Men should think twice before making widowhood woman’s only path to power.” 

—Gloria Steinem 

The Lucas Theatre: Presenting the Movies in Savannah 

In the 1920s, Savannahian entrepreneur Arthur Melville Lucas, Jr. built more than 40 theaters in cities throughout the American South. He was the President of the American Theatres Corporation. 

The Lucas Theatre in downtown Savannah is the only one to bear his family name. The construction of this namesake theater began in August 1920. It is located just off Reynold’s Square. The day after Christmas in 1921, The Lucas Theatre opened its doors and premiered the showing of two silent films: the first, a short comedy starring Buster Keaton; the other, a dramatic film about star-crossed lovers, starring the male sex symbol of the day, Rudolph Valentino. 

The opulent building was first-rate in quality and cost an incredible one-half million dollars to complete. The theatre added what was then called ‘refrigerated air’ in 1927, an extraordinarily rare extravagance in its day and the very first public building in the city of Savannah to do so. 

In May 1976, its owner, ABC Southeastern Theatres, wanted to demolish the theatre. The Historic Savannah Foundation thankfully stopped its destruction. Restoration efforts began in earnest in 1986, but it took longer than expected to raise the financial support to save The Lucas Theatre.  

A final push with movie-star Kevin Spacey's assistance — Spacy played Jim Williams, the lead character in Clint Eastwood’s 1997 film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil based on John Berendt’s famous book — would finally complete the restoration work in late-2000. 

In December 2000, the Lucas Theatre premier re-opening presented two timeless classic films made during the 1930s Depression Era: Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. The theatre is now an essential host to the annual Savannah Music Festival, the Savannah Philharmonic, and, quite naturally, the fabulous annual Savannah Film Festival. 

Hollywood and the American film industry have taken appropriate advantage of the consequential preservation of so much of the historic landscape of Savannah. In addition to Eastwood’s Midnight, my favorite movies partially filmed in or near Savannah include: 

Glory (1989), starring Mathew Broderick and Denzel Washington; 

Forest Gump (1994), starring Tom Hanks; 

Something to Talk About (1995), starring Julia Roberts; 

John Grisham’s The Gingerbread Man (1998), starring Kenneth Branagh; 

The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), starring Matt Damon and Will Smith; 

Savannah (2013), starring Jim Caviezel; 

Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation (2016), based on the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner; 

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019), starring Shia LaBeouf, and; 

The Glorias (2020), based on Gloria Steinem’s autobiography. 

Some of these films involve genuine historical intrigue, while others are based upon popular books.