Built in 1914 at a cost of $10,000, this theater at 11th & Broadway was originally named the Apollo. Eight years later, it reopened as the Blue Mouse, operated by theater chain founder John Hamrick. The Blue Mouse was a favorite of Tacoma movie buffs until its demolition in 1960 to make way for a new street escalator. "A Connecticut Yankee" was the first movie shown at the Blue Mouse starting on April 15, 1922. In this April, 1922, photograph, a small boy in an usher's uniform stands outside the theater entrance while another uniformed man is next to the movie placard. The Blue Mouse was the first theater in Tacoma to show "talkies," running "The Jazz Singer" in January, 1928. Its sister theater, the Blue Mouse Junior, opened in the Proctor District in 1923. G64.1-027; TPL-6355 (Tacoma Sunday Ledger, 4-2-22, E-5-article)

Blue Mouse Movie Theatre (Tacoma); Motion picture theaters--Tacoma--1920-1930; Marquees--Tacoma;

It started out as a publicity stunt. The Blue Mouse Theater offered $10 to any woman who would sit through a midnight preview, on November 3, 1932, of the creepy horror film "White Zombie," alone, and without screaming. Eighteen year old Marjorie Yonk said she was up to the test. She was whisked by police car, sirens blaring, to Dr. F. J. Hansen's office to determine the strength of her heart, and then to the Blue Mouse. She is pictured here prior to entering the theater. Officers E.J. Schutz, left, and J.F. White escorted her into the blackened theater with their flashlights, seated her, and left her to the mercy of Bela Lugosi starring in the first zombie film. The movie was made in 1932, following Lugosi's phenomenal success as Dracula. It was a low budget film, produced by the Halperin Brothers, set in Haiti and it spawned a new genre of horror characters, zombies, that populate movies even today. (TNT 11/4/1932; pg. 7)

Blue Mouse Movie Theatre (Tacoma); Yonk, Marjorie; Schutz, E.J.; White, J.F.; Publicity;

Framed by the blackness of the movie theater behind her, Marjorie Yonk emerged from a special midnight preview of the horror movie "White Zombie" on November 3, 1932, visibly shaken. The Blue Mouse Theater at 1131-33 Broadway had offered $10 to any woman who would sit through the midnight preview, alone, without screaming. Marjorie took on the challenge and triumphed, but from the look in her eyes, she earned the ten dollars. The 1932 horror classic, starring Bela Lugosi, was the first Hollywood zombie film. (TNT 11/4/1932, pg. 7)

Blue Mouse Movie Theatre (Tacoma); Yonk, Marjorie;

ca. 1926. Many children, boys on left, girls on right, on sidewalk in front of the Blue Mouse Theater, circa 1926. In 1922, the old Apollo theater became part of the Hamrick chain and reopened as the Blue Mouse, named after a theater in Paris. (filed with Argentum)

Blue Mouse Movie Theatre (Tacoma); Motion picture theaters--Tacoma; Marquees--Tacoma; Children--Tacoma--1920-1930;

In May of 1941, Pfc. Kenneth E. Wilkinson counts the cash in his wallet, planning to take in the double feature at the Blue Mouse. The marquee boldly states that "Men of Boy's Town" and "Let's Make Music" are playing. Pfc. Wilkinson is the Army's biggest movie fan, having once enjoyed 13 feature films in one weekend. The soldier from LaGrande, Ore., goes to the movies 4-5 nights a week to forget his troubles and estimates that he has seen 245 full length feature films since he enlisted in October of 1940. The UP wire picked up the Tacoma Times story and Hollywood also discovered Wilkinson. The motion picture industry flew the star struck redhead to Hollywood for a week of wining, dining and meeting the stars. His favorite was Mickey Rooney. (T. Times 4/29/1941, pg. 5; 7/24/41, pg.1)

Wilkinson, Kenneth E.; Blue Mouse Movie Theatre (Tacoma); Motion picture theaters--Tacoma; Marquees;

This photograph from October of 1946 shows the east side of Broadway from the Blue Mouse Theater to South 11th Street. Hamrick's Blue Mouse, at 1131-33 Broadway, was the first movie theater in Tacoma to show "talkies." It was demolished in 1960 during urban renewal to make way for Tacoma's experiment with "moving sidewalk" escalators. The Ted Brown Music Store is the third building beyond Hamrick's Blue Mouse Theater. The building next to Ted Brown's has lost its top three stories, and is the same height as Ted Brown's now. TPL-1451

Ted Brown Music Store (Tacoma); Music stores--Tacoma--1940-1950; Commercial streets--Tacoma--1940-1950; Blue Mouse Movie Theatre (Tacoma); Motion picture theaters--Tacoma--1940-1950;