Diamond Theater, New Orleans, La. -- August 25, 2017

Motion Picture World, 25-August-1917

The Diamond went bankrupt in 1919.  

Diamond Theater, New Orleans, La. 

Old Vaudeville Structure Converted Into High Class Picture House -- Manager Chisholm Sees All Subjects Forming Program Before Presenting Them to Public. 

THE Diamond theater has been making history in New Orleans since its opening in the latter part of April as a motion picture house. During the winter the house was known as the Lyric. It was a vaudeville house.  Manager R. M. Chisholm looked at his neighbors who were running motion picture theaters, put his two lingers to his forehead in the attitude of deep thought and asked himself the question, "Why not convert the Lyric into a picture house?" A number of expert painters and decorators were put on the job, and in a remarkably short time the old Lyric was a thing of the past. So successful were the workmen that not a trace of its former personality was distinguishable in the new and beautified building. Structurally, the Diamond is ideal for a motion picture theater. It has the space, the fittings, the seating capacity and the convenient location. It is an attractive house from the street and more attractive in the interior. It is fitted with every appliance for the showing of pictures to the best advantage, and the management allows not the slightest defect to mar the presentation of the screen subjects.

But the most notable thing about the Diamond is the policy which was adopted at the start that no picture whatever should be shown to the patrons unless it had been screened for the management and secured his approval. This policy has been made the keynote of all oi the advertising matter of the theater and the people like it. Good pictures is the slogan of the house, and it matters not whether they are program releases or states rights subjects. Manager Chisholm is a showman. His long experience with dramatic companies and productions, his years of experience in theater management before the picture had gained the ascendancy. makes him a student of the psychology of the game.  He studies human nature.

The Diamond has a  seating capacity of 2,100; it is fitted with every appliance for the comfort and convenience of its patrons,. and it has already enlisted the support of a class of educational and professional people who have never heretofore been made to feel that the personal equation is as effective in the motion picture business as in any other one.