{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Orange Phelps | image = Phelps reduced.png | image_size = 130px | office = Mayor of Hillsboro, Oregon | term = January 2, 1929 – January 2, 1935 | preceded = Mason P. Cady | succeeded = John H. Garrett | office2 = | term2 = | preceded2 = | succeeded2 = | birth_date = December 24, 1886 | birth_place = Davis, California | death_date = {{death date and age|1985|8|4|1886|12|24}} | death_place = Forest Grove, Oregon | spouse = Ora Etta Whitmore | party = | relations = | children = 2 | alma_mater = Hanover College<br>Northwestern University | occupation = | profession = Businessman | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Orange Phelps''' (December 24, 1886 – August 4, 1985) was an American businessman and politician in the state of Oregon. A native of California, he attended colleges in the Midwest where he played baseball before moving to Oregon. Phelps settled near Portland in Hillsboro where he opened the first movie theater and later served as a mayor of that city and on the city council. He continued in the movie business until the 1970s and also opened the first drive-in theater in the county.
==Early life== Phelps was born to Frederick and Alice C. Phelps on December 24, 1886, in Davis, California.<ref name=society>{{cite news|title= Society |date= September 28, 1930|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=3}}</ref><ref name="argus obit">{{cite news|title=Former Hillsboro mayor, theater owner dies at age 99 |date= August 6, 1985 |newspaper=The Hillsboro Argus|pages=1A, 8A|last=Wiens |first=Richard}}</ref> Frederick had moved to the West Coast in 1866, where Orange's mother was born, and the couple had four daughters and four sons.<ref name=society/> Orange grew up in Davis before attending college at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.<ref name="argus obit"/>
He then transferred to Northwestern University in the Chicago area where he played baseball.<ref name="argus obit"/><ref name=obit>{{cite news|title= Former mayor dies|date= August 7, 1985|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=63}}</ref> Following college he moved to Southern Oregon where he worked at the Granite Hill Mine near Grants Pass, and in 1906 Phelps moved north to Hillsboro, Oregon.<ref name="argus obit"/> In Hillsboro he first worked for the agency that became the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.<ref name="argus obit"/> In 1908 he entered the movie theater business.<ref name=arcadia>{{cite book|last=Fitzgerald|first=Kimberli|title=Hillsboro|year=2009|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=Charleston, S.C.|isbn=978-0-7385-7182-9 |author2=Deborah Raber |series=Images of America|pages=60, 91, 95, 113}}</ref> Phelps also played catcher for the semi-professional Hillsboro Cardinals for about twelve years, starting in 1909.<ref name="argus obit"/> On August 28, 1910, he married Ora Etta Whitmore, who died in 1974.<ref name="argus obit"/> They had two sons, John Vincent and Orange W. Phelps.<ref name="argus obit"/>
==Career== In Hillsboro he opened the Arcade Theater, a 108-seat movie house on East Main Street in Downtown Hillsboro in 1908.<ref name=arcadia/><ref name=pioneer>{{cite news|last=Doctor|first=Jerri|title=Phelps personifies pioneer spirit|newspaper=Hillsboro Argus|date=October 19, 1976|pages=Historic Potpourri 12}}</ref> At that time he also worked as the booking agent for the Crescent Theater.<ref name=arcadia/> The Arcade was Hillsboro's first movie house.<ref name="argus obit"/> About 1910 he started showing movies in Shute Park in a large black tent each year on the Fourth of July.<ref name="argus obit"/> This venture proved profitable, so he traveled with his tent to the coastal community of Rockaway each summer.<ref name="argus obit"/> As the community did not yet have electricity, Phelps had to bring his own generators, and as such, he was known as the person to bring the first lights to Rockaway.<ref name="argus obit"/>
In 1913, the Shute Bank of Hillsboro moved to a new location, and bank president John W. Shute offered to sell the building to Phelps for use as a movie theater.<ref name=renovation>{{cite news|title=Cost to renovate Town Theater Soars |date= May 9, 2002 |newspaper=The Oregonian|page=West Zoner 1}}</ref> Shute offered to loan Phelps the money to buy the building.<ref name=pioneer/> Phelps renovated the building that had been built in 1888 and opened the 200-seat Grand Theater that same year.<ref name=renovation/> He expanded the theater to 500 seats in 1916 and changed the moniker to the Liberty Theater.<ref name=renovation/>
From 1916 to 1917 he also operated the Majestic Theater in Downtown Hillsboro.<ref name="argus obit"/><ref name=arcadia/> Ten years after opening his Grand Theater in 1926, Phelps remodeled it and changed the name to the Venetian Theatre, which in turn burned in 1956.<ref name=renovation/> In 1957, he re-opened the renovated movie theater as the Town Theater.<ref name=renovation/> The new theater had 750 seats.<ref name="grand larsony">{{cite news|title= Grand larsony|last=Larson|first=Herb |date= November 30, 1957|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=7}}</ref> Earlier he had teamed up with Harry Hill to build the Hill Theater on Northeast Third Avenue, with that Art Deco-style theater opening in 1937.<ref name=arcadia/> Phelps also started holding a free Christmas show for children at the Venetian in 1935, which became an annual Hillsboro tradition into the 1980s.<ref name="argus obit"/> In 1951, he opened Washington County's first drive-in movie theater, the CarVue in neighboring Cornelius in partnership with one son, Vincent, and the owners of Forest Grove's theaters.<ref name="argus obit"/><ref name=obit/> The Car Vue was torn down in the early 1980s to prepare for construction of a Fred Meyer store.<ref name="argus obit"/>
===Civic affairs=== Phelps entered politics in 1920 when he ran for a seat on the Hillsboro City Council, winning the November election and taking office on January 4, 1921.<ref name=pioneer/><ref name=councilors>{{cite web|title=City Councilor History|url=http://www.ci.hillsboro.or.us/CityCouncil/History/CouncilorHistory.aspx|work=City Council|publisher=City of Hillsboro|accessdate=July 8, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912222327/http://www.ci.hillsboro.or.us/CityCouncil/History/CouncilorHistory.aspx|archivedate=September 12, 2011}}</ref> He won re-election to the council and remained in that office until January 4, 1927.<ref name=councilors/> While in office, he was in-charge Hillsboro's annual Fourth of July celebration in 1923,<ref name=jubilate>{{cite news|title= Hillsboro to Jubilate |date= April 29, 1923|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=7}}</ref> and in 1921 he had helped get the Pavilion at Shute Park built.<ref name=pioneer/>
Phelps ran for mayor of the city in 1928 and faced E. L. McCormick in the November election.<ref name=campaign>{{cite news|title= City Campaign Warm|date= November 4, 1928|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=16}}</ref> Phelps won the contest, running on a platform of efficient business,<ref name=campaign/> and succeeded M. P. Cady.<ref name="list of mayors">Mayors: City of Hillsboro. ''The Hillsboro Argus'', October 19, 1976.</ref> He won re-election as mayor in an uncontested race in November 1932,<ref name=re-elected>{{cite news|title= Hillsboro Officials Re-elected |date= November 10, 1932|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=7}}</ref> and served as mayor from January 2, 1929, until January 2, 1935, when J. H. Garrett became mayor.<ref name=obit/><ref name="list of mayors"/>
From 1928 to 1929 he served as president of the Hillsboro Rotary Club,<ref>{{cite web|title=Past Club Presidents|url=http://www.clubrunner.ca/CPrg/DxProgramHome/programhome.aspx?cid=2763&pid=21569|work=About|publisher=Hillsboro Rotary}}</ref> and was a founder of the Hillsboro Happy Days festival that celebrated Independence Day.<ref name="argus obit"/> Phelps was involved with the local Boy Scouts, serving as a chairman of a local committee in 1935, as did future governor Paul L. Patterson.<ref name=scouts>{{cite news|title= Hillsboro Scouts Lead Whole Area for Eight Months |date= January 27, 1935|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=2}}</ref> He also served on the city's planning commission from 1935 until 1969.<ref name="argus obit"/> During World War II Phelps served as a civilian defense director.<ref name="argus obit"/>
==Later years== Phelps was named as the distinguished citizen of the year in the senior division by the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce in 1964.<ref>{{cite web|title=2010 Annual Awards|url=http://www.hillchamber.org/images/2010AAProgram.pdf|work=Program|publisher=Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce|accessdate=July 8, 2011}}</ref> He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a Freemason with the Tuality Lodge, and a member of the Montezuma Lodge.<ref name="argus obit"/>
In 1978, Phelps sold his theaters to Tom Moyer's theater chain.<ref>{{cite web|title=History|url=http://www.venetiantheatre.com/web/about/default.asp|work=About Us|publisher=Venetian Theatre|accessdate=July 8, 2011|url-status=usurped|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714003353/http://www.venetiantheatre.com/web/about/default.asp|archivedate=July 14, 2011}}</ref> He had been named as the oldest movie theater man still living in the country before he retired.<ref name=obit/> Orange Phelps died on August 4, 1985, in Forest Grove, Oregon, at the age of 98.<ref name=obit/> He was buried at Mount Olive Cemetery in the community of Laurel, south of Hillsboro.<ref name="argus obit"/>
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phelps, Orange}} Category:Mayors of Hillsboro, Oregon Category:1886 births Category:1985 deaths Category:Businesspeople from Oregon Category:Hillsboro City Council members (Oregon) Category:Northwestern Wildcats baseball players Category:Hanover College alumni Category:People from Davis, California Category:Semi-professional baseball players Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:20th-century mayors of places in Oregon