Saenger Theater
6 S. Joachim Street,
Mobile,
AL
36602
6 S. Joachim Street,
Mobile,
AL
36602
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 28 comments found
Very Nice Photos.
Here is a larger version of one of the photos on the official site. Date is 1952.
http://tinyurl.com/lbmr6f
1988 Photo
There doesn’t seem to be a CT listing for Mobile’s Roxy Theatre. Here’s a photo incorrectly dated June, 1939. The movie didn’t have its world premiere engagements until December of that year: View link
Here is a 2009 photo.
Another photo is here and this a close-up view.
This is a recent photo of the Saenger Theater.
Mr. Bill Hooper was in the process of restoring the organ when the University sold the theater to the city. From what I can gather, the city hired a couple of guys to maintain the place that we lets say less than qualified to do so. Bill got frustrated and stopped his work. I had done quite a bit of wiring in the organ chambers and soldering some pipes. At this point there is no telling what happen to the organ. But the last I saw the blower worked, all new air pipe and we were tooting pipes by hand.
Does the theatre still have the Robert Morton organ?
I don’t believe the Saenger in Mobile has run real movies since about 2002. From what I heard, they were using video projection casting images on the screen slightly better than shadows. When I ran films in the late 1990’s the presentation was wonderful including cartoons and shorts in front of features.
Sometime around 2002 I had gotten an email from the Saneger asking if I could run films again but I had moved to Kansas City. I’m guessing they couldn’t find anyone that knew how to run and maintain the projector.
Finding this site brings back a lot of memories. I worked as an usher and doorman at the Saenger in the mid 1960’s.
I spent a lot of time below the stage going through the old advance sheets and photos of past stage and movie stars. I often wish that I had collected a few posters and photos.
Here is a photo of the Saenger Theater.
Didn’t hear about that one. I will make a note, though.
I thought that we weren’t supposed to link to the Saenger website for photos. Have the rules changed again?
Here is the Saenger website with some older photos:
http://tinyurl.com/s2rys
Here are multiple photos of the Saenger in Mobile. Click each photo to enlarge it.
The correct address for this theater is:
6 South Joachim Street
Mobile, Alabama 36602
I am the Saenger Theatre
I am not built merely of Marble, Mortar and Steel;
but born with a Heart and Soul and a Purpose, like yourself.
I am the creation and the result of a master mind; the disciple of a dreamer
with whom to dream was to do;
I am a reality loved into life.
I receive you with the hospitality of a hostess in her home as I realize my
responsibility to make you comfortable, to refresh you, to throw about you
the mantle of protection, and to entertain you.
Courtesy is ever my creed; hospitality my religion.
I will render every service to my people and in the future that is
stretching
away from us in a vanishing line,
I will stand steadfast upon the principles that endow me.
I accept the responsibility of giving Mobile the utmost in entertainment.
I hope you will take me to your heart and homes, as a friend for good,
to live among you to the end.
I am a Mobile Institution.
I am the Saenger Theatre.
The above quote came from the opening program on January 19, 1927.
“When Mobile’s Saenger Theatre opened on January 19, 1927, it was the 61st in the Saenger Theatre chain founded by JH and AD Saenger of New Orleans, and located throughout the South, as well in Cuba and Puerto Rico.”
Chuck1231: The above photo site shows an exterior roof design that is similar to the Palace Theatre in Canton Ohio which I will be visiting this coming weekend.
Another photo of the Saenger Theatre.
View link
Here is a picture during extwerior renovations
http://www.agilitynut.com/05/1/saenger.jpg
I taped the above show and just watched it! Very good and hope they do more theatres in the very near future! I’m sure if CT members contact the History Channel they will do more!
BACK TO THE BLUEPRINT
Theaters: Fox Theatre, Tucson, AZ and Saenger Theater, Mobile, AL
Airs on Saturday, March 26 at 2:00pm ET
Episode description: “Talking Pictures†gave birth to a theater-building boom in the 1930s. In an attempt to make going to the movies as memorable as the film itself, architects and engineers constructed buildings that stimulated the senses. From the flashing lights of the marquee to the cushion seats of the balcony, no
detail was overlooked. Host Marty Dunham travels to Arizona and visits the Fox Tucson Theatre. While there, he installs new air-conditioning ducts and acoustone—a soundproofing material that dates to the 1920s. Then, Marty visits Santa Theresa Tile Works to recreate the vintage tile that once covered the Fox’s facade. And at the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Alabama, Marty helps mount a plaster bracket for new box seats and assists in applying gold leafing to this renovated movie house.
The Saengers were affiliated with Paramount-Publix, so their theatres tended to be more luxurious than some of their competitors.
The above address that I listed is incorrect, it should have been,
10 Joachim Street.