American Zeus ─ The Life of Alexander Pantages, Theater Mogul

Alexander Pantages was 11 when he arrived in the U.S. in the 1880s, having contracted malaria in Panama. Unable to read or write English, by 1902 he had opened his first motion picture theater in Seattle and began building one of the largest theater circuits in the country. By 1929, he owned or operated 72 movie houses across the U.S. and Canada and had amassed a fortune. His theaters—some of which still stand—set standards for quality and refinement and he tirelessly focused on pleasing the customer. In 1929 he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 17 year-old dancer—a scandal that destroyed his empire and reduced him to a pariah. The day his grandest theater, the Pantages Hollywood, opened in 1930, he lay sick in a jailhouse infirmary. His conviction was overturned on appeal but the question remains: how should history judge this theater impresario and embodiment of the American Dream?

Taso G. Lagos is a faculty member at the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies in Seattle where he teaches and conducts research in motion picture and Greek-American immigrant studies.