Bijou Theatre

The Bijou Theatre was the center of Erath’s activities in the 1920’s (listings begin in 1920 although it may have been around much longer). Bijou Hall was a theatre showing silent movies, a dance hall, and served as the meeting space for City Hall. It was also where people voted. A popular neighboring confectionery, Cap’s Place, was a hangout for teenagers.

As the Depression hit and theatres were making a conversion to sound, veteran showman Frank DeGraauw who had theaters in Abbeville and Gueydan, Louisiana, took on the Bijou Theatre. He converted the Bijou Theatre to sound and apparently called the theatre Frank’s Theatre in the Bijou Building. Lack of tax payments suspended film operations but not from dances, city hall action and voting.

Milton F. Guidry took on the Bijou Theatre expanding the seat count by about 100 seats and making many improvements including sound fidelity and seating. The improved Bijou Theatre relaunched on June 21, 1936. But a fire on April 25, 1940 beginning at the Bijou Theatre wiped out the theatre, Cap’s Place, and a retailer. Apparently, teenagers took the fire hard and everyone got behind the plans to rebuild.

Guidry rebuilt the theatre opening on September 11, 1940 and that Bijou Theatre has its own page on Cinema Treasures.

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