BUILT IN 1938 CLOSED 1980's RENOVATED/REOPENED 2007 by Ali, Oniko and Michael Mehrabi.
The history information was taken from a Central Oregonian article.
If anyone would like the share more history on the Pine please send us an email.
1938: PINE OPENS
1938: Ken Piercy 1st Manager
19?? The Pine Cone opens up to serve food to theater going customers.
1971: Pine Theater temporarily closes because rowdiness.
1980-ish Due to an easement dispute of the existing 1938 back emergency door the theater was forced to stay closed.
Crook County was left without a movie theater until.....
2006 we purchased the theater with the intention of reopening it to show movies when our son age 3 started school.
Easement dispute was disclosed to us however we had worked out an agreement with the neighbors (so we thought :(
2006 December: We needed only 5 inches to have an approved back exit. Again the contract holder of the northern property would not allow it.
2007 February: After public outcry Crook County Building department came up with an emergency exit solution called A Fire Corridor!
May 07’: Destruction of the inside starts 3 years earlier than planned! because the Town WANTED A MOVIE THEATER
Dec 19th: Theater (soft) open at 7pm with a FREE movie to the public for 2 days! Played Narnia
2007 Property Taxes show up 6 times higher than expected because of the imporovemtents. (building was almost condemned)
2008-2009-2010-2011-2012-2013 Kids Center sponsored a FREE movie for the kids of the area.
2008 A Fashion show fundraiser was held for Kids Center
2008 CCHS basketball fundraiser was held (showed the BCS bowl game)
2008 Campfire Girls Spooky Scary Karaoke. (Sell out)
2008 we acquire a beer and wine serving permit from OLCC.
2008-2009-2010 Comedy nights where held the night before BEND Comedy Competition THERE WARM UP AND THEY ASKED TO DO IT AGAIN!
2009 released Twilight New Moon Midnight showing sold out.
2009 we had plans drawn for a 2nd screen. We need to release more new movies and the studio rules kept us from getting them.
DECEMBER 2009 2 YEARS OPEN RUNNING SMOOTH and a bit profitable even at $6 All ages All showtimes!
2010 Oregon Civil War game was held by The Crook County Foundation (sold out)! We hoped to do this event every year!
MAY 2010 we moved into the theaters loft apartment to save money.
2010 Midnight showing of: Twilight Saga Eclipse SOLD OUT
OCT 2010 we were able to submitted plans to the city planning commission to build the 2nd screen on top of the building. It was approved! We need a height variance of 5 more feet. The current height limit is 35 ft. It will soon be 45 ft city wide but we are in a hurry again to complete by 2010 Christmas. So we paid for the special permit.
NOV 2010 2nd story 2nd screen construction starts!
DONE IN 3 MONTHS :) THANK YOU TO ALL LOCAL (IN TOWN) CONTRACTORS
Feb 18th 2011 the first movie to play on the 2nd screen is True Grit.
2011 May we raised the large popcorn price to $4 because the cost of oil went from $40 - $60 a can. Old Mill charges $7 for the same size large popcorn.
2013 March we got official word FILM IS GOING AWAY BY THE END OF 2013
We already had restoring loans, more taxes, and extra electrical expenses and with our profit margins purposely set low another loan was out of the question. We and about 3,000 other mom and pop theaters running their business like we do in small towns needed to raise funds over night! The digital conversion was a mandate from Hollywood studios
The town of Burns (population 2,800) had raised their funds in 3 months for one screen 55k with the help of a hard working kid as his Senior Project and the Harney County Foundation helping take funds. We knew we could do this in Prineville (population 11,000) we are not a non-profit so we had to get extra creative to SALE something!
Then my husband had a wonderful idea! Add a point of interest in downtown and take care of some left over ugly side walk! And raise funds to buy the digital without a loan.
2013 MARCH the Horseshoe Walk of Fame
2013 MAY Crestview CABLE calls and says they want to help we can’t lose our theater! They put themselves out there to receive smaller donations from the citizens and their customers. People that wanted to see the theater to stay open but couldn’t do a $400 horseshoe.
NOTE: WE DID NOT WANT TO TAKE (SMALLER DONATIONS) WE COULD NOT RETURN IF WE HAD TO CLOSE!
Crestview Cable raised 7 (Community Supporter) Horseshoes!
2013 JUNE BLNKSLATE.com Travis Holman walked in to tell me he was going to help! As a newcomer to Prineville he needed to go to the movies locally. He started www.savethepine.com a Twitter and then a kickstarter.com campaign. He helped to communicate what we were having a difficult time saying it’s a mandate and we will close. The Central Oregonian did more articles. The Bend Bulletin helped out the local news stations came out a few times then radio interviews some of it was very fun but scary because we didn’t think we’d make it at this point.
Then we sold a few GOLD Horseshoes! The Kickstarter.com campaign failed and the PEOPLE wanted there PINE!
2013 by Aug we raised 86k and qualified for a short term loan to purchase the digital. We still had 27 Horseshoe’s for sale.
Oct 24 only 5 horseshoe's left raised $105,000! The cost to buy projectors, booth equipment and install came to $110,000 not including the bank fee's to get an SBA loan the extra $13,000 it has been a very long year! But we made it!
We love knowing THE PEOPLE SAVED THE THEATER!
The PINE will continue to support the community with family friendly prices and give $2000 worth of gift certificates DONATED directly to fundraisers yearly and the PINE Dollars to the Senior Party for the past 5 years and the special priced showings to elementary schools and all the other stuff my husband gives without asking his accounting dept.. It’s all apart of living here and we appreciate it! The supportive letters and emails have been very awesome… We hope to please everyone! Our customers are #1 Thank you
The Installing of the SHINNY ENGRAVED HORSESHOES In November :)
November 21st the Admission Ticket $8.00 lower than all 1st run theaters in Central Oregon because it's about neighbors and lifetime memories. Hollywood Movie studios take 65%-80% of the ticket price charged.
2014 May Horseshoe Walk of Fame was complete and installed under the Historical Marquee.
www.pinetheater.com
