Pastime Theater

The Pastime Theater was an early nickelodeon in Pendleton and the city’s longest-lasting of that era of picture shows. It was begun by legendary theater owner Guy G. Matlock who - between he and his wife - would be the city’s most influential showrunners. The Pastime Theater would make it through its 15-year leasing period and was replaced by the new-build Rivoli Theater that signaled the end of the first and late era nickelodeons in town.

The Pastime Theater opened March 22, 1908. It was just the fourth film theater in town and only the second designed primarily to present films. The first film theater in town was the existing Frazer Theater (aka Frazer’s Theater) which was a live house that put on its first film show on October 31, 1905 before converting to a full-time picture show in 1906. The existing Star Theatre moved from live acts to film with fewer live acts in 1907. The first full-time movie theater that hadn’t converted from a live stage was the short-lived Dime Theater opening on October 15, 1907 and closing two years later. Those three venues were followed Matlock’s Pastime Theatre in 1908.

Fast forward about ten years when Matlock got a monopoly in local theaters by opening the Alta Theater and taking over the former Cosy Theater turned Temple Theater (Matlock changed it to the Arcade Theater) and then taking over the former Orpheum Theater turned “new” Cosy Theater. The Pastime Theater closed briefly during the influenza pandemic of 1918 along with all theaters locally.

Matlock moved into the first gen movie palace era by creating the new-build Rivoli Theater opening September 10, 1921. The Pastime Theater was shuttered following the September 9, 1921 bill of Art Accord in “The White Horseman”, Thomas Sanschi in “Beyond the Trail”, and Baby Peggy in “Third Class Male”. W.A. “Mac” McClelland took on the space opening a men’s clothing store on October 29, 1921.

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