Oriental Theatre To Be Featured On Turner Classic Movies
Historic Milwaukee movie palace will appear on TCM’s Still Now Showing series this week.
People watch a movie at the Oriental Theatre on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
After nearly a century of showing movies, Milwaukee’s Oriental Theatre is getting its chance to be the star of the show.
The much-loved movie palace will be featured on the Turner Classic Movies program showcasing historic theatres — “Still Now Showing.”
A TCM crew will be in the city on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Susan Kerns, executive director of Milwaukee Film, which operates the theatre. Kerns said she’s “over the moon” about the opportunity.
“I am a TCM super fan, so I might be reaching the pinnacle of my life,” Kerns said.
“Still Now Showing” plays on TCM and on the TCM YouTube page, according to a statement from Milwaukee Film. The series has highlighted the Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine, as well the United Palace in New York.
“They’re like love letters to these historic cinemas and neighborhood cinemas, and the communities that people are building around these different neighborhood cinemas throughout the country,” Kerns said.
TCM representatives weren’t available for an interview Monday.
Milwaukee Film runs events like the Milwaukee Film Festival and the Dialogues Documentary Festival at the theatre. The film crew will be in the city on the first day of the documentary festival later this week.
Kerns is hopeful movie fans from across the nation will be encouraged to travel to the city to check out the cinema once the program airs.
“I think everybody’s so excited about it,” Kerns said. “Classic film lovers cannot say enough nice things about TCM. It feels like the highest of honors in many ways.”
“My hope is that it just puts the Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee a little bit more in the minds of people who love movies,” she added.
Oriental Theatre is on National Register of Historic Places
The Oriental Theatre opened in 1927. The silent film “Naughty but Nice” was shown on opening night, according to Milwaukee Film.
Julia Griffith, the program director at Historic Milwaukee, said the architecture includes Byzantine features as well as features of North African, Middle Eastern and Indian architectural elements.
“It sort of has this kind of mashup, which isn’t actually how buildings in all those places look, but it’s sort of what, in the 1920s, people imagined was fanciful and mystical and would kind of draw you to the movies, which was the ultimate goal,” Griffith said.
Kerns said “movie palaces,” like Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, were opening up across the country at the time the Oriental Theatre opened.
The ornate architectural features of the theaters were an important part of the show at the time.
“It was all advertising to get you to go to the movies and then to have kind of this magical experience of moving pictures when you got there,” she said.
People gather at the Oriental Theatre to watch a premiere of “Song Sung Blue” on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
The Oriental features ornate chandeliers, painted murals of the Taj Mahal, porcelain lions along the staircase, mythological creatures in the plasterwork and elephants atop columns. Enormous statutes of the Buddha glow against the walls of the main theater.
“Every time you go in there, you can see something new, because there’s just so much detail and so much to look at,” Kerns said.
The Oriental Theatre is seen here on Sept. 21, 2026. Evan Casey/WPR
The Pritchetts brothers bought the cinema in 1972. They added two screens to the building, one on each side of the main auditorium.
“During the 1970s, they revitalized the building, replaced the roof, and added new entertainment offerings, such as concerts and live performances,” the Milwaukee Film website says.
Kerns said musical acts like Bob Dylan and Devo performed at the theatre, while it was also the site of an early show for Milwaukee’s own Violent Femmes.
Milwaukee Film acquired the cinema in 2018. The nonprofit undertook a renovation and restoration project which included new seating, updated concessions and rennovations to the projection booth.
“It was really modernizing the experience in a way that stays very true to the original experience as well,” Kerns said, adding that they didn’t add recliner seats.
The main auditorium, which has a balcony level, can seat around 1,000 people, while the two smaller screens seat around 230 people. The theatre also houses a 1925 Wurlitzer pipe organ, which is used before some screenings.
The Oriental Theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.
Griffith said it’s encouraging that the theatre is still alive and well, nearly 100 years later.
“It’s a lovely thing that it was built as a movie theater, and it’s still functioning as a movie theatre,” Griffith said.
A concession stand is open as the Oriental Theatre opens for shows Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
This Milwaukee movie theatre will be showcased on Turner Classic Movies was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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