Coast Chronicles: A Gulf Coast gem sparkles again
The Gem of the Gulf Coast is cleaned and re-polished. Updated to 21st Century standards, its ready for the wear and tear of a new generation.
The original cost of $200,000 is about $4 million today. Just three years shy of 100, this gem has continued to gleam through a century of change that has survived altered American entertainment habits, fire and several very bad, damaging hurricanes.
This gem is not a jewel but a building. When the Saenger Theater opened in January 1929, a lighted street sign measuring 6-feet wide and 28-feet long declared it was the “Gem of the Gulf Coast.”
The Mississippi Coast was proud of its new attraction, built in prosperous times just before The Great Depression. The building carries the name “Saenger” because it was built as part of the movie palace empire of the Saenger brothers, Abe and Julian, who’d moved from Virginia to Louisiana.
The brothers justified locating a theater in Biloxi because, as the history-laden “Seafood Capitol of the World,” it was the most notable of coastal Mississippi towns.
Biloxi also was one of the smaller Southern cities to receive a Saenger movie palace. When it opened in 1929 its lavish appearance and impressive 1,500 seats were outshined by the Saenger brothers’ show palace in New Orleans, opened two years earlier with 4,000 seats.
Another Saenger Theater opened in Mobile in 1927 with 2,200 seats, and a Pensacola one two years earlier had 1,800 seats. Although many Saenger Theaters have disappeared, these four cities and Hattiesburg have managed to save and restore the historic theaters as performing arts centers, although updates have reduced the number of seats in all of them.
Biloxi got the Saenger brothers’ nod because of the persistence of one of its wealthy philanthropist, Mrs. Noreta Yeager, daughter of seafood pioneer Laz Lopez. She convinced the Saengers to take over Biloxi’s existing silent movie house, called The Strand, and replace it with a new Saenger Theater on her land next to the Strand, which she then repurposed, and today it is called the Barq’s Building.
Biloxi’s late-comer status actually became an advantage. The earlier Saengers were built for vaudeville, traveling shows and silent movies. Biloxi, coming a few years later, was also able to show Paramount Pictures’ first full-length talking movie because of its most up-to-date equipment.
Tickets for “Interference” with William Powell were 10 cents for kids, 50 cents for adults. As Paramount’s first feature-length all-talking picture, it required new sound equipment. The theater also had a new way to listen to silent movies with the recently invented Vitaphone, a sound-on-disc system that made the first “talkies” by coordinating records with the film.
The new theater had an impressive Wurlitzer organ that could tweet like a bird and bark like a dog. For non-movie traveling shows, 10 dressing rooms awaited.
“This delightful structure is more than a building of average commercial importance,” the Saenger managers said in a special theater edition of The Daily Herald. “It is an edifice erected with a mission of serving the public in such a manner that life may be more worth the living.”
The opening was such a big deal that 2,000 people showed up in their finery, and 500 of them had to be turned away because the theater only sat 1,500.
The people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast could now experience not only talking movies but air conditioning, amazing acoustics and an inviting ambiance that caused the Daily Herald to declare, “The hand of a master decorator is seen in every nook and corner of the building.”
Roy A. Benjamin, the Florida architect of the red brick building facing Reynoir Street, was known for his ornate movie palaces, including other Saengers.
In the 1930s, the Saenger brothers sold their theaters to Paramount, which eventually combined with ABC (American Broadcasting Company) to modernize and run movie theaters that would highlight Hollywood films, with no more traveling shows. In the 1960s the company started building multi-plex movie theaters, and inevitably the one-screen theaters like the Saengers fell out of popularity.
The aging movie palaces had gone through many changes to keep up with improving film and sound quality of movies. Much of the 1920s decorative arts were removed or covered up, and the buildings were becoming dilapidated.
In 1974, ABC deeded the Saenger to Biloxi for $10. With the American Revolution Bicentennial fast approaching, Mayor Jeremiah O’Keefe decided the city would turn the aging theater into a performing arts center and bring back some 1920s grandeur. The other Saengers have similar stories.
To have the theater opened in time for the Bicentennial, the Coast needed to get busy fast. Friends of the Saenger, under chairmanship of Gwen Gollotte, was formed to raise restoration money, oversee the work and make plans for performances.
Rejuvenation of the Saenger was touted as a Coast-wide project. Other cities, counties and arts lovers contributed, including Pete Fountian, the New Orleans jazz clarinetist who did fundraisers. The revival was accomplished with assorted local government funds, community volunteerism and businesses and individuals opening wallets and expertise.
At some earlier point during the movie era, the domed auditorium ceiling had been lowered, the chandelier medallion covered up and the giant crystal chandelier removed. By the time Biloxi took over, the plaster wall columns had disappeared and the original red leather seats were wambly
The original silk damask walls also were covered with acoustic tiles, and the inch-thick carpet woven with a design to match the ceiling wasn’t usable. The Wurlitzer pipe organ was gone, and the once-gilded and flower-motif proscenium arch was coated in brown paint.
The Friends faced a huge task to get the doors open for the Bicentennial year. Miraculously, someone discovered one of the three original chandeliers, in pieces, in a city water building. No one remembered how it got there or how long ago.
The faculty, students and parents of Notre Dame High school studied photos, did research and put it back together again. Some crystals were missing and a New Orleans light company helped replace some but not all of them.
The light was rehung in the auditorium, somewhat smaller than its original self, but still shining, useful and a symbol of the past. That story epitomizes the theater’s recovery.
With work still ongoing, the Saenger reopened its doors in December 1975 for the Keesler Air Force Base’s production of Handel’s “Messiah.” The Bicentennial year saw music concerts, ballet, opera and a 1776-1976 fashion show with Coast mayors.
For several years, the partially restored auditorium, stage and dressing rooms were used for plays by touring groups, schools and little theaters. Even a sing-along with the real Mitch Miller took place.
Of historic note was the staging in 1979 of the play, “Biloxi” written and produced by David Sheffield, Biloxi native gone Hollywood and noted for his work on “Saturday Night Live” and movies such as “Coming to America.” When the Gulf Coast’s Tricentennial was celebrated 20 years later in 1999, Sheffield staged a revised version of his “Biloxi.”
By then, the Saenger had undergone at least two more renovations. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005 it faced another one.
Like all the Saengers on the National Register of Historic Places, upkeep is continual. Attempts to mix the 1920s look with modern usability is challenging and costly.
The Biloxi Saenger has been dark for the past eight years but if all goes as planned the refurbished French-style doors will open in June, the stage will come alive and the 97-year-old Gem of the Gulf Coast will sparkle. Again.
Kat Bergeron, an award-winning veteran reporter and feature writer who specializes in Gulf Coast history and sense of place, is retired from the Sun Herald. She writes this Gulf Coast Chronicles column as a freelance correspondent. Reach her at:
BergeronKat@gmail.com
Or, at Southern Possum Tales, P.O. Box 33, Barboursville, VA 22923
This story was originally published March 29, 2026 at 5:00 AM.