Digital Bob Archive

Conversion of the Juneau Opera House to a movie theater was a slow process, with a good deal of faltering along the way. It had opened in the summer of 1887 as a combined legitimate theater and variety house with traveling troupes providing much of the talent that appeared on its stage.

Variety shows, also known as vaudeville shows, were very popular at the Opera House, but prior to the Klondike Rush their northern tours were pretty much limited to Juneau and Douglas. Skagway and Dawson were added after 1897, and in time the circuit included Nome, Fairbanks and many smaller mining camps.

One of the smallest troupes but also one of the favorites for nearly a dozen years was the Great Hewett Company which consisted of father, mother and daughter. Newspapers of that day often referred to male entertainers, including piano players in bordellos, as \"Professor\" and Mr. Hewett was no exception. He did sleight-of-hand and other \"magic\" tricks; Mrs. Hewett sang, and Edwina, who was only five when she first appeared on the stage in Juneau, sang and danced. Other variety troupes in the early years of the century included the Code Amusement Company and the Home Amusement Company, each a little larger than the Hewett Company but with similar offerings.

In 1906 and 1907 most of the variety shows, perhaps all of them, added moving pictures to their billings. These were accepted at first as a novelty rather than as good entertainment. Each film was short, usually 10 or 15 minutes; the motion was jerky at best and the portable projectors often gave Inadequate light or were poorly focused. Prize fights, some of them faked, were favorite subjects, and scenes of the devastation of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 helped to fill the theaters.

The Juneau Amusement Company, J. Smith, manager, seems to have been the first to attempt a permanent movie business here. It opened at the Opera House about July 1, 1909, showing there on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and at the Douglas Opera House on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Reserved seats at both places were 25'; regular admission 15' for adults, 10' for children. Smith announced that he would locate permanently and employ four or five people \"if enough encouragement is given.\" Apparent1y the encouragement was insufficient; the show closed before August 1.

In May, 1910, the Hewetts appeared at the Opera House as the Great Hewett Moving Picture Company \"with new acts, new illusions and movies, new magic and songs.\" They showed \"Ben's Kid\" which the Daily Alaska Dispatch pronounced \"the best picture yet given. It shows methods used by cowboys to punish the undesirable and contains many beautiful scenes.\" A presentation of the Dobbs Alaska Moving Picture Company, from Nome, showing wildlife, walrus hunts and Eskimos, was also popular.

Then in June, 1910, Perry E. Jackson arrived in Juneau, leased the Opera House and the lower floor of the Douglas Fraternal Hall, and established the area's first movie houses.