The 1960’s saw vast changes in the New Orleans’ movie industry. The
studios were all in trouble, outside investors came in and influxed cash.
With attendance decreasing and having to run movies longer at
downtown theatres, the Saenger was the first to add a second screen
by way of erecting a wall in front of the balcony. To pay for this
renovation, many of its statues, chandeliers and porcelain pieces were
sold. The Saenger was stripped of some of its original grandeur. In
1964, the 70mm Sanger Orleans opened.
In 1965, the joy was renovated with new drapes, carpets, rocking chair
seats and an outside face lift.
As the population shifted to Jefferson, New Orleans east and to the
west bank…
The suburb’s soon became places where people worked and lived.
Although the suburb’s had theatres, new, larger ones, were needed.
New Orleans’ first suburban luxury theatre was located across from the
lakeside shopping center. In 1965, Bill Cobb and partners built the
Lakeside theatre and in 1966, general cinema opened Lakeside
Cinemas, which had two screens.
Also in 1966: The Westside Theatre was opened across the river…
The Patio (later called Panorama) on Airline in Metairie and the Robert
E. Lee in Lake Vista.
It took about a year after these new theatres were opened before some
of the film companies served them with first-run movies. At the end of
the ‘60’s and early 70’s downtown theatres still played first-run, but
action or black exploitation films were the most profitable.
The 1960’s were also the birth of the multi-plex theatre. Screens were
added for longer playing time of films at suburban theatres.
The world was changing. More mature movies were being made to fight
the allure of television.
Although some of the country practiced self-censorship, on November
1, 1968, the film industry’s new motion picture rating system made its
debut.
This new rating system would be used to help parents, in advance, by
giving them the information they needed in deciding whether a
particular film was suitable for their children to see.
Films were rated according to four categories:
“G” for general audiences (all ages admitted)
“M” for mature audiences (parental guidance suggested)
“R” for restricted (under 16 must be accompanied by an adult, parent
or guardian)
“X” for no one under 16 admitted
Later, “PG” replaced “M” for parental guidance suggested and the age
for “R” and “X” was raised to 17.
The late ‘60’s saw a few more new theatres built. Some film companies
were now having multiple runs of their movies, even passing on a
downtown run.
New Orleans drive-in’s took a blow in 1967 when a nation-wide daylight
savings time went into effect. As a result, the family business started to
drop off.
When the drive-in audience changed, operators switched to “R” rated
or adult films with car racing and low budget horror films.
