The Anthony Family, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Oct 2006 Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ THE ANTONY FAMILY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WEST PINE STREET BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian Antony, a family name not usually encountered in Ponchatoula today, was a well- known and important family in this city in the opening decades of the last century. The best known member of the family was Bernard Antony who owned and operated the Ideal Theaters and a modern bakery on Pine Street. A native of New Orleans, Bernard Auguste Antony was born 30 August 1865 to Barthelemy Antony (1828-1881) and Julie Marie Deloy Antony (ca. 1839-1901). Bernard Antony married Miss Caroline Niemann, 14 May 1888 in New Orleans. Caroline was born 26 Jan. 1867 in New Orleans and was the daughter of German immigrants Charles and Caroline Niemann. Over the next several years Bernard and Caroline had three sons and a daughter. Their children were: Eugene Albert (1889-1937), m. Jessye Lee Duncan; Bartholomew Milton (1891-1960), m. Margaret Wild; Harry Edwin (b. 1893), m. Lillian Davenport; and Caroline Marguerite Antony (1896-1972), m. Francis J. McMurray. Bernard and Caroline were living on South Johnson Street in New Orleans in 1900, and Bernard was working as a commission merchant in the fruit and vegetable business. Although successful in his business, Bernard decided to relocate the family to Ponchatoula. He moved to Ponchatoula 1 Oct. 1906 and took over operation of a small bakery that his brother had begun a short time before. The bakery produced about 250 loves of bread a day for consumption by the local citizens, but Bernard began to increase the bakery's production. His efforts suffered a set-back when the entire bakery was consumed by flames about 1911. Undaunted by this tragedy, Bernard rebuilt the bakery with a larger structure and modern machinery including new ovens, an electric dough mixer, and a mechanical loaf molder. The new operation called "The People's Bakery" soon produced 3,000 loaves of bread daily. Knowing that this output far exceeded the local bread needs, Bernard had made plans to ship his bread to nearby communities by truck and to the New Orleans market by one of the several south-bound trains that stopped daily in Ponchatoula. By 1921, the bakery's output had expanded to 5,000 loaves per day which were delivered to 17 surrounding towns by three large delivery trucks as well as the railroad shipments to the New Orleans market. The actual bakery building with its two massive ovens was located back from Pine Street about 100 feet, so that the front of Mr. Antony's space on Pine Street could be used for other business endeavors. The store where the bread was sold was originally facing Pine Street but after 1922 the retail store was a one story structure facing North Sixth Street. One of the best local advertisements for the bakery was the delicious aroma which spread throughout the town when the large quantities of bread were taken from the ovens. Besides his bakery operations, Mr. Antony, entered the entertainment business in 1911. He purchased the town theater from Mr. Louis Davenport and in December 1912 enlarged the building to accommodate 250 patrons at each show. Operating in a frame building on West Pine Street, that had formerly housed a bar room, the theater remained in this structure from 1910 to 1922. Named "The Ideal Theater," it offered a variety of nationally famous silent pictures accompanied by musical scores played by an in-house pianist. Hollywood stars such as America's Sweetheart Mary Pickford and "Ponchatoula's favorite" Tom Mix delighted audiences who flocked to Antony's "picture show." An August 1914 advertisement for the theater announced that moving pictures showing action from the war in Europe (World War I) would be soon be shown. The theater was also used for a number of other types of entertainments besides motion pictures. Coming in town to see the show at the Ideal Theater on a Saturday afternoon was a special treat for many a country child! Two large cypress lumber mills began operations at the southern edge of Ponchatoula in 1921 bringing hundreds of new families to town. The old theater after further renovations could hold up to 340 persons when filled to capacity but on Saturday afternoons and other busy days, there were many more people who wanted to see the movies. Mr. Antony decided to erect a larger and more modern theater on his property on West Pine Street to seat between 600 and 700 patrons. Mr. Antony contracted with Mr. J. S. Bagnetto of New Orleans to design the new theater, which was based on earlier plans from a theater in Hartford, Connecticut. The stage area of the theater was designed to be 25 by 15 feet in size along with an orchestra pit. A balcony with a capacity of at least 100 patrons was also contemplated. Before the new theater could be constructed the existing buildings on Mr. Antony's Pine Street lots had to be removed. In November 1922, the retail bread store was moved to North Sixth Street and the old wooden Ideal Theater building was jacked up and moved around the corner to Northwest Railroad Avenue facing the train depot. The theater building was moved by Mr. Thompson and placed next to Anthony J. Bodker's Garage. While the new Ideal Theater was being constructed, patrons wishing to see movies could go to the Victory Theater in Ponchatoula which Mr. Antony used during this interim period. Excavation and other site work for the new theater began immediately after the space on Pine Street was vacated. Construction proceeded quickly during the winter months and the theater opened in April 1923. When completed the new Ideal Theater was a massive brick building over two stories high with a large stage area in the rear. An expensive organ was purchased to produce quality sound accompaniment for the silent pictures. A steam operated heating system kept the building comfortable during winter months and several large fans were used to cool the theater during the frequent hot periods. Modern opera chairs, about 625 of them, were installed for the patrons' comfort. The theater opened on April 24, 1923 to a packed crowd. The Merchants and Farmers Bank, located on the corner across the street from the theater, purchased all the seats for the first four performances at the theater and gave the tickets to the bank's customers. The opening feature that first evening was a dance presentation by the pupils of Mrs. H. A. McClellan with her daughter Anne being the first person to perform on the Ideal stage. The feature film was "The Town That Forgot God" which showed what happen in "Edendale" when the citizens strayed from the righteous path. The stage was tastefully decorated and the musical accompaniment for the silent movie was well received by the packed house. The beautiful new theater operated very successfully over the next few years with film presentations, troupes of traveling actors, and with local performances. In conjunction with the erection of the new theater, Mr. Antony erected a modern store building on each side of the theater constructed of the same brick materials. The Ponchatoula Pharmacy, first operated by B. M. Bruce and E. F. Buckley, occupied the store to the right (east) of the theater for many years and a variety of stores such as P. A. McDaniel's ladies clothing store, and later Donaldson's store operated in the business space to the left (west). The old Ideal Theater which had been moved around the corner to Northwest Railroad Avenue in 1922 was used by several businesses over the following years. In a rather odd association, one section of the building was being used in 1940 as a bar room and another portion was used as a beauty parlor. Mrs. Caroline Antony died 1 Nov. 1924 in Ponchatoula, and after a brief illness Bernard died in Oct. 1926 in a New Orleans hospital. Both were buried in the Ponchatoula Cemetery. After the deaths of their parents the Antony children operated their family businesses. The Ideal Theater was renovated in the spring of 1927 with the addition of a second balcony. One balcony was for white patrons and the other for "Colored" patrons. Fire escapes were provided for everyone seated in the balconies. The seats on the main floor of the theater were repositioned for quicker egress at that time. In 1929, the Ideal Theater was modernized with the addition of a speaker system to allow for the presentation of "Talking Pictures." The first talking movie at the Ideal was the "Fox Follies of 1929," which featured an "All talking-singing- dancing review." Thereafter the theater advertised with the slogan "Our Screen Speaks for Itself." The theater struggled financially during the Depression and in 1934 the Antony heirs sold the theater, the bakery, and their associated properties to Paul Drake. Mr. Drake continued to successfully operate the theater, the bakery, and the adjoining business places for a number of years. In the spring of 1940 he opened the Pic Theater facing North Sixth Street to provide another entertainment venue. The Ideal Theater, Ponchatoula's entertainment headquarters for two generations was destroyed by a massive fire in 1960, which also damaged the two adjacent buildings Mr. Antony had constructed in 1922-1923. Only the heroic efforts of the Ponchatoula Fire Department prevented the destruction of the entire row of classic brick buildings. The charred remains of the Ideal Theater were soon cleared and a store building was erected on the site that today houses the Wholesale Antiques business. The two side buildings suffered water and smoke damage but were soon repaired and back in business. The Ideal Theater and the bakery are no more, but the legacy of services provided by the Antony's, especially their "movie picture show," lives on in the minds of many Ponchatoula citizens whose memories of those happy days shine on through the decades. Anyone with questions, comments or suggestions for future articles, may contact Jim Perrin at 386-4476.