Celebrates 100 Year Renaissance
All across the West the main streets of small
towns are shuttering downtown businesses due
to dramatic changes in buying habits and shift-
ing economics. Defying the trend, Enterprise,
Oregon, Wallowa County’s seat, boasts a Main
Street abuzz with new life - most noticeably at
the OK Theatre.
Enterprise residents and theater owners Darrell and
Christy Brann are responsible for that renaissance – re-
storing the Ok Theatre and bringing Grammy award win-
ning artists to the theatre stage for the past five years while
preparing for the venue’s 100th anniversary celebration in
July.
The OK Theatre first opened Jan. 25, 1919 showing silent
movies and charging $.25 for adults and $.15 for children.
In 1929 the first “talkie” was shown in the theater, “Street
Girl” starring Betty Compson playing a Hungarian violinist
playing in a New York jazz band.
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Katy Nesbitt
In 1933 the theater’s name was changed to The Vista
Theater, but in the 1980s Russell Ford of Wallowa bought
it and changed the name back to OK Theatre, and operat-
ed it into the 2000s. The theater was again on the market
in 2012 and the Branns purchased it at the end of 2013.
“When the theater opened in January 1919 one of Wal-
lowa County’s pioneers J.A. Burleigh said, ‘Nothing more
superior exists in all of Eastern Oregon and its only possi-
ble rival was a theater in Baker.’” Vicky Searles, executive
director of the Wallowa County Chamber, said, “It looks
like Darrell Brann of the OK Theater has the same aspi-
ration and the theater is a draw for music lovers around
northeastern Oregon..”
The Branns are both musicians and music lovers. Darrell
Brann comes from a musical family in Maine - his parents
were in a country band and he and his two brothers are
accomplished musicians; Christy Brann is a musician and
singer, as well. The couple is well known for performing
together at weddings and local venues and occasionally,
Darrell’s brothers will visit from the east coast for blues-
based “Brann Brother” performances. The Brann’s daugh-
 ter Meredith, a singer and fiddler, headlines her first solo
show at the theater in June.
Brann said he got hooked into music promotion when one
of his favorite guitar players was touring the Northwest. He
said he reached out and asked him to perform at the Rim-
rock Inn, 35 miles north of Enterprise on Highway 3.
“Eric Bibb was playing in Walla Walla and I decided to
make him an offer to come to the Rimrock,” Brann said.
About a year later Brann said his wife’s grandmother told
him a cousin of Christy’s was in a band, “The Infamous
Stringdusters,” an up and coming group formed in Nash-
ville. In late 2011 the Branns, along with some friends and
family, fronted the band’s fee and the rental cost for the
theater. The show nearly sold out.
“We decided we needed to do it again – it was fun to see
a great band at home instead of traveling to Portland or
Boise,” Brann said.

With the theater’s 100th anniversary looming,

the couple got to work planning the building’s
renovation right away A $100,000 grant from
the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office
helped them rebuild the theater’s stage and a
new proscenium, designed by local artists Anna
Vogel and Steve Arment, as well as install ADA
bathrooms and new furnaces.
Brann said the Sinclair Brothers of Enterprise
did the bulk of the demolition, but donations
from the community and volunteer labor have
been crucial.

When the “Stringdusters”

returned in 2012 every
seat in the theater sold
out. Brann, who owns a
successful construction
business and is raising
five children, decided he
wanted to buy the the-
ater, but it took some con-
vincing to get his wife on
board.
“She thought I was abso-
lutely crazy, but eventually
she agreed to buying the
theater,” Brann said.
Darrell Brann said he
and Christy saw purchas-
ing the theater not only
an investment opportunity
for his family, but also as
an investment in the com-

2019 N.E. Oregon’s Magazine • Page xxxxxxxxxxxx

munity. Following in the tradition of its previ-
ous owners, they have hosted school and
church concerts, fundraisers for groups like
Wallowa Land Trust and Ferguson Ridge
Ski Area and live theatrical performances.
By the time they bought the Theatre,
movie-viewing equipment had moved into
the digital age, and showing first-run mov-
ies meant a very expensive upgrade. The
Branns decided to focus on bringing musi-
cal acts to the theatre, but, from time to time
a popular older movie (that can be viewed
using older equipment), like “Loony Toons”
cartoons, are shown for free. Within a year,
Bart Budwig, the theater’s manager and
sound engineer, began recording albums in
the theater for a variety of bands and this
year he started his own label, OK Records.
As soon as the ink was dry on the deal with
Community Bank, Brann said he and Chris-
ty sought help to restore the building from
Restore Oregon, founded in 1977 as the
Historic Preservation League of Oregon.
Brann said, “Since we bought the theater,
Restore Oregon helped connect the dots
for us from hosting clinics to encouraging
our membership in the League of Historic
Theaters,”
Brann
said.
With the
theater’s
100th an-
niversary
looming,
the cou-
ple got to
work plan-
ning the
building’s
renova-
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tion right away while inviting acts like “Riders in the Sky”
and “Asleep at the Wheel” to Enterprise - bands that sold
out every seat.
A $100,000 grant from the Oregon State Historic Preser-
vation Office helped them rebuild the theater’s stage and
a new proscenium, designed by local artists Anna Vogel
and Steve Arment, as well as install ADA bathrooms and
new furnaces.
Brann said the Sinclair Brothers of Enterprise did the bulk
of the demolition, but donations from the community and
volunteer labor have been crucial.
“The outpouring of support from Wallowa County has
been incredible,” Brann said. “Not only have we received
money to rehabilitate the building and assistance with

2019 N.E. Oregon’s Magazine • Page xxxxxxxxxxxx

 been the heart of Enterprise’s downtown and we want
to celebrate its birthday with fantastic music and a really
fun weekend for locals and visitors alike,” Brann said.
The celebration begins Friday, July 12 with dinner at a
community table stretching down Main Street followed
by a melodrama performed by Lisa Closners’s Merry
Heart Theatre with a cast of local performers.
Saturday, July 13, donuts from Vali’s Alpine Restaurant
will be served in the theater while film curator Dennis
Nyback shows classic cartoons and vintage movies.
At noon the music starts on an outdoor stage on the
corner of Main and Second streets and continues un-
til 10 p.m. Food vendors organized by Wallowa Slow
Foods will line the street – wine and Terminal Gravity
beer will be served in Enterprise’s Warde Park.
For more information, follow the OK Theatre on Face-
book.

grant writing, but more than 100,000 pounds of debris has

been removed from the theater by volunteers.”
Diane Daggett, long-time supporter of Wallowa County
arts, wrote the grant application that resulted in the Histor-
ic grant funding the renovation. She said, “The OK Theatre
is an iconic piece of Wallowa County’s history,” Daggett
said. “Hats off to the Brann family and the Enterprise Mer-
chants. Their foresight in reviving the theater as well as all
the investment of passion, time and energy will benefit our
local economy, community and culture.”
The renovation is nearing completion as the Branns pre-
pare for the theater’s centennial celebration. Headlining
the event is rhythm and blues musician Jon Cleary. Born in
England, Cleary lives in New Orleans where he’s infused
the city’s culture into his music for more than 20 years. In
2016 his band, “The Absolute Monster Gentlemen,” won a
Grammy for Best Regional Roots Mu-
sic Album.
Grammy winner Dom Flemons, for-
merly of the “Carolina Chocolate
Drops”, returns to Eastern Oregon with
music from his latest album, “Black
Cowboy” a tribute to the African-Amer-
icans of the frontier West.
From Portland “Ural Thomas and the
Pain,” a rhythm and blues band, and
the “Caleb Klauder Band,” with its alt
country sound, are in the lineup as is
Enterprise’s own “Bart Budwig Band”
whose sound ranges from folk to funk,
rock to country.
Owner Darrell Brann said he wants to
celebrate the theater’s 100th birthday
with a bang and hopes to get a couple
thousand people to show up for the
two-day event. “The theater has long

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