Electra Theatre

The Electra Theatre was an early silent movie house that had opened under Lionel DeLaCroix, an early pioneer in silent cinema in Plaquemine as a replacement for the Hope Opera House that had opened in the building but at a different address in 1889. The second floor movie house was his second such venue as the Golden Rule Electric Theatre also had temporary digs there in the 1900’s.

The Hope Opera House opened in 1889 owing its name to the Hope Hook and Ladder Company which patrolled the town of Plaquemine looking for fires. And for putting on myriad benefit shows raising money for firefighting equipment. They had their Hope Hook and Ladder Hall but moved their benefit shows to the Hope Opera House when it opened; though the main stage was filled with traveling shows much more often. The 425-seat venue seemed large enough for a town of just 2,000 folks.

The exact spot in which the building stood became subject to cave-ins in 1896 after torrential rains and flooding so they did what one did in 1896… picked up the opera house and physically moved it around the corner to safer grounds (apparently from Main Street to Railroad Avenue, if another entry in this database is correct).

In 1907, DeLaCroix took over programming after the passing of the previous show person, Thomas J. Hebert. It didn’t take him too long to mix in moving pictures which proved to be a big hit. He and his partner, Dr. Ferdinand H. Scharff, a dentist, held a naming contest in 1908. The Golden Rule Electric Theatre - thank you, Miss Fedora Leonard, btw - was the. winner. (Emile Lefebvre won the prize of the free ham.)

The Golden Rule Electric Theatre would soon get its own digs in Dr. Scharff’s nearby building. (Scharff and DeLaCroix added steel reinforcement and brick to the building to allay safety concerns.) DeLaCroix changed the Hope Opera House to the Electra Theatre playing mostly films and mixing in live acts. Second floor movie theaters were all but banned in the age of prevalent movie theatre fires and DeLaCroix went large commissioning plans for an incredible venue in Theatre Wilbert. The town had grown from 2,000 to 5,000 so Theatre Wilbert would seat around 1,000 patrons at launch.

The new Wilbert would be built on the lot of the Electra Theatre which was torn down in February of 1917. The bookings for the Electra Theatre were moved to the Golden Rule Theatre in the Scharff Building on Main Street until the new Theatre Wilbert opened. And that took a long time opening a full year later on February 3, 1918. DeLaCroix spent 41 years creating movie magic and even built a house with the exterior look of a movie house with a theatre within. We salute you, Lionel DeLaCrois, as a movie lover and also an early associate of the influential Sanger Amusement Company.

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