The Crest closed October 16, 1966 with its last film of Adam West and Burt Ward in “Batman.” In 1967, it was used for a couple of live country music and closed again. It was demolished in September of 1977.
The Empire Theatre was a big deal in Mobile, Alabama as the first movie palace built in the city. Announced in 1913 by Bijou Amusement, the Empire’s Italian-themed architecture with marble to match was different from the converted old playhouses and more prevalent store-show era venues in downtown Mobile. It opened February 9, 1914 and its success led to continuous showtimes from 10a to 11p daily. The venue was converted to sound to remain viable. It survived into the television era.
The Alamo was opened by Henry Fichtenburg of New Orleans movie theatre fame. Mayor Hayes gave the opening speech on Nov. 30, 1911. Bernard Mulligan, the first multi-theater operator became its operator in 1914 and he installed a new screen and an Austin pipe organ in 1914 to improve presentations.
Mulligan had operated the Theatorium, a nickelodeon at 207 South Washington in 1907 followed by the NoSho and Lyric Theatre. Another Louisiana interest came into the marketplace opening the NuSho.
The new Cambias Hall opened in the Ninth Ward at 4316 Burgundy in 1916 likely on a five-year leasing agreement. Carnival specialists Josiah Pearce & Sons Syndicate had added silent cinemas to the operatio, including such early NOLA cinemas as the Electric, Dreamland, Grand, Trianon. and Tudor. Another cinema, Bijou Dream (#2), was moved by the Pearces from 117 St. Charles to here re-opening as Bijou Dream (#3) on April 30, 1921.
Josiah Pearce & Sons left the film industry at the outset of film and the Bijou Dream (#3) was sold in 1926. The building was sold and William Aitken took on the lease. He refreshed the venue as the Bijou Theatre at the outset of the sound era of cinema on a pricey lease of $26.67 per month. It was subject of a sheriff’s auction in 1936 indicating lease - too high. I.J. Harrelson was next in a gave a light streamline update to the plans of architect Martin Shepard.
The update included fire suppression sprinklers that were put to the test twice: the first in June of 1949 (success as 350 patrons escaped easily with only minor projection booth damage). The second, in 1951, apparently not as successful.
United Theatres' Escorial Theatre closed on February 12, 1952 with “The Purple Mask.” It appears to have opened in February of 1912 by Peter Ludman. Ludman would join Sobel, Richards, et al. which eventually would become United Theatres which absorbed the indy Escorial.
The Trianon closed on July 19, 1929 with “The Girl From Chicago.” Saenger additionally closed the Liberty, Strand, Globe and St. Charles due to lack of business plus the cost to wire the theaters. Ultimately, that was the end of the Trianon as it was occupied “as is” by a business until its 1932 conversion in 1932 to a retail building by architects Favrot & Livaudais.
Legendary New York showman S.L. Rothafel programmed the first night of Saenger’s new-build Strand Theatre. The Strand opened on July 4, 1917 with the Hope-Jones $20,000 Orchestral Pipe Organ wowing opening night patrons. The films “Wild & Wooly” and “Who’s Baby?” played on opening night.
The venue added sound to remain viable. But it was dropped by Saenger on January 29, 1933 as the theater had been surpassed by a new breed of destination movie palaces. G&G Theaters, Inc. and C.L. Lanier arranged a sublease late in 1934 reopening it briefly beginning on February 2, 1935 - two years after it had initially closed - unsuccessfully. The Strand was used for church services and some live vaudeville later that year.
But the Strand got a new operator who gave it a streamline moderne makeover at its reopening as a second-run house, the New Strand, on June 21, 1936 with “Everybody’s Old Man.” It was rebranded as the Joy Strand in 1937 on a deep discount, third-run double-feature grind policy with nickel and dime price points as the theatre hustled for any coin it could still suffering against far superior movie houses.
The Strand was closed in July of 1953 for an overhaul to widescreen projection - at a cost of an austere $6,000 (and presumably cleaned, though not guaranteed) - and was ready to reopen as the Paramount Theatre. But at the last minute, it was changed to the Panorama Theatre, likely to avoid a naming dispute, opening August 14, 1953 with “Salome.” The venue finally ground to a halt on September 20, 1959 with a decidedly non-Panoramic double-feature of “Louisiana Hussy” and “Naughty New Orleans” and mercifully closed. It was demolished shortly thereafter in 1960 in favor a new skyscraper.
Sobel Richards Shear Entertainment Circuit announced this new theater to replace the Pastime Theatre and joining the company’s Carrollton and Washington theaters. The Fine Arts' architect, Moise H. Goldstein Sr., delivered his plans in 1917 . The venue had a Hillgreen-Lane Electric Action Organ at its launch on August 11, 1917. It added sound to remain viable.
The Fine Arts closed on July 27, 1958 with “Paris Holiday.” It came back to usage briefly as a live venue in 1960 as the Theater Guild of New Orleans. In 1961, it was offered for sale for $32,000 then $29,500 and then just $6,000 in a sale from United Theatres to the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.
Josiah Pearce & Sons opened the Theatorium soon turned Electric Theatre on December 21, 1905 followed by the Dreamland, Grand, Bijou Dream, and Trianon. Pearce & Sons extended their holdings to Houston and elsewhere in Mississippi and Louisiana. The Tudor was built in 1913 as Pearce’s first ground to roof movie palace. It featured a stunning $25,000 Möller Vox Humana pipe organ with the console in the Tudor orchestra pit on an electric-pneumatic lift so it could be featured or hidden. It opened with two, two-reelers “White Slave” and D.W. Griffith’s “His Mother’s Son" on June 3, 1913.
The Tudor themed architecture featured 15th Century decorations evocative of Henry VII and VIIIth. It was considered a success by New Orleans architects DeBuys, Churchill & Labouisse (Rathbone Debuys, Frank G. Churchill and Samuel S. Labouisse). The first wave of movie palaces continued with Fichtenberg’s Globe Theatre opening next door at Christmastime in 1916 and its neighbor, the long-running Child’s Restaurant at 620 Canal Street and Scharff’s Billiard Parlor above it for an entertainment combination. (Saenger and Fichtenberg combined in 1917 under the Sanger Amusement Circuit nameplate.)
The Tudor was marketed as Pearce’s Tudor Theatre until 1925 - though had gone from the pre-eminent first-run theater to a revival house by that time. Eugene Pearce sold the venue to Phillip A. Schiro of the Schiro Amusement Circuit on March 9, 1925. The venue was marketed as Schiro’s Tudor Theatre as he tried to bring back to first-run status. He closed up for the summer on May 13, 1928 - generally a move made by ventilation challenged, older movie houses and those not converted to sound. Schiro walked away from the Tudor.
Saenger Circuit took on the venue equipping it with Vitaphone sound, improved ventilation, and relaunching it as Saenger’s New Tudor Theatre on June 29, 1927 with Dolores Costello in the talking picture, “Glorious Betsy.” That gave Saenger neighboring, large movie houses on busy Canal Street. The Childs Restaurant, however, was a 1937 casualty being auctioned off. It was first replaced by a precursor to “Ripley’s Believe or Not” called The World’s Fair Museum that included exhibits including Sontain, the living Headless Girl, the Sheep-Headed Men from Ecuador, and the Seal Boy, Sealo - human with seal’s flippers for hands. That morphed into a highly successful Penny Arcade in 1941. The Tudor, Globe, and Penny Arcade combined was the equivalent of a Family Entertainment Destination Center on Canal Street lasting all the way to the venue’s closure and demolition in a 1964 urban renewal plan.
The Tudor had transferred to Paramount Richards / Paramount Gulf / United Theatres (the latter after the ABC -United Paramount 1951 merger) operational names. At its ouster, not long after its 50th Anniversary and likely expiry of its leasing, the Tudor closed July 12, 1964 with Jerry Lewis as “The Patsy. And the Globe ended its run with “Shock Corridor” on the same day. The entire group of entertainment structures on Canal Street were demolished in November of 1964 by Deep South Dismantling Company.
Weeks of teaser ads give way to a full page ad for the new Regent Theatre in 1938 - some 30 years after the Dreamland nickelodeon was in the same spot. But how was Regent Theatres Inc. paying for such amazing ads? Well, they weren’t and their dissolution was hours away.
The Grand Opening of Brennan Brothers' Avenue Theatre took place on January 23, 1924 at 1441 Lafayette Avenue. (The silent-era Crown was located at 4104 Magnolia Street.) In May of 1924, the City of New Orleans approved the changes to 104 street names with Lafayette ceding to Almonaster - with the Avenue Theatre staying put now at 1441 Almonaster Ave.
Ira Weingrun acquired the venue creating the Avenue Theatre Inc. In 1938, plans were unveiled to replace the venue at its 15-year leasing expiry. Those plans were by Jones, Roessle & Oppenheimer. Weingrun opened the Regent November 11, 1938. But lawsuits mounted and Weingrun liquidated Avenue Theatre Inc. The Avenue became the Best Theatre effective on November 14, 1938. (On July 30, 1950, the Avenue Theatre nameplate was used by the former Rio Theatre at 316 St. Charles in a name and ownership change.)
A 1941 plan was drawn up by Dallas-based architect Jack Corgan to update the Best Theatre to the new, state of the art Crown Theatre with 1,500 seats. But World War II derailed those plans. On January 1, 1942, the venue was simply renamed the Crown Theatre under the Henry Lazarus Theatres Inc. circuit.
Lazarus had new plans draw up by Corgan in 1945 to refresh the venue. Corgan would also design an update to the Coliseum Theatre for Lazarus as well. Perhaps due to post-War material shortages, the second Crown plans were scuttled. Lazarus turned to new plans by August Perez for the streamline moderne remodeling job of $100,000. The Crown closed January 2, 1949 for the refresh. It opened Friday January 21, 1949.
One December 31, 1954, the Pandora had a double-feature of “Dangerous Years” and “Bounty Hunter.” To celebrate the New Year with a bang, the projection room exploded not long after the New Year causing 20 fire companies to arrive and put out the inferno. Fire company personnel from No. 12 and No. 14 were moved out of the way moments before the wall buckled or the situation would have been far worse. The demolition of the venue took place in January of 1955.
Ziblich Amusement Co. commissioned architect Walter Cook Keenan to desing the new-build Piety Theatre. Ziblich, who owned the Dreamland, opened the Piety Theatre on August 17, 1924 with “After the Ball.”
Ziblich Amusement didn’t survive into the sound era dissolving in 1928. United Theatres took on the venue. (Ziblich was hired by United to manage some local theaters.) Beginning on September 26, 1929, the Piety added Vitaphone and Western Electric sound to remain competitive beginning with the film, “The Drag.”
On January 28, 1940, the venue played Bob Hope in “The Cat and the Canary.” Not long after the last showtime, the projection booth exploded taking out five houses and the Piety in the process.
You may be able to see the double feature on the marquee of the Cinema as it suffers a massive projection booth explosion on October 20, 1953. The L'Union Francaise building was vaporized. “Pick Up and South Street” and “Kansas Pacific” were the final films shown on October 19, 1953.
The Ivy suffered two fires in a month period - both nitrate film explosions. The November 30, 1930 film was contained quickly. Three weeks later, another explosion on December 21, 1930 also in the booth ended the Ivy. The theatre was demolished on January 28, 1931 by Southern Demolishing Co. for $300.
The Capitol Theatre launched August 30, 1920. It installed sound to remain viable. Its final matinee show was “A Notorious Gentleman” on May 11, 1935 and between the matinee and the evening show, the projection booth exploded and the theatre was destroyed. Fortuitously, there were no audience members in the building which - due to its large capacity - could have been devastating based on the visuals. United Theatres Inc. declared the building a total loss.
The Jolly Theatre opened here in the African American Elks Lodge building on June 27, 1938 with “Man in Blue.” In the Summer of 1940, it was offered for $3,000 - plus existing liabilities. It found a taker in the Dixie Theatre. The second Dixie Theatre, also an African American movie house, had opened November 10, 1920 at Draydes and Cadiz (while the first had opened in the 1910s at 1000 Canal Street).
The Dixie had equipped for sound to remain viable. It took over the Jolly/Elks location and the liabilities were overcome as the Dixie celebrated 47 years of operation before closing on June 24, 1967 with “Battle of the Bulge” and “Battle of the Drag Racers.” The two story theater was offered complete as a “good buy.” It became an independent theater some two years later called the Esquire Theatre apparently opening May 14, 1969 with Jim Brown in “Dark of the Sun.” The venue had a brief run as the Esquire Adult Cinema run by Larry C. Jones. That company dissolved in January 1972 ending the venue’s impressive run.
The first Cosmopolitan ad appeared on May 9, 1924 with Colleen Moore in “Painted People.” E.J. Myrick converted the venue to sound selling off the 22-stop Hilgren-Lane organ. It appears to have closed following the February 13, 1930 showings of “Say it With Songs.”
Frank R. Heiderich bought the 417 St. Charles property in 1912 and opened the Lyceum Theatre in March of 1913. He quickly remodeled the venue exclusively for motion pictures for his St. Charles Amusement Company reopening with the policy and a mirrorroide screen on May 24, 1913. At that time, seating was increased to 500 seats. Hiederich then conducted a more significant remodeling effort complete with a Robert Morton pipe organ reopening as the New Lyceum Theatre on December 14, 1927. He converted it to Phototone sound in November 1928.
In 1955, the venue received its last upgrade when it converted to widescreen projection to present VistaVision and CinemaScope titles. It completed its run as a grind house playing continuous showings of “Most Dangerous Man Alive” and “Voodoo Island” until the last customer left on Halloween, October 31, 1961. It was used for sporadic live events for a brief period. In the late 1960s, it was torn down in major urban renewal in downtown NOLA.
Opened on December 25, 1974 as the Marco Island Cinema 1 & 2 with the ribbon cut by Frank Mackle, Jr. of the family that developed Marco Island, Florida, with assistance from Miss Marco Island. The films were “The Longest Yard” and “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.”
The venue closed as a twin on August 29, 1985. It was given a major makeover reopening on December 17, 1993 as the four-screen, 242-seat dine-in Marco with two, 72-seat auditoriums and two, 49 seats audis. The venue had a great run closing on its final day of April 28, 2026.
The Crest closed October 16, 1966 with its last film of Adam West and Burt Ward in “Batman.” In 1967, it was used for a couple of live country music and closed again. It was demolished in September of 1977.
The Empire Theatre was a big deal in Mobile, Alabama as the first movie palace built in the city. Announced in 1913 by Bijou Amusement, the Empire’s Italian-themed architecture with marble to match was different from the converted old playhouses and more prevalent store-show era venues in downtown Mobile. It opened February 9, 1914 and its success led to continuous showtimes from 10a to 11p daily. The venue was converted to sound to remain viable. It survived into the television era.
The Isis Theatre was purchased by the Josiah Pearce & Sons Syndicate which changed its name to the Pearce Theatre in July of 1913.
Guy Adams' June 19, 1940 grand opening ad in photos.
The Alamo was opened by Henry Fichtenburg of New Orleans movie theatre fame. Mayor Hayes gave the opening speech on Nov. 30, 1911. Bernard Mulligan, the first multi-theater operator became its operator in 1914 and he installed a new screen and an Austin pipe organ in 1914 to improve presentations.
Mulligan had operated the Theatorium, a nickelodeon at 207 South Washington in 1907 followed by the NoSho and Lyric Theatre. Another Louisiana interest came into the marketplace opening the NuSho.
Architects: DeBuys, Churchill & Labouisse (Rathbone Debuys, Frank G. Churchill and Samuel S. Labouisse).
The new Cambias Hall opened in the Ninth Ward at 4316 Burgundy in 1916 likely on a five-year leasing agreement. Carnival specialists Josiah Pearce & Sons Syndicate had added silent cinemas to the operatio, including such early NOLA cinemas as the Electric, Dreamland, Grand, Trianon. and Tudor. Another cinema, Bijou Dream (#2), was moved by the Pearces from 117 St. Charles to here re-opening as Bijou Dream (#3) on April 30, 1921.
Josiah Pearce & Sons left the film industry at the outset of film and the Bijou Dream (#3) was sold in 1926. The building was sold and William Aitken took on the lease. He refreshed the venue as the Bijou Theatre at the outset of the sound era of cinema on a pricey lease of $26.67 per month. It was subject of a sheriff’s auction in 1936 indicating lease - too high. I.J. Harrelson was next in a gave a light streamline update to the plans of architect Martin Shepard.
The update included fire suppression sprinklers that were put to the test twice: the first in June of 1949 (success as 350 patrons escaped easily with only minor projection booth damage). The second, in 1951, apparently not as successful.
Operated by Josiah Pearce & Sons Syndicate from 1912 to 1916.
United Theatres' Escorial Theatre closed on February 12, 1952 with “The Purple Mask.” It appears to have opened in February of 1912 by Peter Ludman. Ludman would join Sobel, Richards, et al. which eventually would become United Theatres which absorbed the indy Escorial.
The Trianon closed on July 19, 1929 with “The Girl From Chicago.” Saenger additionally closed the Liberty, Strand, Globe and St. Charles due to lack of business plus the cost to wire the theaters. Ultimately, that was the end of the Trianon as it was occupied “as is” by a business until its 1932 conversion in 1932 to a retail building by architects Favrot & Livaudais.
Legendary New York showman S.L. Rothafel programmed the first night of Saenger’s new-build Strand Theatre. The Strand opened on July 4, 1917 with the Hope-Jones $20,000 Orchestral Pipe Organ wowing opening night patrons. The films “Wild & Wooly” and “Who’s Baby?” played on opening night.
The venue added sound to remain viable. But it was dropped by Saenger on January 29, 1933 as the theater had been surpassed by a new breed of destination movie palaces. G&G Theaters, Inc. and C.L. Lanier arranged a sublease late in 1934 reopening it briefly beginning on February 2, 1935 - two years after it had initially closed - unsuccessfully. The Strand was used for church services and some live vaudeville later that year.
But the Strand got a new operator who gave it a streamline moderne makeover at its reopening as a second-run house, the New Strand, on June 21, 1936 with “Everybody’s Old Man.” It was rebranded as the Joy Strand in 1937 on a deep discount, third-run double-feature grind policy with nickel and dime price points as the theatre hustled for any coin it could still suffering against far superior movie houses.
The Strand was closed in July of 1953 for an overhaul to widescreen projection - at a cost of an austere $6,000 (and presumably cleaned, though not guaranteed) - and was ready to reopen as the Paramount Theatre. But at the last minute, it was changed to the Panorama Theatre, likely to avoid a naming dispute, opening August 14, 1953 with “Salome.” The venue finally ground to a halt on September 20, 1959 with a decidedly non-Panoramic double-feature of “Louisiana Hussy” and “Naughty New Orleans” and mercifully closed. It was demolished shortly thereafter in 1960 in favor a new skyscraper.
Sobel Richards Shear Entertainment Circuit announced this new theater to replace the Pastime Theatre and joining the company’s Carrollton and Washington theaters. The Fine Arts' architect, Moise H. Goldstein Sr., delivered his plans in 1917 . The venue had a Hillgreen-Lane Electric Action Organ at its launch on August 11, 1917. It added sound to remain viable.
The Fine Arts closed on July 27, 1958 with “Paris Holiday.” It came back to usage briefly as a live venue in 1960 as the Theater Guild of New Orleans. In 1961, it was offered for sale for $32,000 then $29,500 and then just $6,000 in a sale from United Theatres to the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.
April 10, 1929 shot of the Globe Theatre with the Tudor Theatre showing a Richard Dix film in Vitaphone to the left.
Josiah Pearce & Sons opened the Theatorium soon turned Electric Theatre on December 21, 1905 followed by the Dreamland, Grand, Bijou Dream, and Trianon. Pearce & Sons extended their holdings to Houston and elsewhere in Mississippi and Louisiana. The Tudor was built in 1913 as Pearce’s first ground to roof movie palace. It featured a stunning $25,000 Möller Vox Humana pipe organ with the console in the Tudor orchestra pit on an electric-pneumatic lift so it could be featured or hidden. It opened with two, two-reelers “White Slave” and D.W. Griffith’s “His Mother’s Son" on June 3, 1913.
The Tudor themed architecture featured 15th Century decorations evocative of Henry VII and VIIIth. It was considered a success by New Orleans architects DeBuys, Churchill & Labouisse (Rathbone Debuys, Frank G. Churchill and Samuel S. Labouisse). The first wave of movie palaces continued with Fichtenberg’s Globe Theatre opening next door at Christmastime in 1916 and its neighbor, the long-running Child’s Restaurant at 620 Canal Street and Scharff’s Billiard Parlor above it for an entertainment combination. (Saenger and Fichtenberg combined in 1917 under the Sanger Amusement Circuit nameplate.)
The Tudor was marketed as Pearce’s Tudor Theatre until 1925 - though had gone from the pre-eminent first-run theater to a revival house by that time. Eugene Pearce sold the venue to Phillip A. Schiro of the Schiro Amusement Circuit on March 9, 1925. The venue was marketed as Schiro’s Tudor Theatre as he tried to bring back to first-run status. He closed up for the summer on May 13, 1928 - generally a move made by ventilation challenged, older movie houses and those not converted to sound. Schiro walked away from the Tudor.
Saenger Circuit took on the venue equipping it with Vitaphone sound, improved ventilation, and relaunching it as Saenger’s New Tudor Theatre on June 29, 1927 with Dolores Costello in the talking picture, “Glorious Betsy.” That gave Saenger neighboring, large movie houses on busy Canal Street. The Childs Restaurant, however, was a 1937 casualty being auctioned off. It was first replaced by a precursor to “Ripley’s Believe or Not” called The World’s Fair Museum that included exhibits including Sontain, the living Headless Girl, the Sheep-Headed Men from Ecuador, and the Seal Boy, Sealo - human with seal’s flippers for hands. That morphed into a highly successful Penny Arcade in 1941. The Tudor, Globe, and Penny Arcade combined was the equivalent of a Family Entertainment Destination Center on Canal Street lasting all the way to the venue’s closure and demolition in a 1964 urban renewal plan.
The Tudor had transferred to Paramount Richards / Paramount Gulf / United Theatres (the latter after the ABC -United Paramount 1951 merger) operational names. At its ouster, not long after its 50th Anniversary and likely expiry of its leasing, the Tudor closed July 12, 1964 with Jerry Lewis as “The Patsy. And the Globe ended its run with “Shock Corridor” on the same day. The entire group of entertainment structures on Canal Street were demolished in November of 1964 by Deep South Dismantling Company.
Weeks of teaser ads give way to a full page ad for the new Regent Theatre in 1938 - some 30 years after the Dreamland nickelodeon was in the same spot. But how was Regent Theatres Inc. paying for such amazing ads? Well, they weren’t and their dissolution was hours away.
The Grand Opening of Brennan Brothers' Avenue Theatre took place on January 23, 1924 at 1441 Lafayette Avenue. (The silent-era Crown was located at 4104 Magnolia Street.) In May of 1924, the City of New Orleans approved the changes to 104 street names with Lafayette ceding to Almonaster - with the Avenue Theatre staying put now at 1441 Almonaster Ave.
Ira Weingrun acquired the venue creating the Avenue Theatre Inc. In 1938, plans were unveiled to replace the venue at its 15-year leasing expiry. Those plans were by Jones, Roessle & Oppenheimer. Weingrun opened the Regent November 11, 1938. But lawsuits mounted and Weingrun liquidated Avenue Theatre Inc. The Avenue became the Best Theatre effective on November 14, 1938. (On July 30, 1950, the Avenue Theatre nameplate was used by the former Rio Theatre at 316 St. Charles in a name and ownership change.)
A 1941 plan was drawn up by Dallas-based architect Jack Corgan to update the Best Theatre to the new, state of the art Crown Theatre with 1,500 seats. But World War II derailed those plans. On January 1, 1942, the venue was simply renamed the Crown Theatre under the Henry Lazarus Theatres Inc. circuit.
Lazarus had new plans draw up by Corgan in 1945 to refresh the venue. Corgan would also design an update to the Coliseum Theatre for Lazarus as well. Perhaps due to post-War material shortages, the second Crown plans were scuttled. Lazarus turned to new plans by August Perez for the streamline moderne remodeling job of $100,000. The Crown closed January 2, 1949 for the refresh. It opened Friday January 21, 1949.
One December 31, 1954, the Pandora had a double-feature of “Dangerous Years” and “Bounty Hunter.” To celebrate the New Year with a bang, the projection room exploded not long after the New Year causing 20 fire companies to arrive and put out the inferno. Fire company personnel from No. 12 and No. 14 were moved out of the way moments before the wall buckled or the situation would have been far worse. The demolition of the venue took place in January of 1955.
Ziblich Amusement Co. commissioned architect Walter Cook Keenan to desing the new-build Piety Theatre. Ziblich, who owned the Dreamland, opened the Piety Theatre on August 17, 1924 with “After the Ball.”
Ziblich Amusement didn’t survive into the sound era dissolving in 1928. United Theatres took on the venue. (Ziblich was hired by United to manage some local theaters.) Beginning on September 26, 1929, the Piety added Vitaphone and Western Electric sound to remain competitive beginning with the film, “The Drag.”
On January 28, 1940, the venue played Bob Hope in “The Cat and the Canary.” Not long after the last showtime, the projection booth exploded taking out five houses and the Piety in the process.
You may be able to see the double feature on the marquee of the Cinema as it suffers a massive projection booth explosion on October 20, 1953. The L'Union Francaise building was vaporized. “Pick Up and South Street” and “Kansas Pacific” were the final films shown on October 19, 1953.
The Ivy suffered two fires in a month period - both nitrate film explosions. The November 30, 1930 film was contained quickly. Three weeks later, another explosion on December 21, 1930 also in the booth ended the Ivy. The theatre was demolished on January 28, 1931 by Southern Demolishing Co. for $300.
The Capitol Theatre launched August 30, 1920. It installed sound to remain viable. Its final matinee show was “A Notorious Gentleman” on May 11, 1935 and between the matinee and the evening show, the projection booth exploded and the theatre was destroyed. Fortuitously, there were no audience members in the building which - due to its large capacity - could have been devastating based on the visuals. United Theatres Inc. declared the building a total loss.
September 19, 1953 grand opening ad.
The Jolly Theatre opened here in the African American Elks Lodge building on June 27, 1938 with “Man in Blue.” In the Summer of 1940, it was offered for $3,000 - plus existing liabilities. It found a taker in the Dixie Theatre. The second Dixie Theatre, also an African American movie house, had opened November 10, 1920 at Draydes and Cadiz (while the first had opened in the 1910s at 1000 Canal Street).
The Dixie had equipped for sound to remain viable. It took over the Jolly/Elks location and the liabilities were overcome as the Dixie celebrated 47 years of operation before closing on June 24, 1967 with “Battle of the Bulge” and “Battle of the Drag Racers.” The two story theater was offered complete as a “good buy.” It became an independent theater some two years later called the Esquire Theatre apparently opening May 14, 1969 with Jim Brown in “Dark of the Sun.” The venue had a brief run as the Esquire Adult Cinema run by Larry C. Jones. That company dissolved in January 1972 ending the venue’s impressive run.
The first Cosmopolitan ad appeared on May 9, 1924 with Colleen Moore in “Painted People.” E.J. Myrick converted the venue to sound selling off the 22-stop Hilgren-Lane organ. It appears to have closed following the February 13, 1930 showings of “Say it With Songs.”
Frank R. Heiderich bought the 417 St. Charles property in 1912 and opened the Lyceum Theatre in March of 1913. He quickly remodeled the venue exclusively for motion pictures for his St. Charles Amusement Company reopening with the policy and a mirrorroide screen on May 24, 1913. At that time, seating was increased to 500 seats. Hiederich then conducted a more significant remodeling effort complete with a Robert Morton pipe organ reopening as the New Lyceum Theatre on December 14, 1927. He converted it to Phototone sound in November 1928.
In 1955, the venue received its last upgrade when it converted to widescreen projection to present VistaVision and CinemaScope titles. It completed its run as a grind house playing continuous showings of “Most Dangerous Man Alive” and “Voodoo Island” until the last customer left on Halloween, October 31, 1961. It was used for sporadic live events for a brief period. In the late 1960s, it was torn down in major urban renewal in downtown NOLA.
Opened on December 25, 1974 as the Marco Island Cinema 1 & 2 with the ribbon cut by Frank Mackle, Jr. of the family that developed Marco Island, Florida, with assistance from Miss Marco Island. The films were “The Longest Yard” and “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.”
The venue closed as a twin on August 29, 1985. It was given a major makeover reopening on December 17, 1993 as the four-screen, 242-seat dine-in Marco with two, 72-seat auditoriums and two, 49 seats audis. The venue had a great run closing on its final day of April 28, 2026.