Scenic Cinema
8254 Scenic Highway,
Baton Rouge,
LA
70807
8254 Scenic Highway,
Baton Rouge,
LA
70807
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This article about Louisiana’s movie theaters is illustrated with a photo of what turns out to have been the second Cook’s Theatre.
The house was opened in the mid-1930s by James C. Cook and his wife, Ruby J. Darensbourg, and was the first movie house in Louisiana owned by an African-American family. The original wooden structure was destroyed by a fire in 1944, and replaced by a cinder block building in 1945. The gabled roof on the building now did not exist when the vintage photo was made.
This one was still operational in 1974-75 as “Scenic Cinema” with many African-American hits of the day. By 1976 it was gone for good, I believe. The partial title letters of “Blood on Satan’s Claw” adorned its marquee for a few years thereafter.