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innovatively designed multiuse buildings, incorporating shops and af-
fordable living spaces to complement the structure's ostensible purpose.
At NE 42nd Ave. take another right. Here you'll find one of the nicest
European-style pubs in town: The Moon and Sixpence, with a great
beer and whiskey selection, excellent fish-and-chips, darts, occasional
acoustic music, authentically mauve carpet, and a huge back patio. If
you didn't bring anything to read, you can borrow a battered volume
from one of their crowded shelves.
Continuing along NE 42nd Ave., you'll notice on the left another of the
neighborhood's little nods to its namesake: a Hollywood-star sculp-
ture-cum-bicycle rack at NE Hancock St. Turn right on Hancock, then
left on NE 41st Ave., to admire the cheesy-but-charming murals gracing
the exterior of Sam's Billiards. Sam's itself is a sort of disco-sleazy pool
hall, well worth investigating if you're into that sort of thing (and who
isn't, really?). Pool tables rent by the hour.
Heading back toward Sandy Blvd., you'll see the impressive facade of
the Hollywood Theatre. The Hollywood opened in 1926, back when a
streetcar line ran up Sandy and this part of town was far enough away
from downtown Portland to count as an excursion. The theater was an
immediate hit. People showed up in droves, and the theater ended up
giving the neighborhood its name (and, if you ask us, most of its endur-
ing character, even today). The place struggled to hold on through the
1980s and '90s, but it was rescued in 1997 by Film Action Oregon, a
nonprofit that has been gradually restoring the interior while trans-
forming the place into an educational resource for film lovers. (See
Back Story: Grindhouse Film Festival .) It's one of the few cinemas left
in town—or anywhere, really—that regularly shows movies on 35-mm
film rather than in digital format, and the programming never fails to
be interesting. (Now with beer!) It's all volunteer-run, and the organiza-
tion's educational arm does things like putting pro-level equipment in
the hands of talented young kids who want to make documentaries, or
bringing animation classes to junior high schools, so you can feel good
about springing for a ticket to see The Thin Man on the big screen with
a pint of Laurelwood red ale on a Sunday afternoon.
Turn left to continue up Sandy. At NE 42nd Ave. you'll see the very cute
Hollywood Burger Bar, once upon a time a streetcar-ticket-sales office.
It's a classic old-school burger joint from the 1950s, with a tiny lunch
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