Joy Theater

Hi, I was just made aware of this link and am amazed of my grandfather’s legacy. I am sure there will be more postings from my siblings, but I wanted to bring all up to date. Our grandmother, Hazel Houck, widow of Joy, has passed away on Thanksgiving Day. Although, I have not seen my grandmother in a few years as I live in California, I will always remember her as a very fine lady. Memories of her in my childhood, staying overnight in the big house in Shreveport (with the built-in projector room and hugh living room used for private screenings on the far wall with movie screen), watching Uncle Joy (as we called our grandfather), sit in his reclining chair with Nannie Hazel, eating his cornbread and buttermilk and trying to watch cartoons with him constantly changing the channels :))). Nannie helped me get my Social Security Number as it was needed when I started working at the Joy Theater in Texarkana during the summers starting even at 9 earning money for school clothes each year. Nannie made sure I had charm school lessons (Loved), piano lessons (which I hated). Uncle Joy always seemed a big man in my eyes and kind of scary, but he was really a pussycat. After moving to California in the late 60’s, Nannie and Uncle Joy would fly out often for screenings of his movies (which we attended and Nannie would never miss taking us to Disneyland. Could go on and on, but tears are welling up now. God bless both and rest in peace….Will miss you Nannie….

There is an article about the Joy Theater of Shreveport (owned by Joy Houck) on www.texasescapes.com

Wow, great article! Heaven only knows what the inside of the Joy looks like now after the flood. My hotel was just a few blocks up from the Joy when I stayed in New Orleans las, but it was already closed. We would pass it a few times a day to and from the hotel, on the walk down Canal St to Bourbon St or the River. I haven’t been back to New Orleans since the flood. The Saenger across the street was heavily damaged in the flood, and that was an in use theater. I had seen photos of the outside of the Joy during the flood, and the water was quite high in front of the theater,. ANd the big problem with any of the theaters (the Orpheum was also damaged), is that by design, theaters slope down from street level towards the stage….which makes it a nightmare, as if the street level is flooded, just picture all that water cascading towards the stage, so a theater would have much higher waterline from the floor, as even if it was just just a few feet on the street, the slope of the floor in a theater would be several feet below street level, making a bad situation worse.

The Joy theatre has a large sign in front with a phone number saying it’s for sale… maybe I can get a picture if I go downtown with my camera sometime. I’ve been eyeing it since a few months before the hurricane… I called once to see how much they wanted, but it was late and I got no answer/message. It’s been a dream of mine to open a theatre some day, but I’m only 20 so financially I’m no where near ready.

Before the flood, Canal St was really on the mend. It was so improved in the few years between my first and last visit there, and the difference on Canal was noticable. Now with the shortage of housing there, perhaps they will be abble to rent the apartments above many of the stores. If anything, during the flood, while downtown flooded too a bit, it held up much better than the rest of the area.

As someone pointed out in the State Palace section, you can also see the Orpheum on the left. FOUR theaters all in one shot!

Lost, it looks just like I remember it. I wonder how bad it must be inside after the flood. That part of Canal St was flooded pretty bad, as I have seen newscasts from in front of the theater. it wasn’t that good to begin with, so I can’t even imagine after the auditorium filled up with water. Like I said above, they were having a superbowl part in there a couple years ago when I went by (even though the theater was abandoned, it was still “usble”). I guess the had the football game on the screen.
Anyway, with mold and stuff, I doubt it is even usable for little things like that now. If they are having trouble with the beautiful Orpheum, I can gaurantee no one is paying attention to the Joy.

This is an interesting and important thread. Rarely do we get get family stories about the people who built chains. More postings would be greatly appreciated.

Wow, thank you. Those were very helpful. I copied the link to the kodak gallery and forwarded it via email to some family and friends of mine. I thought it was more personal than say, MSNBC or CNN or the like. I also checked out the andrewsullivan.com link and read some more there and through its links.

Ron: So glad that you posted this report here as CT member, Joyfulness asked about the Joy Theatre and a CNN photo which is included with others in the report.

TC: The Best of New Orleans website is very good! I haven’t read the entire article, but did read that the Joy had a crying room. I visited a former theatre/Ace Hardware in Hartwell GA and the hardware owner showed me the room that once had a window to view the movie from inside. The name of that theatre was the Judy Theatre named after one of the owner’s daughters. The owner had a drive-in on the outskirts of Hartwell that he also named after another daughter. Great theatre stories whether they be in small town America or in big cities.

View link

Updated link for the May 12th post. Good history of other theaters in New Orleans as well.

I visited New Orleans in July 1993 and can remember certain mental pictures of areas (mainly tourist parts of the city) that have stuck with me since. Most of my fondest memories are from Canal street and the Joy Theater. I always notice buildings with “joy” on them, as it’s an uncommon business name, but mainly because it’s my first name.

I’m excited about learning the information posted here, and surprised to find out that the “Joy” of the theater was a man! How cool! I haven’t found my name to be too popular in general, but to find a man named “Joy”, that’s something else!! I tried to find photos of either Sr. or Jr. but found no more than Jr.’s movie reviews and the like.

I’ve aged into an adult since my visit, and I’ve often thought of the theater and have wanted to revisit New Orleans. Now, with the flooding, post-hurricane situation that Katrina started last week, I have managed to piece together the New Orleans layout with my memory, an atlas, Google maps, and various websites' info. I wanted to see if the Joy Theater was spared, but according to Patsy, above, (and Google Katrina maps) I assume that’s unlikely. I would be interested in seeing the CNN report Patsy is referring to. I would like to see what it looks like and if it still has a chance to survive. I hope someone will save the Joy Theater and restore it back to its potential. It would be nice to visit again.

If you know something of interest in regards to either the theater or how I could see the CNN report, you may email me at joyfulness at hotmail dot com. Thank you. – Joy