Louisiana Movie Poster Museum
Welcome to the the Louisiana Movie Poster Virtual Museum. Since 1895 more than 3,000 movies have been made in or about Louisiana. These posters advertised a few of them. We have hundreds to add, so check back with us as we grow.
Ed and Susan Poole, renowned movie poster experts and authorities on Louisiana film history, curated this initial exhibit. It is based on the Backdrop Louisiana! exhibit that premiered in Slidell, Louisiana in January, 2020 and we’re looking forward to a post-pandemic tour. A smidgen of their knowledge can be found at Learn About Movie Posters, known worldwide as LAMP. Visit Hollywood on the Bayou for a deeper dive into Louisiana film history.
This museum is funded in part by grants from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and the New Orleans Entertainment Coalition.
Take a Tour – We love your stories!
Click on a poster to view larger image. Then click “i”. Post your story in Comments. We love to hear about films you remember and your experiences. It’s a highlight of our live exhibits that we hope to recreate in the virtual museum.
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Louisiana
Only in Louisiana will you find a singing governor who is also a popular movie star. In 1947, Monogram Pictures released the film Louisiana, based on the life of singer/musician/politician Jimmie Davis, who served as Louisiana’s governor for two terms: 1944-1948 and 1960-64. The following written statement appeared at the end of the film:
"In presenting the life of Governor Davis, great care has been taken to preserve authenticity with respect to characters and events dealing with his early life. Insofar as possible, many scenes were photographed in their natural settings and all of the exterior scenes were photographed in the State of Louisiana. Except for members of the family of Governor Davis, Charlie Mitchell, John McCormack, Judge David B. Samuels, Dr. M. E. Dodd, all persons portrayed in Louisiana and all references to political parties and events concerning them are fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or political parties and events is unintentional and co-incidental."
As depicted in the film, Jimmie Davis was born in rural Louisiana in 1900, the son of a poor sharecropper and one of eleven children. He was educated at Louisiana College and Louisiana State University and became a professor at Dodd College, performing as a country singer on the side.
In the mid-1930s, he signed a recording deal with Decca Records and became a popular radio entertainer in Shreveport, LA. In the early 1940s, Davis appeared in several western movies, including Universal's 1942 film Strictly in the Groove and Columbia's 1943 picture Frontier Fury, in which he performed with his band, the Singing Buckaroos.
After serving as Shreveport's police commissioner and Louisiana's controller, Davis served as governor from 1944-1948. He returned to entertaining in the late 1940s, and became a leading gospel singer in the 1950s. In 1960, he was re-elected to a second four-year term as governor of Louisiana.
At the time, Davis was the only seated governor ever to star in a motion picture.
Poster: U. S. One Sheet