Alvena Smith Lupo dies at 88
Times Picayune October 05, 2009


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Alvena Smith Lupo, the manager of a New Orleans movie house whose concern about fair play helped
set the stage for a landmark U.S. Supreme Court antitrust decision forcing film studios to divest
themselves of their theaters, died Friday at her New Orleans home. She was 88.

lupo-obit.jpgAlvena Smith Lupo

Mrs. Lupo, a lifelong New Orleanian, was also a philanthropist and real estate developer, and she
served on the New Orleans Public Library Board under three mayoral administrations.

While attending Tulane University, she managed the Lakeview Theater, an independent movie house,
where movies played after engagements at big first-run theaters downtown. During World War II,
the Lakeview sold more War Bonds than many of the larger movie houses, said her daughter, Norris
Lupo Williams.

During that period, major movie studios were able to guarantee bookings for their films because
they owned theater chains across the country. In New Orleans, for instance, Loew's State Theater
(now the State Palace) was affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the RKO Orpheum was part of the
RKO Pictures Corp. network, and the Joy Theater was linked to Universal Pictures.

Because Mrs. Lupo felt this arrangement put her and fellow independent theater operators at a
disadvantage, she boarded a train to Washington, D.C., and met with Attorney General Tom Clark,
Williams said.

By that time, the federal government had been trying for nearly a decade to force the studios to
shed their ties to theaters, but World War II had put that initiative on hold.

In the wake of complaints from independent exhibitors such as Mrs. Lupo, as well as the Society
of Independent Motion Picture Producers, the federal government reinstated its suit against the
major movie studios shortly after the war ended, and the Supreme Court ruled in 1948 that the
studios had to end the ties to their theaters. Industry experts said that ruling helped spell the
end of the studio system.

Mrs. Lupo came from a civic-minded family that had a real estate business, in which she worked
for seven decades. Her parents, Robert and Hedwig Smith, gave property for the library at
Harrison Avenue and Canal Boulevard to the city in 1958, and it was named for her father. It
sustained heavy damages in flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina and is being demolished.

As part of Mrs. Lupo's continuing interest in rebuilding the Lakeview area, she let family land
at Harrison Avenue and Argonne Boulevard be used as the site for a temporary library that the
William and Melinda Gates Foundation donated.

Her other local interests included the National World War II Museum, City Park, St. Dominc
Catholic Church, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Jesuit High School and the Academy of the Sacred
Heart.

A member of Phi Mu social sorority when she was at Tulane, Mrs. Lupo had been president of the
sorority's local Mother's Club, and she was an honorary life member of the Key West (Fla.) Yacht
Club.

Her husband, Thomas Lupo, died in 2004.

In addition to her daughter, survivors include a son, Robert Smith Lupo, and three grandchildren.

A Mass was said Monday at the Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home chapel. Burial was in Lake Lawn
Park Cemetery.