Thursday night was certainly not the first time most — if any — people in the Teche Area had seen the film “It’s A Wonderful Life.” It was, however, the first time most — if not all — had seen the film on the big screen. 

Thursday marked the third screening in the Teche Classic Movies film series, shown from the stage of the Essanee Theater in downtown New Iberia.  

“We watch (It’s A Wonderful Life) just about every year,” said Cathy Schramm, who was there with her husband and several of their friends. 

“But I’ve never seen it on the big screen. That’s why we had to get here early — we knew it’d fill up.”

Her husband, Lionel Schramm, said it was his favorite movie. 

“We’ve been married for 47 years. I’ve watched it every year for at least that long,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to see it here. This is the biggest screen I’ll get to see it on.” 

Jay Florsheim has seen it before, for sure, as his two daughters played lead roles in a stage version of the Christmas film in St. Martinville. 

“So for that, it’s pretty special to us,” Florsheim said. “It’s the type of movie that, every time you walk past the TV and it’s on, you end up stuck there for about an hour.” 

Florsheim, a local drink distributor, donated wine and other spirits to the bar and concession stand in the lobby of the theater, which opened its doors around 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Before the film began, the historic theater’s compact lobby had filled with the area’s patrician class and the hoi polloi alike. 

“You know what’s so interesting? Look at the array of people here,” said Jenny Gonsoulin, an IPAL board member who was serving drinks and concessions at the event.

 “You have older people and younger kids, you have the prominent families in New Iberia and blue-collar workers,” Gonsoulin said. “It’s so neat.” 

Oneil Bonin, of Bonin Tire & Service, reminisced about running the projectors and cleaning the place when he worked at the Essanee as a junior high and high school student, when the attic harbored a bat population, he said. 

“My wife loves this movie,” Bonin said. “We saw the poster for it when we were at IPAL’s USO show and we asked about it. We bought the tickets right then.” 

The tickets were $10 dollars and all funds raised went to IPAL, which is raising money to improve the theater’s marquee. 

The film series started just this year, in August, though several IPAL members had harbored dreams of it for decades. 

“We’ve been wanting to do this for about 25 years,” said Phyllis Belanger Mata, an IPAL board member and one of the principal organizers of the classic film series. (Mata is also a columnist for The Daily Iberian.) “When we decided to do it, we actually threw it all together in about three weeks — the logo, the movie rights, everything,” she said. 

“Except for the screen,” said Jason Bayard, another of the other main organizers. 

Bayard spent three months making the impressively professional-looking screen IPAL has used to  show the films. It’s made of muzlin, PVC, sweat and blood, he said.

“Literally — I cut my finger. There is blood on the screen,” Bayard said.

 “This building was designed, even by today’s standards, to show films” he said. “Everything about it — the architecture, the acoustics — it’s perfect for film screenings.” 

“It’s attracted people right away,” Mata said of the classic film series. “It’s the nostalgia of the Essanee, the way it used to be,” she said. 

The films are played through a sort of DIY, rear-projection system Bayard set up at the rear of the theater’s stage. Laptops are plugged into a 1080p projector, which projects the films onto the screen from behind. When Bayard switches between clips of commercial sponsors, introductory shorts and the feature films he just places a wood board over the projector, which blacks out the screen. 

Around 7 p.m., that happened. The entire theater went black and the lobby cleared out. The house was packed.  Within minutes, New Iberians were transported to Bedford Falls and “It’s A Wonderful Life.”