[StBernard] Chalmette Movies returns this week after five-year Katrina-forced hiatus

[Westley Annis]

Chalmette Movies returns this week after five-year Katrina-forced hiatus
Published: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 4:00 PM 
 Mike Scott, The Times-Picayune 
 
Almost exactly one month shy of the fifth anniversary of the storm that all
but wiped their business, and the rest of St. Bernard Parish, off the map,
the owners of Chalmette's sole movie theater will go on with the show on
Friday (July 30). 

Marking another local milestone in Hurricane Katrina recovery, the Chalmette
Movies -- in The Mall shopping center on West Judge Perez Drive -- has been
rebuilt from the ground up on the site of the old Chalmette Cinema. The new
facility has fewer screens -- six, as opposed to nine -- but it has been
improved in nearly every measurable way. In addition to featuring stadium
seating and high-backed chairs with cup holders and moveable arms,
everything about the theater is fresh-from-the-package new, save for a few
bits of structural steel -- some of it viewable in the projection booth --
that the property owners decided were salvageable after the old theater was
inundated with 17 feet of floodwater.

Longtime local theater operator Wendeslaus Schulz, whose South Louisiana
Entertainment Group ran the theater before the storm and also is behind its
rebirth, said he's heard nothing but words of support and excitement from
Chalmette residents eager to get their movie theater back.

"People are saying, No. 1, 'When are you going to open?' And No. 2, 'Are you
going to have 3-D?' " Schulz said. 

The answers: Friday (July 30), and yes indeed.

In addition to boasting 3-D capabilities, the theater will have two
auditoriums with 128 seats, two with 104 seats and two with 76 seats.
Although it will host the occasional art film and documentary -- such as the
street-art doc "Exit Through the Gift Shop," which begins an exclusive
engagement Friday as part of the theater's planned "Chalmette Arts Scene"
series -- the theater will focus largely on mainstream, family friendly
fare.

"We want to get it so people can drop their kids off, like an old
neighborhood theater, which you really can't do anymore," Schulz said.

With the theater just six miles from the French Quarter, he said he also
hopes to draw moviegoers from New Orleans neighborhoods including Faubourg
Marigny, Bywater and the Lower 9th Ward.

Schulz was conducting a tour of the facility, interrupting himself
repeatedly to point out such New Orleans-y touches as the purple, green and
gold carpet, fleur-de-lis carvings on the box office desk and French
Quarter-style faux gaslights inside the auditoriums themselves.

For Schulz and business partner Ellis Fortinberry -- who have been wringing
their hands over the construction delays that pushed back the planned
opening first from July 4 to July 23 and then again to this weekend --
Friday's reopening is a significant moment not just for the rebirth of St.
Bernard Parish but also for their professional lives. The men are movie
buffs, and, in addition to running the prestorm Chalmette Movies 9, they ran
the Plaza 5 for a period of time. Schulz was also a booker for the old Movie
Pitchers cinema pub, in addition to boasting varied other local theater
affiliations.

For the past five years, they've been waiting for the right business
opportunity to return them to the local movie scene. On Tuesday morning --
after an advance screening of "Exit Through the Gift Shop," the first
feature to unspool at the theater -- Schulz said they've been too busy to
relish the moment. 

"I've been excited ever since I decided to go ahead with the project," he
said. "But, with all the setbacks and construction delays, I won't breathe a
sigh of relief until after we actually start showing the movies -- because
then we're open."

The reopening of the theater is every bit as meaningful to property owner
Ray Peacock and business partner Joe Licciardi. A year ago, Big Lots became
the first tenant to move into their redeveloped shopping center. Since then,
a steady stream of businesses -- and shoppers -- have returned. With the
Chalmette Movies, they have an anchor tenant that they hope will lure
shoppers.

More than that, though, was the opportunity to help rebuild their corner of
the world. 
"We wanted to do this for St. Bernard. That's what will bring the people
back," Liccardi said. "I've lived here my whole life. This is my hometown.
This is my heart right here."

The Chalmette theater first opened in 1974 as the two-screen Chalmette Twin,
Schulz said. A third screen was added some time after, and the original two
screens eventually split into four, making a total of five screens. When
local businessman Joe Costello took over the operation, he added four more
auditoriums, making it one of the biggest movie houses in the region at the
time.

The rebuilt theater's opening-week offerings, in addition to "Exit Through
the Gift Shop," include "Shrek Forever After" and "The Last Airbender" --
both in 3-D -- as well as "Dinner for Schmucks," "Please Give," "Toy Story
3," "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" and "Grown-Ups."