Saenger Theatre (Boundary Increase)

About this property

Saenger Theatre is an atmospheric theatre in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Once the flagship of Julian and Abe Saenger's theatre empire, today it is one of only a handful of Saenger movie palaces that remain. The Saenger Theatre opened on February 4, 1927. The 4,000-seat theatre took three years to build and cost $2.5 million. Its opening prompted thousands to parade along Canal Street. The top ticket price was 65 cents, and the bill for each performance included a silent movie and stage play (produced by the Paramount-Publix Corporation), and music from the Saenger Grand Orchestra. Architect Emile Weil designed the interior of an atmospheric theatre to recall an Italian Baroque courtyard. Weil installed 150 lights in the ceiling of the theatre, arranged in the shape of constellations of the night sky. The theatre also employed special effects machines to project images of moving clouds, sunrises, and sunsets across the theatre's interior. In 1929, Julian Saenger sold the theatre for $10 million to Paramount Publix, which continued to operate the theatre successfully throughout the Great Depression. In 1933 Paramount Publix converted the theatre to "talking pictures" only. In 1964, ABC Interstate Theatres turned the Saenger into a piggyback theatre, building a wall in front of the balcony to divide the larger space into two smaller theatres. The upstairs theatre was known as the Saenger Orleans. On September 29, 1977, the theatre was designated a historic landmark by the New Orleans Landmark Commission. That December it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1978, it was sold for slightly more than $1 million to E.B. Breazeale, who then spent an additional $3 million (with co-investors Zev Buffman and Barry Mendelson) renovating it into a performing arts center. Pace Management also invested in the renovation and was hired to run the theatre. The Saenger Theatre reopened in 1980 with a reduced seating capacity of 2,736. Johnny Carson made a gala performance at the theatre's grand reopening. The Saenger hosted a variety of events, including concerts in many musical styles, theater shows, and presentations harkening back to the theatre's earlier history such as a showing of Abel Gance's Polyvision silent film spectacular Napoléon accompanied by a live full orchestra. In April 1983, Styx recorded and filmed their performances on their Kilroy Was Here tour for their double live album and concert film Caught in the Act. Then, in 1985, the management team of the theatre formed the Saenger Theatre Partnership, Ltd., a joint venture with 50 partners, to purchase the theatre from Breazeale.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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