The stage for discrimination: How one Spokane man desegregated the Pantages chain of vaudeville theaters

On Sept. 15, 1918, Samuel Moore and his, girlfriend Sadie Miller, attempted to attend a vaudeville performance at Spokane’s Pantages Theatre. An usher told them that because they were black, they had to sit at the back of the theater.

Section:Gallery

Sun., Aug. 18, 2019

1919 - Theater impresario Alexander Pantages built this Greek revival theater, designed for both vaudeville and movies, in 1917 on Howard St. in Spokane. It was a stop on the "Pantages circuit" where national acts rotated through on a weekly basis. Later, the theater went out of business in 1929 and reopened the next year as the Orpheum, mainly showing movies. The building was torn down in 1958 and the space used as a parking lot until the Parkade was built in 1966. Libby Collection/Eastern Washington Historical Society Archives

Libby Collection Eastern Washing
This ad appeared in The Spokesman-Review on Sept. 15, 1918, advertising the vaudeville show that Samuel Moore took his future wife to see. They were told they needed to sit in the back of the theater because they were black.
Samuel Moore’s draft registration form for World War II.

Mary K Holcomb
Samuel Moore’s World War II draft registration form.

Mary K Holcomb
Sadie Moore’s death certificate reveals she died of tuberculosis in 1928.

Mary K Holcomb
Samuel Moore’s death certificate. He died in Seattle in 1958 from “traumatic epilepsy,” perhaps the result of a gunshot wound to the head he had suffered in 1935.

Mary K Holcomb
Samuel Simon Moore’s draft registration for World War I.

Mary K Holcomb