East side story: History of the Oriental Theatre

1927: The Oriental opens its doors on July 2. The $1.5 million, 2,310-seat theater is one of five neighborhood movie palaces built in the late 1920s by Milwaukee movie theater operators John and Thomas Saxe.

1927: The Saxe brothers sell their Wisconsin theater business, including the Oriental, in December. The theater business is soon sold again, to the Fox theater chain.

1933: The Saxe brothers reacquire the Oriental and other Milwaukee theaters.

1948: Triangle Publications, controlled by media magnate and Milwaukee native Moe Annenberg, sells the Oriental building and several other Milwaukee properties to a New York investment group.

1955: The Oriental and a sister theater, the Tower on N. 27th St., are sold to Milwaukee theater operator L.F. Gran. The theaters later wind up in foreclosure.

1972: The Oriental, building and business, is acquired by the Pritchett brothers. The theater is declared a city landmark, clearing the way for extensive renovations.

1974: The Pritchetts launch an ambitious plan to turn the Oriental into a live theater venue, but the experiment lasts less than two months.

1976: Parallax Theaters (later known as Landmark) takes over operation of the Oriental, converting the theater to a “calendar”-style programming mix of foreign and classic movies, along with occasional concerts by major music acts from Patti Smith and the Tubes to Talking Heads and Pat Metheny.

1978: The Oriental hosts a midnight Saturday showing of “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, starting the world’s longest string of consecutive showings of the campy audience-participation musical — which, by some measures, is still going.

1981: Landmark announces it will change movies daily, after five years of showing movies in two- and three-day runs.

1988: Landmark splits the Oriental into three screens, with two smaller theaters carved out of the back half of the theater’s lower level.

2002: The building housing the Oriental is bought from the Pritchett family by New Land Enterprises.

2009: In a nod to changing movie-going times, the Oriental adds a bar to its concession stand, serving beer, wine and cocktails.