AKA: Good Guys Appliance Store, Bellevue, WA; Underhills Furniture Store, Bellevue, WA
Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - stores; built works - performing arts structures - theatres
Designers: [unspecified]
Dates: constructed 1960-1961
2 stories
This theatre operated between 1961-1990, and was once a centerpiece of the Danz chain, founded by John Danz in 1912. His son, Fredric, built the company to include 110 movie houses (on the West Coast) by the mid-1980s, as well as other radio and entertainment ventures. John Danz built the Sterling Recreation Organization (SRO), but his son, Fredric, renamed the company to the Sterling Realty Organization, focusing on the family's real estate investments. The younger Danz sold all of its theatre operations to Cineplex Odeon of Toronto, ON, Canada, in 1986, most of its 9 radio stations in 1989, and its video rental stores and its 7 bowling centers in 1992.
The theatre was a rectangle, with a large sign that read "John Danz Theatre" along a rear wall. The sign was supported by 6 vertical supports.
This former theatre was renovated into a franchised Good Guys Appliance store that operated between c. 1991-2005; the Good Guys! chain was closed by its parent company, CompUSA, in 12/2005. The building has since been used as the Underhills Furniture Store on the lower floors. For many years, the Danz Family maintained its corporate headquarters on the theatre's second floor.
PCAD id: 12705