Detailed Information

Built by Saxe Amusement Enterprises, the theatre’s gala opening featured the silent film Naughty But Nice (1927)  starring Colleen Moore and Donald Reed, along with other entertainments including newsreels, cartoons, the short film The Flying Feet (1927)  and a stage production with orchestral accompaniment called “Mystic Araby”.

Milwaukee-based architect firm Dick & Bauer, comprised of architects Gustave A. Dick and Alex Bauer, designed the theatre with an East Indian theme that drew inspiration from Indian, Moorish, Islamic, and Byzantine styles. At the time of the theatre’s opening it was noted in the press that the auditorium featured “Buddhist idols, dragons, elephants and colored lights all blend[ing] into a mystic symphony of the Orient”.

The huge lobby features three massive chandeliers. Murals on the walls include scenes featuring the Taj Mahal, and the staircase to the balcony is adorned with eight porcelain lions.

Contrary to some modern statements, the Oriental Theatre was not the only movie palace to have been designed with an East Indian theme, another example being the El Capitan Theatre (opened a year prior to the Oriental Theatre, in 1926) where architect G. Albert Lansburgh stated that what made the East Indian style suitable for Hollywood was because “the residents demand the extraordinary”. The Visalia Fox Theatre in Visalia, California, also got an Indian theme with Howard Sheehan, vice president of Fox West Coast Theatres, wanting visitors to experience the feeling of entering the garden courtyard of an Indian ruler “stepping from the streets of Visalia to the mystic shrines of the gods”.

The theatre was originally equipped with a Barton 3-manual, 14-rank organ. In 1959 that was replaced by a Kimball 3-manual, 28-rank organ which was originally installed in the Warner Grand Theatre, Milwaukee (now the Bradley Symphony Center). In 2018 the organ was removed from the theatre. In 2020 a Wurlitzer 3-manual, 15-rank organ (opus 1097) was installed.

In the late 1980s the auditorium was triplexed, with two new small auditoria added underneath the balcony, separated by a corridor leading into the main floor level of the original auditorium. Nearly all of the original 1920s decoration was preserved in the triplexing.

In 2018 the Oriental was taken over by Milwaukee Film  who undertook a renovation of the building. The main auditorium now seats 1,020 on two levels, the two smaller auditoria 228 apiece.

Starting in 1978, midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)  began at the Oriental Theatre with a live shadowcast. As of 2026 the Oriental Theatre holds the world’s record for the longest continuous run of the film with a shadowcast.

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