Bijou Theatre
4316 Burgundy Street,
New Orleans,
LA
70117
4316 Burgundy Street,
New Orleans,
LA
70117
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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.
The theatre is on the 1937 Sanborn maps. It is a long and skinny lot.
Nothing on that section of street except houses. All to small to ever have been a 500-seat theatre