March 1 | 6:30pm-8:00pm | University Bookstore RSVP to cweseuc@uw.edu Alexander Pantages was 13 when he arrived in the U.S. in the 1880’s, after contracting malaria in Panama. He opened his first motion picture theater in 1902 and went on to build one of the largest and most important independently-owned theater chains in the country.