Tahoe Tavern Theatre

Built in the casino ballroom of the Tahoe Tavern Hotel, the 400-seat Tahoe Tavern Theatre was first advertised in the Sierra Sun on July 12, 1935, with Helen Hayes and Robert Montgomery in “Vanessa, Her Love Story”. The early program guides, published in the Sierra Sun, showed a program change of first-run movies every night and later every two to three days.

The 225-room Tahoe Tavern Hotel was opened in 1901 by Duane Leroy Bliss, on Tahoe Tavern Road, within walking distance of the lake front. The hotel was designed by Duane’s son Walter, who was a noted architect in his own right, known for public and commercial buildings in northern California.

The Theatre was advertised in the Sierra Sun through the 1964 season. The Sierra Sun reported the entire furnishings and equipment of the Tahoe Tavern Hotel would be sold at auction on September 12 and 13, 1964. On December 17, 1964, it was reported that while undergoing demolition, a fire destroyed what was left of the Tahoe Tavern Hotel. Plans were already in effect to build condominiums on the property.

Here is what Tahoe City native and writer Tim Hauserman wrote in June 2013: “My older sisters all remember attending movies at the Tahoe Tavern theater. In its later years, in an example of architectural idiocy that has only been exceeded by the design flaws of the first North Tahoe High School, the Tavern housed a movie theater directly over a bowling alley. As you might imagine, this could make hearing movie dialog a bit of a challenge. The six lanes were set by hand, so every loud crash not only disturbed the movie watchers but also put chatty teenagers to work setting up the pins. Patrons smoked cigarettes in the theater, so there was often a thick layer of smoke between the viewer and the screen. The smoke was a nice accompaniment to the bats, which frequently could be seen flying around in the cavernous theater. I’m thinking this place would have been Alfred Hitchcock’s dream viewing location for his 1963 suspense movie, “The Birds”.

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