Bay Bowl Saudade

Oct 24

When I was growing up, everyone was a bowler. My mom was always bowling in a league somewhere or another. My parents met in a bowling alley bar. My dad used to work for Brunswick, managing bowling alleys and running tournaments. And that’s how, eventually, my family moved to Bremerton. Of all things, Bowling brought us here. And There were a lot of bowling alleys around back then. Westpark lanes, Bay bowl, Hi-Joy, All Star, Strike Zone. And I spent time in every single one of them.

In the playrooms at first, occasionally coming out to see my mom bowl. She always had these little beanbags in her kit. They were soft and powdery and she would let me play with them. Eventually, I outgrew the playrooms and mom enrolled me in a junior league. I can still hear the resounding thump of a ball hitting a lane, the crash of the pins. The smell of hot, salty french fries mixing in the air with the scent of the oil on the lanes. There’s an old, dirty iron on patch pinned to the cork board next to me that says “YABA 120 Game”. I never quite reached the heights my folks did- my dad has two perfect game rings, and a clock. I don’t think my mom ever reached the prized 300 game but she got close… and she got close at Bay Bowl.

So yeah, I get super nostalgic about bowling alleys. I drove by Bay Bowl last week and was struck by the condition it’s in right now. It’s gone through an interesting metamorphosis in the last twenty years and it seems she’s taking her last breath as living art, covered in graffiti.

Is there a word for feeling that something is both beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time? Google will have me, hold on. Clickity clack. Poignant? no. ..Bittersweet? Bittersweet is pretty close. Oh, look at this. This is a portugeuse word. How do I say it? Saudade (Sow-dodd) This blog post describes the feeling exactly. I’ll put a link in the notes. The word doesn’t have an exact english translation but is described as “The love that remains when someone is gone”.It describes a deep nostalgic longing, implicit in which is the fact that the object of longing will never return.” Suadade. Word of the day.

So, Bay bowl is a beautiful old building that is a part of not just my history, but the history of our town. I want to take one good, long, last look at her before she goes.

For anyone who’s not sure what building I’m talking about, Bay Bowl is a huge brick building on lower wheaton way, kind of between harrison hospital and the ymca. It used to have a unique shaped marquee on the front that said BAY on it in big red neon letters. and that’s the first hint to the building’s origin. It started out life as a movie theatre in during WW2, while the population in town was booming. It was built by the federal government sometime between 1943 and 1945. Movie theaters were on the rise and they often showed news reels alongside movies.

Of course, it’s worth noting that theaters built by the government during wartime were also a tool for propaganda. There was even a government office for it- THe Office of War Information. They had a complicated relationship with Hollywood and the motion picture bureau. This included encouraging the negative portrayal of nazis and heroic depictions of soldiers and sailors at war. They sometimes included informational bits about coping with the loss of a loved one. Can you imagine getting your grief counseling from the government in a ten minute movie short? There’s a quote on the wiki that came from a book, here it is. “From a mixture of patriotism and the profit motive, Hollywood became a compliant part of the American war machine". That book is called Hollywood Goes To War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies by greogry black and clayton koppes.

It’s interesting to think about the blend of news and movies and propaganda and to think about how it might have been received by the folks who frequented the Bay Theater. After all, we’re talking about sailors and shipyard workers. There is no hiding the brutality of war from the people who are repairing the burned out hulls of bombed ships, and the men who are fighting the battles out at sea.

WW2 ended in 1945 and men started returning home from war. Theater attendance reached an all time high in 1946 but with a boom always comes a bust. Theater attendance started to fall in 1947 and by 1953, average attendance of theaters was at half of what it had been in 1946. Movie theaters started closing all over the country, including Bay theater.

Bay theater closed in 1953 and The federal government sold the property to the city of Bremerton. Forrest Mulnix purchased Bay Bowl from the city of bremerton in 1954. I’ve seen come conflicting reports here. Some say that the city of bremerton decided to convert Bay into a bowling center but there’s also a lovely article from the kitsap sun that details more of Forrest Mulnix’s history with bowling alleys. He opened his first bowling alley in 1948. It was under the city hall on 4th st and had six lanes. After two years of great success, he relocated and expanded to eight lanes. This second location was called “Mul’s Rialto Bowl” and that name made me pause because there used to be movie theater downtown called the Rialto. I wonder if Bay was not his first theater-turned-bowling-alley! The article does say “Two blocks away”, which would be about right for the location of the rialto.

So Forest Mulnix and family remodel bay bowl themselves and expand from 8 lanes to 10. They went on to add the south east wing to the building with ten new lanes in 1960. The business stays in the family for at least three generations and Bay Bowl operates for close to 50 years. In the 1996 sun article, “Fern Kabelac recalls bowling at Bay in the early sixties.

"Back then there was no air conditioning so in the summer they would open the doors to let the air circulate in and we could watch the Warren Avenue bridge being built," she said.”

Bay Bowl closed it’s lanes in may of 2002 and has been slowly declining ever since. At some point the lanes were removed and the southeast wing was converted for storage.

A portion of it re-opened as a Thai restaurant during the two thousand teens. I remember this happening because when they moved in, they exposed the original theater facade. the original entrance on the front of the building had been closed off my whole life and then BAM, they opened her up. it looked just like an old movie theater. How had I missed that my entire life? The iconic red neon BAY letters were removed and sold to a private collector (stuart wilson) in 2016 for $800. Around that time, a photographer who documents golden age bowling alleys was allowed to photograph what was left inside of bay bowl. The project is called Maple + pine and you can find the photos on his facebook. Most recently, as in 2022, Bay Bowl made a cameo in a music video shown at the West Sound Film Festival.

Bay Bowl does, of course, have a gorgeous view of the water and that will be it’s demise. A seattle development company has bought it. They are going to tear her down and build waterfront condos. Their website lists a start date of July 2022 but demolition hasn’t happened yet. The development is approved by the city but not all of the permits are in place. It’s worth noting that the same development company also purchased the land at 1943 wheaton way, just up the hill towards the YMCA. That land was headed for a may 6th foreclosure date according to an article published in the Seattle Daily Journal of commerce last january.

And so, she languishes on the precipice of destruction another day. If you want to go see her, do it now. Stand on the hill beside her and watch the sunset over the warren ave bridge before the view is gone, replaced by yet another giant wall of condos.

Bibliography

Suadade - A beautiful word

How to pronounce Suadade

Bay Theatre in Bremerton-

Hollywood Goes To War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies

BORBON: At Bay Bowl, tradition is all in the family

Thai-bowl-serving-up-thai-at-the-bay-bowl-in-bremerton

dispatches-from-manette

Bremerton Beat Blast, Bay bowl at (3:30)

Maple + Pine Kevin Hong Photos

https://tekap.bandcamp.com/

DJC reports on status of Wheaton Way apartment projects