| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
This Moorish Revival, terracotta-clad exterior with its copper-domed minarets is an upper east side landmark in Milwaukee. The theater interior, a veritable catalog of Near Eastern and Asian design motifs, embodies the 1920s fascination with adventure and exotic places. Its interior adorned with ornamental plaster, decorative painting, and sculpture centers on a balustrade made of life-size ebony-colored lions. Larger-than-life Buddhas, with lighted “rubies” in their foreheads, squat in ornamental plaster niches along the auditorium walls. Richly ornamented pilasters hold huge elephant- and lion-head capitals.
In 1988, the Oriental was sensitively divided into a three-screen cinema. Two new auditoriums were built beneath the huge balcony, but the size of the original screen and virtually all of the historic ornamental features are intact.
The Oriental Theatre is significant under Criterion C: Architecture as an excellent and highly intact example of a movie palace. Built in 1927, the Oriental was constructed at the height of popularity of this property type. That same year, sixteen new movie theaters – consisting of 18,200 seats – were being designed, built, or opened in Milwaukee. Locally, movie palace development was initiated with construction of the Wisconsin Theater in 1924. The period of movie palace construction was short-lived ending with the Great Depression. Characteristics of the movie palace exhibited by the Oriental Theatre include its ornate and lavishly detailed interior spaces including its theater lobbies and auditorium with balcony. Designed by the Milwaukee architectural firm, Dick & Bauer, the Oriental specifically is an exotic-themed movie palace with an interior reflecting faraway places and incorporating elements of East Indian, Moorish, Islamic, and Byzantine architecture to create a “temple of Oriental art” in ornamental plaster and decorative painting. The Oriental Theatre is further notable given its rarity as a movie palace within Milwaukee considering that the city has lost most of its historic-period examples of this property type. The 1930s were peak years for the exhibition of motion pictures in Milwaukee with eighty-nine theaters in operation. However, mirroring national trends, the drop from this peak by the mid-twentieth century was striking. Featuring eighty theaters in 1950, the number of movie theaters operating in the city was reduced by half ten years later. While some historic movie palaces were repurposed for uses including live performance venues or churches, many were razed. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Dick & Bauer, Architects (Milwaukee). “Theatre, Store & Office Building for the M. L. A. Investment Co.” June, 1926, Job No. 123.
“Ald. Greene Sees Show! Theater Is Too Handy.” The Milwaukee Journal, July 3, 1927, Page 8.
“Gala Oriental Opening.” Saxe-O-Grams (a publication of Saxe Amusement Enterprises, Milwaukee), Volume 4, Number 23 (July 2, 1927).
“Three De Luxe Houses Recently Added to Saxe Chain.” Motion Picture News 37, no. 1 (January 7, 1928): 30-31.
“Milwaukee Theatre Projects for Year Total $7,000,000.” Motion Picture News, January 14, 1928, Page 126. |
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