The Garde Turns Back the Clock 100 Years to Recreate Its 1926 Opening Night

The Garde Turns Back the Clock 100 Years to Recreate Its 1926 Opening Night Oct. 3, when New London’s surviving movie palace celebrates its centennial by attempting something considerably more ambitious than a birthday party: recreating the kind of night audiences experienced when the theater first opened its doors a century ago.

For five hours, the Garde Arts Center will become a version of itself from 1926.

Classic automobiles will line the street, with cocktails and strolling entertainers in the lobby, tarot readers and a wandering magician, an organ processional, vaudeville, a jazz orchestra, dancing, a vintage-style newsreel, and a silent movie with live organ accompaniment.

Then, after the theater presentation ends, everyone is invited onto the stage for a speakeasy with live jazz and dancing until 11 p.m.

The evening is called A Night to Remember, and it’s the centerpiece of the Garde’s Centennial Season.

This isn’t simply a Roaring Twenties-themed party being held inside an old theater.

It’s a party about this particular theater and the night New London first discovered it.

Imagine State Street in 1926

The Garde opened on Sept. 22, 1926, during the great American movie-palace boom.

Movies were silent. Television didn’t exist. Going to the movies could mean far more than sitting down, watching a feature and going home.

The grand urban movie palaces were designed to make the entire evening feel like an event.

The Garde was built as a “photoplay house” under the direction of Arthur S. Friend, a New York movie-industry attorney associated with the company that became Paramount Pictures. New London architect Arland W. Johnson designed the theater, which was named for businessman Walter Garde.

Inside, audiences entered an elaborate world of Moroccan and Middle Eastern-inspired decoration, murals and architectural ornamentation.

The opening attraction was The Marriage Clause, a silent romantic drama starring two major screen names of the era, Francis X. Bushman and Billie Dove.

But a night at the Garde wasn’t necessarily just a movie.

Like other theaters of its era, the Garde combined motion pictures with live entertainment. Vaudeville performers could share the program with feature films, comedy shorts and newsreels, giving audiences a variety show and a movie in the same visit.

One hundred years later, that’s the experience the Garde is trying to bring back.

The Night Begins Before Anyone Takes a Seat

The centennial celebration starts at 6 p.m. with a cocktail reception, and the theater itself becomes part of the performance.

Guests will encounter classic automobiles, strolling performers and a wandering magician, along with photo opportunities and a mystical lounge with tarot card readers and live piano music.

It’s meant to create the sense that something is happening everywhere rather than asking guests to arrive, find their seats and wait for a curtain.

Period dress isn’t required, but 1920s-inspired clothing is encouraged for anyone who wants to become part of the scenery.

Then, at 7:30 p.m., everyone heads into the theater.

Vaudeville, Silent Film and a Mighty Organ

The feature presentation is constructed as a recreation of a 1926 theater program rather than a conventional stage show.

An organ processional and audience sing-along open the proceedings. Historical figures Arthur S. Friend and Walter Garde make appearances as characters in the evening, reconnecting the celebration to the men behind the original theater.

A symphonic jazz orchestra supplies the sound of the period, while an Arthur Murray dance showcase and vaudeville performances bring back forms of live entertainment that would have been familiar to audiences entering a movie palace in the 1920s.

There’s even a vintage-style newsreel.

And then the clock rolls all the way back to the era before movies talked.

A silent film will be presented with live organ accompaniment and Foley sound effects — the sounds created to accompany actions on screen.

That’s particularly fitting inside the Garde.

The theater’s history spans the enormous technological transition that transformed movies at the end of the 1920s. Just three years after the Garde opened, Warner Bros. purchased the theater as part of its expansion during the arrival of talking pictures.

The reported purchase price in 1929 was $1 million.

The building celebrating silent film in 2026 survived the revolution that made silent film obsolete.

Then Everybody Gets Invited Onto the Stage

At 9 p.m., the formal presentation ends.

The party doesn’t.

The Garde will turn its stage into a speakeasy, with guests invited up for a live jazz quartet, dancing and additional surprises until 11 p.m.

That final portion changes the relationship between audience and theater in a wonderful way.

For most of the past century, generations of New Londoners have looked at the Garde’s stage.

On this night, they’ll get to party on it.

The building they’re celebrating almost didn’t make it to its 100th birthday.

After decades as one of southeastern Connecticut’s major movie theaters, the Garde closed in 1977 amid the enormous changes reshaping downtown movie houses across America. The nonprofit Garde Arts Center was established in 1985, beginning the long process of saving and restoring the theater rather than losing another movie palace to demolition or redevelopment.

Today, the Garde once again hosts concerts, movies, comedy, theater and community events beneath the elaborate interior created for audiences a century ago.

That makes A Night to Remember more than an exercise in nostalgia.

On Oct. 3, people won’t be celebrating a vanished theater by looking at old photographs of it.

They’ll be standing inside it.

And for one night, the Garde gets to be 1926 again.

More information is available at the Event Website link below. To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.

Details

Event: A Night to Remember: 1926 Opening Night Reenactment
Date: Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026
Time: 6–11 p.m.
Location: Garde Arts Center
Address: 325 State Street, New London, CT 06320
Admission: $26 and $126, plus fees
6–7 p.m.: Cocktail reception with signature cocktails, classic automobiles, strolling performers, wandering magician, photo opportunities, tarot readers and live piano
7:30 p.m.: Opening Night Reenactment and feature presentation
Feature Presentation: Organ processional and sing-along, Arthur S. Friend and Walter Garde appearances, symphonic jazz orchestra, Arthur Murray dance showcase, vaudeville, vintage-style newsreel and silent film with live organ accompaniment and Foley effects
9–11 p.m.: Speakeasy on the Garde stage with live jazz quartet and dancing
Attire: 1920s-inspired clothing encouraged but optional
VIP: Includes additional benefits such as a drink ticket and live caricature portrait
Phone: 860-444-7373
Email: info@gardearts.org

 

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.