Tudor Theatre

Announcing a book about New Orleans Movie Theaters

THEREâ€\S ONE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
The History of the Neighborhood Theaters in New Orleans
is being written by 89-year-old Rene Brunet, the dean of the motion picture industry in Louisiana, and New Orleans historian and preservationist Jack Stewart. The 160-page,coffee table book will be released in November and is being published by Arthur Hardy Enterprises, Inc. Attention will be focused on 50 major neighborhood and downtown theaters, culled from a list of nearly 250 that have dotted the cityâ€\s landscape since the first “nickelodeon” opened in 1896 at 626 Canal Street. The book will be divided by neighborhoods and will open with a map and a narrative about each area. Each major theater will feature “then and now” photographs, historic information, and a short series of quotes from famous New Orleanians and from regular citizens who will share their recollections.
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED
We are trying to acquire memorabilia and additional photos of this theater for this publication. (deadline July 1.) You will be credited in the book and receive a free autographed copy if we publish the picture that you supply. Please contact Arthur Hardy at or call 504-913-1563 if you can help.

The April 19, 1913, issue of Motography ran a brief item about the Tudor Theatre (apparently not yet named) that was then nearing completion:

“The new Pearce theater, now under construction at New Orleans, is nearing completion. In less than six weeks the finest picture theater in the south will be thrown open to the public. Located at 610 Canal street, the new theater probably is one of the most expensive of the United States. Josiah L. Pearce & Sons will introduce another new feature of motion picture theaters in the new pipe organ which is on its way to New Orleans, and is thought to be the best of its kind in the south. The organ was built at Hagerstown, Md., and it is said to have cost $25,000.”

Josiah Pearce & Sons opened the Theatorium soon turned Electric Theatre on December 21, 1905 followed by the Dreamland, Grand, Bijou Dream, and Trianon. Pearce & Sons extended their holdings to Houston and elsewhere in Mississippi and Louisiana. The Tudor was built in 1913 as Pearce’s first ground to roof movie palace. It featured a stunning $25,000 Möller Vox Humana pipe organ with the console in the Tudor orchestra pit on an electric-pneumatic lift so it could be featured or hidden. It opened with two, two-reelers “White Slave” and D.W. Griffith’s “His Mother’s Son" on June 3, 1913.

The Tudor themed architecture featured 15th Century decorations evocative of Henry VII and VIIIth. It was considered a success by New Orleans architects DeBuys, Churchill & Labouisse (Rathbone Debuys, Frank G. Churchill and Samuel S. Labouisse). The first wave of movie palaces continued with Fichtenberg’s Globe Theatre opening next door at Christmastime in 1916 and its neighbor, the long-running Child’s Restaurant at 620 Canal Street and Scharff’s Billiard Parlor above it for an entertainment combination. (Saenger and Fichtenberg combined in 1917 under the Sanger Amusement Circuit nameplate.)

The Tudor was marketed as Pearce’s Tudor Theatre until 1925 - though had gone from the pre-eminent first-run theater to a revival house by that time. Eugene Pearce sold the venue to Phillip A. Schiro of the Schiro Amusement Circuit on March 9, 1925. The venue was marketed as Schiro’s Tudor Theatre as he tried to bring back to first-run status. He closed up for the summer on May 13, 1928 - generally a move made by ventilation challenged, older movie houses and those not converted to sound. Schiro walked away from the Tudor.

Saenger Circuit took on the venue equipping it with Vitaphone sound, improved ventilation, and relaunching it as Saenger’s New Tudor Theatre on June 29, 1927 with Dolores Costello in the talking picture, “Glorious Betsy.” That gave Saenger neighboring, large movie houses on busy Canal Street. The Childs Restaurant, however, was a 1937 casualty being auctioned off. It was first replaced by a precursor to “Ripley’s Believe or Not” called The World’s Fair Museum that included exhibits including Sontain, the living Headless Girl, the Sheep-Headed Men from Ecuador, and the Seal Boy, Sealo - human with seal’s flippers for hands. That morphed into a highly successful Penny Arcade in 1941. The Tudor, Globe, and Penny Arcade combined was the equivalent of a Family Entertainment Destination Center on Canal Street lasting all the way to the venue’s closure and demolition in a 1964 urban renewal plan.

The Tudor had transferred to Paramount Richards / Paramount Gulf / United Theatres (the latter after the ABC -United Paramount 1951 merger) operational names. At its ouster, not long after its 50th Anniversary and likely expiry of its leasing, the Tudor closed July 12, 1964 with Jerry Lewis as “The Patsy. And the Globe ended its run with “Shock Corridor” on the same day. The entire group of entertainment structures on Canal Street were demolished in November of 1964 by Deep South Dismantling Company.