The Saenger Theatre is a historic theater and contributing building to the Lower Dauphin Street Historic District in Mobile, Alabama. It was dedicated in January 1927. The Saenger Theatre is a Mobile landmark, known for its architecture and ties to local cultural history. The theater has been completely renovated in recent years with an upgraded electrical system, VIP facilities, new stage rigging and sound system. It is the official home of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra and also serves as the venue for movie festivals, concerts, lectures and special events. History When The Saenger opened on January 19, 1927, it was the sixty-first Saenger theatre of a chain founded by the Saenger brothers, Julian and Abe of Shreveport. The Saengers were pharmacists when they purchased their first theater in Shreveport in 1911. They eventually owned 320 theaters located throughout the South, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico. The Saenger Theatre in Mobile took a year to construct at a cost of about 500,000 dollars. Designed by renowned architect, Emile Weil, the Saenger featured the following: three-color auditorium lighting, a two-manual, ten-rank Robert Morton theater organ, full stage facilities to accommodate large road shows including stage and wardrobe traps, four floors of dressing rooms, musicians' and chorus rooms and 2,615 seats. Around 1950, the seats on the floor were replaced and respaced, reducing the seating capacity to about 2,200. Seating capacity today is 1,921. The Saenger Theatre's decoration was described as, "the motif of a French palace of the Renaissance." It was inspired by classical Greek mythology and Mobile's coastal location. Poseidon is cast above the front entrance and the interior plaster ornamentation includes: Dionysus above the proscenium, Maenads encircling the chandelier in the lounge, Pan beneath the organ grilles and various stylized seahorses, shells and fish throughout the theater. The color scheme of the interior was primarily sea-green with maroon and gold trim. The ceilings featured a variety of trompe-l'œil decoration. The building was designed in a continental style, intended to resemble European opera houses. The theater's opera boxes that were located beneath the organ grilles were later removed to improve sight-lines when the larger Cinemascope movie screen was installed. Other outstanding architectural features of the original building included: the tilted arcade, grand marble staircase, ornate lamps, chandeliers, statuary and door frames, a mezzanine and promenade. There were lavish furnishings in the men's "Stage Room" and the ladies'