Saenger Theatre

This guide to the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans asks you to look straight up at the domed ceiling and decide whether you're seeing open sky or one of the finest engineering tricks of 1920s America. It follows architect Emile Weil's construction of that illusion, from roughly one hundred fifty hidden lights arranged as real constellations to a projector throwing painted clouds across the false sky, and traces the style back to architect John Eberson, who invented the atmospheric theater a few years earlier. You'll also hear about the two-thousand-pipe organ built beneath that sky purely to trick the ear, mimicking train whistles and birdsong. Tilt your head back before the house lights dim.