Broadway Redux

I’m a sucker for history if you, “the super eight” haven’t noticed.  I consider myself lucky to appreciate black and white cinema, and in particular, the movies of the thirties and forties.   My father played a huge part my indoctrination to this genre.   Actually it was more like an immersion program growing up in a house where Portland’s local channel 12 served as our HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Starz all in one.  Hollywood’s Best was always part of the family TV viewing mix.  Following re-runs of Gilligan’s Island, Courtship of Eddie’s Father and Star Trek , that is.  Like most families we watched primarily network fare but an old B/W Humphrey Bogart movie was a good substitute on a lame night foreseen in TV Guide.

I grew to know and appreciate the work of Bogie, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Betty Davis, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine,  Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Jimmy Cagney, John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, John Ford and many, many others.   Downtown Portland’s Broadway was the center of movie culture before the age of TV.  All that exists today is the former Paramount Theatre.   It’s now known as Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and is under the grand “Portland” marquis.  The Broadway, Mayfair/Fox, and Orpheum theaters are all gone, as are most of the city’s theaters from that era.  

This painting is not just another one of my musings of days long past in a familiar location.  This is a gift for my friend Angie Johnson and her husband Dave who helped me score my first “gig” at the Blue Moon Coffee www.bluemoonlo.com/  shop in Lake Oswego.  Angie knew the owners and arranged for me to talk with them in late 2011. I sold three pieces of work.  Thank you Angie and Dave and I hope you enjoy this painting and the spirit of downtown Broadway as it looked seventy years ago.