Chimes Theatre
1167 W. Chimes Street,
Baton Rouge,
LA
70802
1167 W. Chimes Street,
Baton Rouge,
LA
70802
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 3 comments
Assuming the address is correct, this was way out of downtown. It appears that the streets in this area have been rearranged, and the address is an apartment building.
It would be appear from Street View that this theatre has been demolished.
Capitol Theatres Inc. and R. Frank Cangelosi built this suburban house adjacent to the LSU campus. Robert H. Goodman created the streamline moderne, low budget theatre. It would be in the Gordon C. Ogden portfolio. Saenger Theatres caught wind of this and quickly got a plan together to build the Varisty Theatre. The race was on… and the Chimes Theatre won. It launched September 16, 1937 with “Pennies from Heaven.”
Ogden would add the Ogden Theatre and the Gordon Theatre to the City. And the Chimes scuffled heading into the 1950s. The Chimes had closed for winter breaks at LSU and then closed for the entire LSU summer break scheduling a reopening on September 13, 1953. That date past and then on September 27, 1953, the theater ran an advertorial saying they weren’t reopening due to the federal tax on entertainment. With television and the cost of installing stereo sound and 3D, they didn’t think they could reopen at that time but might in the future. They elected not to with the theatre closing permanently in 1953.