Ephrata Theatre

Joe Vogel on December 13, 2024 at 7:48 pm

This PDF has some history of Ephrata’s theaters starting on page six. In 1936, John and Mary Lee, who would later open the MarJo and Lee theatres, took over the Kam theatre, which was listed with 125 seats (but closed) in the FDY that year, and after sprucing it up, reopened it on October 9 as the Capitol Theatre. The Capitol is listed in the 1937 FDY with 125 seats, along with a house called the Ephrata, for which no details are provided.

In the 1938 FDY, the Capitol is not listed but the Ephrata is still there, now with 125 seats and the notation (port) which means portable. I suspect that this was still the Kam/Capitol building, but it was now the home base of the traveling circuit the Lees had established, driving the portable equipment around the additional towns of Moses Lake, Wilson Creek, Connell, Othello, Washtucna, White Bluffs, and Mansfield. The MarJo Theatre is first listed in 1941, and the Eprhata is last listed in 1942. It might be that the old Kam building was no longer used for regular exhibition after the larger MarJo opened, but it might have continued as a part time operation into 1942. The history recounted in the PDF doesn’t say, and the FDY listing is ambiguous.

The Kam’s building, an unprepossessing little one-story frame structure, was on First Avenue NW. Sanborn Maps show it on the Northwest corner of Jefferson Street (now First Ave. NW) and an alley between 3rd Street (now C Street NW) and 4th Street (now D Street NW.) This is now part of a parking lot, but Google street view assigns it the address 403 First Ave. NW.