Victory Theatre

Rita Paternostro had acquired the Palace Theatre in Lake Charles and decided the time had come to build a new theatre outside the central business district. And she did - announcing that in 1941 with the acquisition of a lot on what was South Street (now Ryan Street). Suburban theatres had advantages of free parking that downtown theatres couldn’t match. Southern Amusement had just opened its downtown Paramount Theatre on January 5, 1941 and weren’t amused by this news.

They acquired a lot at Chavanne and South (again, Ryan Street). Now both readied plans within the shadow of each other in an odd movie theatre war. Both were in construction at the same time and were within two blocks from each other. The Victory Theatre hired Dunn & Quinn for their Streamline Moderne style house. In construction, the contractors, T. Miller & Sons, placed a tree atop the project for luck - and confusing local residents, apparently. The race was on and the Victory Theatre took the victory at the checkered flag opening on November 15, 1941 with “Power Dive” beating the Delta’s opening in December.

What happened next was rather predictable. A legal battle as Paternostro tried unsuccessfully to contemporary and strong clearances for films with Southern Amusement’s vertically integrated superiority getting in the way. The legal battle reached New Orleans and the arbitration board sided with the major circuit. but the fact of the matter is that neither side was going to have enough business to win in the end.

The Victory Theatre closed permanently on October 21, 1950 with Raymond Walburn in “Father Makes Good” and Bill Elliot in “Pioneer of the Frontier” supported by Chapter 11 of the serial “The Oregon Trail” and a Warner Bros. cartoon, “Bear Feet.” The building was heavily vandalized and became a long-running city service building. That building appears to have been demolished around 2005.

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