Montavilla’s Academy Theater had been in business since 1948, when, in 1966, it faced a new challenge: the Eastgate Cinema opened at SE 82nd and Harrison, just a few blocks away.

The Eastgate, created by the future movie mogul, Tom Moyer (1919-2014), was bigger and more luxurious than the Academy. It also used the latest cinema technology. The Eastgate opened with a two-auditorium theater, then added another, single-screen building. Altogether, the complex could seat 2,200. The Academy seated a little over 600. The Eastgate closed in 2001. Today, the buildings are home to the Slavic Church Emmanuel.

Despite the Eastgate competition, the Academy managed to stay in business for several years. It had one advantage: cheaper tickets. While the Eastgate screened first-run movies, the Academy showed cheaper second-run — and sometimes even third-run — films.

Jim Teeny found other ways to stay in business. He reduced screenings from daily to weekends. On Sundays, attendance was light, so he invented Portland’s first “dollar night” movies: for $1, you could see a double feature and cartoon, and drink unlimited amounts of free Boyd’s coffee. Another gambit was to book a lot of Clint Eastwood movies, which earned the Academy a reputation as the “Clint Eastwood house” of Portland.

Jim stopped managing the Academy in 1972 and devoted himself exclusively to his fly-fishing business. The Teenys sold the Academy to Warren Stanley “Sam” Crawford, who continued to operate it as a movie theater until 1974. For a brief time, Crawford also used it as a concert venue.

Sometime after 1974, Crawford remodeled the building to produce a “penny-saver” newspaper called Nickel Ads. The auditorium was gutted and flattened to make space for the big six-unit printing press. According to Andrew Hessel, former manager of Nickel Ads, this advertising newspaper was successful, but it relocated in 2001.

The Academy Theater was once again empty and available. In 2002, Ty DuPuis, owner of the Flying Pie Pizzeria, bought the vacated Nickel Ads building, with the idea of reviving the Academy as a theater-pub, a model that had saved many a neighborhood theater.

In 2004, DuPuis partnered with Heyward and Julie Stewart. Together they put a team of architects, contractors, builders, and designers.

Stephanie Brown, a Portland interior designer, helped restore the theater as closely as possible to its original Streamline Moderne style while also creating a theater that meets current standards of comfort, convenience, and safety. All this on a limited budget.

But restore it to what? It was unclear what parts of the original theater looked like. Portions of the entrance and lobby remained, but the auditorium was a mystery since it had been gutted and flattened to meet the Nickel Ads’ needs. Moreover, there were only a few old photographs to guide the restoration.

The theater’s auditorium seated over 600 people, but this was considered too large for second-run moviegoers. The solution: divide it into three small theaters.

Fortunately, the original curved walls and round ceiling-well of the lobby remained and simply needed restoration.

Besides restoring the theater to its 1940s look, it was also upgraded to seismic standards.

Photos of the original Academy building guided the restoration of the exterior. The rock facing added by Nickel Ads was removed. The original marquee design was restored, down to the theater’s name in curvy letters.

But what was the exterior color? There were no old color photos or accounts to guide the designer. The deep blue of the Streamline Moderne Greyhound bus terminals was an appropriate choice for both period and style.

Not every detail of the original Academy design could be restored. The original curving pattern of the lights on the underside of the marquee could not be replicated with available materials. The ticket booth of the original Academy was not restored; it was too small to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. The original front doors had round windows, but these would exceed the renovation budget.

Although not every detail of the original Academy could be replicated, the design was so successful that in 2008 it won a Preservation in Action Award from the Architectural Heritage Center/Bosco-Milligan Foundation. It was one of 15 projects chosen by a panel of judges as outstanding examples of historic preservation created during the previous 20 years.

On March 11, 2006, the restored Academy opened to a sold-out crowd. The line stretched around the block an hour before opening. Old film buffs could choose the 1947 film “Tycoon” starring John Wayne, Laraine Day, and Cedric Hardwicke, the same movie featured on the Academy’s opening night in 1948.

The resurrected Academy Theater has become a Montavilla icon and a community favorite. In 2013, when Hollywood decided it was go-digital or die, a crowdsourcing campaign raised nearly $49,000 to buy the new projectors. The Academy was able to remain in business.

Not only did the historic Academy survive, but it also helped, along with Ya Hala, Flying Pie, and Bipartisan Café, to revitalize Montavilla’s historic downtown.

The Academy Theater received an upgrade in 2015, with a mural added to its west side. At that time, Seattle-based artist Olivia Knapp added a pen-and-ink style mural called “On the Other Hand” to the very wall that Jim Teeny helped to repaint every year.

Acknowledgments:

For this article, I am grateful to the following people for the information they generously shared with me: Heyward Stewart, co-owner and manager of the Academy; Jim Teeny, son of the original owners of the Academy; Stephanie Brown, the interior designer who helped with the Academy restoration; and Andrew Hessel, a general manager of Nickel Ads.

If you want to know more:

On the remodeling, see an excellent article by Inara Verzemnieks, “Trickle up effect tips the momentum on Stark Street,” The Oregonian, April 6, 2006

For a time-lapse video of the creation of Olivia Knapp’s “Other Hand” on the west exterior wall of the Academy, go to http://www.oliviaknapp.com/other-hand/2015/9/16/olivia-knapp-mural-time-lapse-forest-for-the-trees-mural-project.

Title image: Academy Theater marquee in its renovated state Photo by Jacob Loeb

Event: The Academy Theater will celebrate 20 years since reopening on March 11th, 2026, from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

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This is part of Montavilla History Questions Answered, a series of history related articles. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future.