The Texarkana Saenger theatre opened in 1924, the same year as the Saenger Theatre in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Architect
Emile Weil for both, his earliest Saenger-named theatres, utilized
handsome Federal-style facades & ornate Adamesque interiors.
Interior decoration of the Texarkana Saenger was a royal blue Italian
Renaissance scheme, & the theatre was equipped with a 2 manual, 6
rank theatre organ from the Robert Morton Organ Company.
Built as a "combination house" with extensive stage
facilities as well as film projection facilities, the theatre's opening
night featured the live show "Foot Loose"; the next week D. W. Griffith's
film "America" would run.
The large downtown theatre declined
as a first-run house in the 1970s, but still ran movies until 1977. It
was closed from 1977 to 1980, whle acquisition by the city of
Texarkana was completed, & restoration was planned & carried
out.
Roughly two-thirds of the $2.4 million
restoration costs were raised by the City of Texarkana, Texas through
grants and contributions of local citizens before the Perot Foundation
was approached. The Perot Foundation and the Perot family were key to
completing the restoration of the beautiful facility and their
contribution was acknowledged by renaming the theatre. The Perot
Theatre is now a performing arts center hosting plays, musicals, &
concerts.
Nearing completion of the theatre's restoration,
the theatre's original Robert Morton organ was returned from the
Dallas buyer who'd purchased it in the 1960s.
The Perot Theatre is owned by the City of Texarkana, Texas, & operated by the
Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council.
Thanks to Randall Conry, Operations Director of Perot Theatre/TRAHC, Inc., for additional information.
2008 photographs of the Perot Theatre by Jonathan Fox
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