Earlier this week, I got curious about what was the first “Moving Pictures” show in Monroe. I didn’t really get an answer, but I did find one that may be the first mention of one in Monroe:
The Shreveport Journal, November 22, 1905, Page 2
“The esteemed Monroe News advertises for the opera house at that place that “Archie L. Shepard presents his inimical exhibition of high-class moving pictures.” On the strength of this, the chief of police should have suppressed the show.”
The opera house was probably Sugar Brothers. Archie L. Shepard traveled the South and the East Coast showing movies at any entertainment hall that would let him. He would collect movies just as soon as they came out and immediately put them in his traveling road shows. Was this the first? Who knows. Still, I would have loved to have been there to hear the reactions!
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 