Robert E. Lee Theater

This great Baton Rouge memory started life as a single screen (identical to its recently demolished twin in New Orleans) in 1966 courtesy of the Joy’s chain. Doctor Zhivago was a premiere engagement. The theater played many roadshows throughout the remainder of the decade and at the end of 1969, the large auditorium was twinned by splitting it down the middle.

At the end of 1972, a large third screen was added to the right side and a fourth was added in early 1974 to the right of it. Throughout the 1970s, the theater offered a great mix of first and second run product (the latter often outpacing the original runs at the boxoffice.) Southern filmmaker Charles B. Pierce had his projects given hefty runs and promotions (many still remember the Boggy Creek monster and The Town That Dreaded Sundown displays under their staircase at the left of the lobby.) Bootleggers enjoyed a year-long run in 1974 along with The Sting.

In 1983, the theater adapted a $1.00 policy that endured for 4 years until its closing in 1987 after reportedly increasing rowdy activity, though by all accounts the theater was still drawing sizable crowds. Sadly, all that remains is the slab, and its New Orleans twin has now joined it.