The Oriental Theatre is located in the East Side

East Side, Milwaukee

East Side is a neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, considered to be a cultural and trend-setting center of the city since at least the 1960s. Encompassing an area just north of downtown Milwaukee to Shorewood, bordered by the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan, the area encompasses residences,...

 neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

. It was built and opened in 1927 as a movie palace

Movie palace

A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...

. The themes of the decor are East Indian

East Indies

East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...

, with no traces of Chinese

Culture of China

Chinese culture is one of the world's oldest and most complex. The area in which the culture is dominant covers a large geographical region in eastern Asia with customs and traditions varying greatly between towns, cities and provinces...

 or Japanese

Japanese art

Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...

 artwork; it is said to be the only movie palace to incorporate East Indian artwork. It was designed by Gustave A. Dick and Alex Bauer and features 2 minaret

Minaret

A minaret مناره , sometimes مئذنه) is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques, generally a tall spire with an onion-shaped or conical crown, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery....

 towers, 3 stained glass chandelier

Chandelier

A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...

s, several hand drawn murals, 6 bigger-than-life Buddhas

Buddharupa

Buddharūpa is the Sanskrit and Pali term used in Buddhism for statues or models of the Buddha.-Commonalities:...

, dozens of original draperies, 8 porcelain lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

s, and hundreds of elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

s.

The theater is owned by Landmark Theatres

Landmark Theatres

Landmark Theatres is the largest art house movie theater chain in the United States. It is owned by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner through their 2929 Entertainment. The chain shows mostly first run independent, foreign film, and restored classics though some Landmark theaters also show more mainstream...

 and is officially known as the Oriental Landmark Theatre. It has been showing independent

Independent film

An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...

 and art film

Art film

An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...

s, as well as a few blockbuster

Blockbuster (entertainment)

Blockbuster, as applied to film or theatre, denotes a very popular or successful production. The entertainment industry use was originally theatrical slang referring to a particularly successful play but is now used primarily by the film industry...

 Hollywood films.

The theater is the world record

World record

A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...

 holder for continual showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...

. It has played as a Saturday midnight movie since January 1978.

In 2005, the theater was dubbed one of the "10 Theaters Doing It Right" by Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

.

External links

• Oriental Theatre at LandmarkTheatres.com
• Oriental Theatre at CinemaTreasures.org
• 10 Theaters Doing It Right at EntertainmentWeekly.com