This article is within the scope of WikiProject Business, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of business articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BusinessWikipedia:WikiProject BusinessTemplate:WikiProject BusinessWikiProject Business articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Oregon, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Oregon on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.OregonWikipedia:WikiProject OregonTemplate:WikiProject OregonOregon articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject National Register of Historic Places, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of U.S. historic sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.National Register of Historic PlacesWikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic PlacesTemplate:WikiProject National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places articles
A fact from Blue Mouse Theatre appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 31 December 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
I'm getting confused about the Portland Blue Mouse and its two locations. The second location was built in 1928 with seating for 850 and a single screen? Designed by Albert Mercier and Lee Arden Thomas, who also designed the Oriental Theatre (Portland, Oregon) and several other venues? How many seats were at the first location? ChildofMidnight (talk) 18:18, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Despite the claim on the theater's official web site, it's unlikely that the Blue Mouse Theatre was named for a lounge in Paris. There were at least four theaters in the United States called The Blue Mouse before John Hamrick opened his first theater of that name. St. Paul, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Fort Worth all had theaters called The Blue Mouse during the 1910s, some in operation at least as early as 1911.
It is likely that all these theaters, including Hamrick's, and probably the Paris lounge as well, derived their name from a popular play called The Blue Mouse, the English language version of which was written by the then-popular but now largely forgotten playwright Clyde Fitch. Fitch's work was adapted from a German play by Alexander Engel and Julius Horst. Fitch wrote his adaptation for the Shubert brothers, who had bought the English rights to the German play.
After a tryout at the Hyperion Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, Fitch's play opened at the Lyric Theatre in New York City on November 30, 1908, and ran until June, 1909, after moving to the Maxine Elliot Theatre. It was enormously popular, and road show companies were still performing the play well into the 1910s. Hamrick would not have had to travel to London to see the play (the other legend which has arisen about the name of this theater is that he and his wife saw the play on a trip to London) as it would have been presented in Seattle by at least one road show company. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.52.144.159 (talk) 12:09, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
