Peaks and Pints Proctor Presents: Blue Mouse Theatre Gift Card

Let’s pair a Proctor District stocking stuffer with a sour beer!

Blue Mouse Theatre

In the early 1900s, John Hamrick opened the Blue Mouse Theatre for vaudeville and movies screenings in several Pacific Northwest cities, including Seattle in 1920, Portland in 1921, Corvallis in 1921, Astoria in 1922, downtown Tacoma on Broadway in 1922, and Proctor District Tacoma in 1923, which is the only Blue Mouse still operating. The name is said to have been inspired by a lounge in Paris, France, that screened talking pictures. Hamrick went on to own the Temple Theatre, the Music Box, and the Roxy Theatre in Tacoma. Hamrick originally named it Blue Mouse Junior to downtown Tacoma’s elder Mouse. Hamrick shelled out $20,000 to show popular silent Vaudeville-era picture shows, including The Green Goddess on opening day, Nov. 13, 2023. The men had their smoking lounge. The women had their nursery. Both rooms had windows facing the screen to ensure the smokers and nursers wouldn’t miss a moment of their film. The downtown Blue Mouse Theatre was demolished in 1960 to make way for an ill-fated “moving sidewalk.”

The Blue Mouse Junior survived the Great Depression, but was sold and renamed multiple times, including Proctor Theatre (1932) and the Bijou (1980), although both had roller-coaster rides of success. In 1993, the Bijou owner Shirley Mayo had enough. Instead of it being a non-retail entity, The Pacific Northwest Shop owner Bill Evans gathered a group of 17 investors, including businessman Erling Kuester and glass artist Dale Chihuly, each investor adding $10,000 to renovate and rename it Blue Mouse Theatre. It closed its doors for a few minutes while the Blue Mouse Associates uncovered the 221-seat theater’s original charm from marble and mahogany to chandeliers and capitals — plus Chihuly’s neon blue mice scampering on the marquee. In 2017, The Blue Mouse Theatre was officially registered as a historical place under the Tacoma Landmark Preservation Commission.

The Blue Mouse continues to screen movies Friday through Monday, including the holiday film The Holdovers at 7 p.m. tonight. Other special holiday films screenings this month include Elf at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, Polar Express at 7 p.m. Dec. 6, It’s A Wonderful Life at 7 p.m. Dec. 7, and followed by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour this coming weekend.

The adventure, emotions, and joy that only cinema on the big screen creates are an experience, a special gift that you can give to family and friends with a Blue Mouse Theatre Gift Card.

Fort George Diamond Rain

After purchasing your Blue Mouse Gift Card, head down the street to grab Fort George Brewery’s Diamond Rain wild ale at Peaks & Pints.

Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in Oregon and was once a trading hub for fishing and fur with as many as 30 canneries along the Columbia River, which all but disappeared in the mid-70s. Four months after the Blue Mouse Theatre opened in Astoria, a fire on Dec. 7, 1922, wiped out more than 200 businesses within 30 blocks of downtown Astoria, and the Blue Mouse was one of the buildings claimed. As a Christmas present to Astoria, Hamrick left his Seattle Blue Mouse and race to Astoria to rebuild the smoldering theater. On Christmas Day, Blue Mouse Astoria screened Mary Pickford’s Tess of the Storm Country, in one of the surviving Astoria structures, the Lovell building, which became the home of Fort George Brewery in 2007.

In 2019, Brothers Cascadia Brewing parked their coolship in Fort George’s courtyard and together they brewed a collaborative wort, inoculating it with local wild yeasts and bacteria. The beer sat in oak in Fort George’s cellar for more than three years before they blended it with a one-year-old mixed culture saison. They bottle conditioned the blend for almost a year. And now, four years after the initial brew, the funky and sour Diamond Rain is ready to be a stocking stuffer with the Blue Mouse Gift Card.

Proctor District

Proctor is a boutique Tacoma neighborhood centered around North 26th Street and Proctor Street. It’s a small district packed with locally-owned and operated niche stores in which every detail — every window display, bushel of fresh produce or interior cheer — is carefully curated for customers. This year, the Proctor Business District dons candy cane stripes and white lights for their month-long “Meet Me At Proctor’s Peppermint Place” celebration. Peaks and Pints bottle shop, taproom, and restaurant has called Proctor home for more than four years. We’re proud to be a part of this wonderful, caring community.

BLUE MOUSE THEATRE, 2611 N. Proctor St., Proctor District, Tacoma, 253.752.9500

LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory