780 words, a 3 to 5 minute read
In 1925 two Seattle families entered the movie exhibition business in Skagit County in 1925. The Pollocks opened the Lincoln to great local acclaim in April 1926. By March 1927, the original operator’s lease to the Lincoln was bought out by the Seattle family, the Ives, who already operated the Empire in Anacortes and the two rival Mount Vernon theaters. The Lincoln became the keystone of the Ives’ theater ‘chain.’
By 1925, only one of the 4 storefront movie theaters was still operating, the Rex. Among the closed theaters the Pastime was converted to a Billiard Parlor. It occupied the space that is now the Thai House. There was one purpose built movie theater in Mount Vernon the Mission (Lyric as of 1953, now District Brewing). It had opened in October 1919 and as the first purpose built movie theater was the premiere theater. It and the Rex were operated by co owners Harry Ulsh and Oscar Ruth.
Ulsh and Ruth voiced their opposition when the Lincoln Theater and the adjoining office building were announced. The Halberg brothers were to operate the Lincoln, having already established a Lincoln theater in Port Angeles. Ulsh and Ruth contended to the Mount Vernon City Council that the Halbergs had ties to unseemly Paramount movies. More importantly they argued that it had been demonstrated that Mount Vernon could not support 3 theaters. Ulsh and Ruth offered to operate the proposed Lincoln.
In a statement that foreshadowed some of the morality issues theaters in Mount Vernon would face, the City Attorney Branigin noted that restraining competition was not the Council’s job, stating, “If it can be shown that a third theater would be detrimental to the health and morals of the community, the council should deny the license. Otherwise the license should be granted.” In mid August 1925 the business license was issued to the Halbergs, who had signed a 10 year operating lease. The opening of the theater was promised for late 1925, then slipped to February 1926 and finally to April 1926.
The Lincoln and wraparound Pollock Building were built by Elden W. Pollock, his wife Alice Decatur Pollock and her sister on the site of the Decatur sisters’ childhood home. The cost of the total project bringing the Lincoln, Wurlitzer theater organ, and wraparound Pollock office building was $145,000. The theater fittings and projector, paid by the Halbergs, were an additional $34,000. William Aitken was the architect of the Spanish/Moorish themed buildings which had a theater capacity was 700 (current capacity is over 200 seats less).
There were turn away crowds at the opening with a newspaper ad the following day encouraging those turned away to return. Two weeks after opening on May 13, 1926 there were several pages of the Mount Vernon Argus lauding the features of the theater and the $160 a week payroll, which included a doorman and 6 ushers.
Shows included movies, Wurlitzer concerts, touring vaudeville acts, and local musicals. Within 5 months of opening the Lincoln hosted the first of many fashion shows, in this case with a local women’s clothing shop, Brisbin. Fashion shows accompanied by the organ continued at the Lincoln, sometimes twice a year until 1992.
Also in 1925, along a converging thread Waldo Ives, bought the rights to operate the Empire Theater in Anacortes. Hubert Crosby, the manager of the Empire at the time, stated in a 1980 interview that the Ives had overpaid and that Waldo, a recent UW graduate had no experience operating a movie theater. The money for the purchase came from his father Wilbur Ives who owned a coal distribution company in Seattle and was a Director of the Dexter Horton Bank.
In November 1925, Waldo bought out Ulsh’s interest in operating the two Mount Vernon theaters giving Ives and Ruth control over the Ives’ Empire theater in Anacortes, the Mission and Rex in Mount Vernon and Ruth’s Ideal Theater in Stanwood.
Nine months after the Lincoln opened, in March 1927 , Waldo Ives, his father, and Oscar Ruth bought the furnishings of and right to operate their competitor, the Lincoln, from the Halbergs for $100,000 – a tidy return on their investment for the Halbergs. Ives and Ulsh had closed the Rex in January 1927, giving proof to the original argument that Mount Vernon could not support 3 movie houses.
The deal closed the end of March 1927 with a farewell thank you ad from the Halbergs as they returned to Port Angeles. Waldo Ives announced investments in both the Empire in Anacortes and the Lincoln in Mount Vernon. Ulsh and Ives lost their lease to the Mission as they moved to the Lincoln.
In the same March 31, 1927 issue of the Mount Vernon Argus as the farewell ad and the Ives/Ulsh plans the newspaper ran an editorial decrying the bad which could come from these new “talkie” movies.
