Saenger Theatre

When Mobile's Saenger Theatre opened on January 19, 1927, it was the sixty-first Saenger theatre of a chain founded by J.H. and A.D. Saenger of New Orleans. There were Saenger Theatres located throughout the South as well as in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Hailed as, "Alabama's Greatest Showplace" and, "the most beautiful playhouse in all of Dixie, " the Mobile Saenger Theatre took a year to construct at a cost of about 500, 000 dollars. Designed by renowned architect, Emile Weil, the Mobile Saenger Theatre featured the following: three-color auditorium lighting, a two-manuel, ten-rank Robert Morton theatre organ, full stage facilities to accommodate large road shows including stage and wardrobe traps, four floors of dressing rooms, musicians' and chorus rooms and 2, 615 seats. Around 1950, the seats on the floor were replaced and re-spaced, reducing the seating capacity to about 2, 200. Seating capacity today is 1, 921. The Saenger Theatre's decoration was described as, "the motif of a French palace of the Renaissance." It was inspired by classical Greek mythology and Mobile's coastal location. Poseidon is cast above the front entrance and the interior plaster ornamentation includes: Dionysus above the proscenium, Maenads encircling the chandelier in the lounge, Pan beneath the organ grilles and various stylized seahorses, shells and fish throughout the theatre. The color scheme of the interior was primarily sea-green with maroon and gold trim. The ceilings featured a variety of trompe l'oeil decoration. The building was designed in a continental style, intended to resemble European opera houses. The theatre's opera boxes that were located beneath the organ grilles were later removed to improve sightlines when the larger Cinemascope movie screen was installed. Other outstanding architectural features of the original building included: the tilted arcade, grand marble staircase, ornate lamps, chandeliers, statuary and door frames, a mezzanine and promenade. There were lavish furnishings in the men's "Stage Room, " and the ladies' "At the Sign of the Lipstick, " lounge which included magnificent draperies and carpets with the name of the theatre woven into the fabric.