This Abandoned Arkansas Theatre Was Once The Showplace Of The South
By Carol Ann Carson|Published April 16, 2018
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Carol Ann Carson
Author
Arkansas native, Carol Ann Carson, has written for OnlyInYourState for three years now. She resides in Western Arkansas' Mountain Frontier but calls NWA home as well. The graduate of University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, Carol Ann earned her B.A. in English and will soon be pursing her M.A. in Library Science. She loves exploring the trails around the Buffalo National River and has yet to find a waterfall that wasn't her favorite.
The Saenger Theatre in Pine Bluff once hosted stars like Harry Houdini and Roy Rogers. The theatre still stands but is still waiting for some much needed remodeling. Let’s walk through the aisles of this iconic location for today’s photo tour.
This tour is brought to us by our friends over at AbandonedAR. They travel to forgotten locations all over the state to preserve these places through historic documentation.
This Saenger Theatre is closed to the public. The property is monitored 24/7 so please, no trespassing.
The Saenger Theater originally opened on November 17, 1924.
The Saenger brothers built over 300 of these theaters during the '20s, three of which were in Arkansas. As we mentioned early, the theatre is not open to the public but you can drive by and see it near the corner of West Second Avenue and Pine Street in Pine Bluff.
Known as the "Showplace of the South," the theatre seated 1,500 and repeatedly sold-out for big-name performances.
Al G. Fields Minstrels, Ziegfeld Follies, and John Phillips Sousa were some of the performing groups that came through. Harry Houdini, Will Rogers, Roy Rogers and his horse, Trigger also graced the stage.
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Besides hosting famous performances, the theatre also had celebrity guests coming to shows.
The theatre closed for good around 1975 because of the town's newer theatres. The Saenger was given to a non-profit group called the Heckatoo Heritage in 1980 and later passed to Friends of the Saenger in 1996.
Friends of the Saenger, changed its name to Old Towne Centre Theatres, Inc. The group works towards restoring all the old Saenger Theatres. For the Pine Bluff's location, the group installed a new roof and did extensive remodeling.
The theatre was also added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The community was working towards revitalizing the downtown area so the donation made sense. $15,000 of city funds were allocated to further structural repairs.
Unfortunately, not much has been done to the theatre since 2012.
