars from CARA….Please choose our lost
cause..not there lost cause…..oh my begging just got real…
Too many great memories at the Venetian to count. One of my favorites was watching the movie “Sound of Music” with my fellow children’s cast from the play we were acting at the ACT in 1969. A second great memory is spending our All Night Party watching two movies there with my classmates after WAHS graduation
Read Hasso’s column! It appears to be a church – since ~2020?
Can’t read? It says it’s OWNED by a church, not that it IS a church.
Go back to sleep, Ray!
Children of the 90s remember the Venetian aa concert venue with local and regional acts. The occasional national name came through periodically, most notably Sugar Ray just before they hit it big.
The theater was in bad shape by the end of the 90s. I remember it closed for a period, only to remodel and reopen in about 2001 or so. That version of the concert-centric Venetian only lasted a few years though.
Beautiful building. I’m glad it has always had an occupant to keep the building updated and taken care of. The city should really support a roof renovation there.
One of the local cults has it now. Why are we considering giving tax payer money to a church?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUkeWGIFan0
I agree. The church does not pay taxes. (That part of our Constitution needs to be changed. Churches own a lot of property and are well off. They need to be paying taxes on their properties.) I take back my comment asking that CARA pay for the Venetian’s roof rather than Sybaris’s patio. My new comment is: Don’t pay for Sybaris’s patio; pay for updates at Albany Civic Theater. The core part of the theater’s city block used to be an old livery stable, before it was a movie theater. So, it has history.
Over the years I enjoyed going to the Venetian for various things, one of the last was having a frying pan pizza at the small café that was there. As for a grant for the roof, the Venetian is now a church and they get a nice grant every November 15, that should be enough.
My uncle (Frank Ryder) was also a projectionist at the Venetian as well as the Granada, which closed in about 1956. He was quite a character. His hobby was building steam locomotives and he had a track around his home on Marion St. I also remember Bob Stalick as a young fresh faced teacher that taught drama at AUHS. Rick Flickenger was also in my class, (1962) as well as grade school.
I lived in Albany (1972-2023)! I always wondered what the story (about the RR track) was!
I grew up in Albany and the Venetian was THE place for us kids — especially for the Saturday afternoon matinee which cost us, I recall, a dime. That was in the 1950s. I, too, was in the AUHS class of 1962 and I knew Rick Flickinger well (and Berry Price too). The Flickingers were customers of mine when I delivered newspapers, living at the corner of 3rd and Lyon.
It seems I remember being able to get free admission with a Wonder bread wrapper at one time. The roof is the most important item to spend money on.
I came home from Army service in Germany in 1977 and found out what Star Wars was by catching it there. In 1993, my wife and I got a tattoo there in the parlor set up in the lobby. I DJ’ed for ACT for one of their Big Nights there also in the 1990s.