![]() ![]() During that time, he rode a Harley, sold trinkets at rock festivals, went to Mexico, and worked as a jailer at the King County Youth Center. At the University of Washington, he finally found he had a passion for literature. A "terrible student" in high school, Finley spent eight years as an undergraduate. ![]() into the Northwest's largest chain of independent movie theaters.īeginning in 1970 with the Movie House, a shoebox-size theater in Seattle's U-District, Finley's entrepreneurial zeal and genius for promotion helped him acquire 16 theaters, including the Guild 45th in Wallingford, the Varsity and Seven Gables in the U-District, the Broadway on Capitol Hill, the Ridgemont in Phinney Ridge, the Lakewood in Tacoma, the Crest in North Seattle, as well as theaters in Portland.Īlong with Jim O'Steen, who founded the Harvard Exit on Capitol Hill in the late 1960s, Finley was responsible for igniting a passion for independent, foreign, and art house films in Seattle. "I had no money and no idea what I was doing, but one thing I am is stubborn," Finley said of his start in the film business.įinley was born on July 30, 1942, and grew up in Olympia, the son of Robert Finley, a Washington State Supreme Court justice from 1951 to 1976. ![]() Randy Finley - who became known to a generation of Seattle moviegoers for his long black beard, a habit of wearing an army jacket with his name sewn on it, and his innate ability to generate hype - built the Seven Gables Corp. ![]()
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