archie
Sign in Get the app

Saenger Theatre

Style
Renaissance Revival
City
New Orleans, LA
Collection
the french quarter
Saenger Theatre
Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 4.0
See it on the map

The Saenger Theatre opened on February 4, 1927, as the 4,000-seat flagship of Julian and Abe Saenger's movie palace chain, a project that took three years to build and cost $2.5 million. Architect Emile Weil designed the interior as an atmospheric theatre meant to evoke an Italian courtyard at night, and it remains one of only a handful of Saenger movie palaces still standing.

the building

An artificial night sky. Weil installed 150 lights in the ceiling arranged into the shapes of real constellations, paired with machines that projected moving clouds, sunrises, and sunsets across the theatre's interior to complete the illusion of an open-air courtyard.

Opening night on Canal Street. The theatre's 1927 opening drew thousands of people to parade along Canal Street, and the original bill paired a silent movie and a live stage play, produced by Paramount-Publix, with music from the Saenger Grand Orchestra, all for a top ticket price of 65 cents.

the style

Emile Weil designed the Saenger as an atmospheric theatre, a style built to make the audience feel they were sitting in an open Italian Baroque courtyard rather than an enclosed hall, complete with a projected night sky overhead.

More on Renaissance Revival

the architect

Emile Weil designed the Saenger Theatre's interior, conceiving it as an atmospheric theatre recalling an Italian Baroque courtyard, complete with a constellation-mapped ceiling and machines that projected moving clouds and sunsets.

significance

The Saenger is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a New Orleans Historical Landmark. It was the flagship of Julian and Abe Saenger's theatre chain and is one of only a handful of Saenger movie palaces that survive today; in 1929 Julian Saenger sold it for $10 million to Paramount Publix, which kept it running through the Depression.

nearby

All 38 buildings in New Orleans