The Grand Opera House opened on the corner of Main and Beale Streets in 1890 and was touted as the finest opera house outside New York at the time.
Originally used for opera, the Grand Opera House soon was featuring vaudeville acts, and in 1907 became part of the Orpheum circuit. It was renamed the Orpheum Theater that same year.
In 1923, a fire broke out during a vaudeville show and the old Orpheum Theater was burned to the ground. Five years later, on the foundation of the old theater, a new Orpheum Theater was built at a then-staggering cost of $1.5 million. Twice as large as the old theater, and much more ornate and luxurious, decorated in the style of Francois I, the Memphis Orpheum was beyond anything the builders of the old opera house could have ever dreamed.
The Orpheum Theatre opened on November 19, 1928. The auditorium, which seated 2,400, is decorated in shades of gold, red and cream, and includes a huge stage, orchestra pit, balcony and domed ceiling. The Orpheum also owns a Mighty Wurlizter organ. The grand lobby with its twin staircases, enormous crystal chandeliers and gilded plasterwork. The Orpheum Theater also contained a nightclub called the Broadway Club, as well as smaller lobby spaces to the sides of the grand lobby.
By 1940, after the heyday of vaudeville, the Orpheum Theater was purchased by the Malco chain and switched to a movies-only format. The Orpheum Theater continued to run first-run films until it closed in 1977.
In 1982, the Memphis Development Foundation acquired the Orpheum Theater and undertook a $5 million renovation project which brought the palace back to its 1928 glory after decades of decline. In January 1984, a grand reopening ceremony was held.
Today, the Orpheum Theater is Memphis' premier venue for touring Broadway shows. The Orpheum Theater has hosted more touring Broadway productions than any other theater in the US. In addition to its stage shows, the Orpheum hosts concerts and everyone from the Vienna Boys Choir to Patti LaBelle to Harry Connick, Jr. have graced the stage. It is also the home to two of the city's finest local arts organizations, the Memphis Ballet and the Memphis Opera.
Contributed by Bryan Krefft
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The Memphis Public Library has 2 copies of the opening night program.
The Memphis Orpheum has three balcony structures: a mezzanine, a large main balcony divided by a cross-aisle into "Grand Tier" and "Balcony" and the asymetrical uppermost section refered to as the "gallery." This is also divided by a cross aisle into "Upper Gallery and "Lower Gallery" sections.
The Gallery was the product of that regretable time of Jim Crow laws: black and white people segregated by law. A seperate box office on Beale Street opened into a long long stairway to the very top of the theatre where black patrons were allowed to sit. The Gallery was served restrooms and smoking lounges that were spacious, but not appointed as richly as the white folks lounges below.
While MALCO owned the theatre, the number of black patrons grew to such numbers that the Gallery was determined not to be large enough. The previously mentioned "long long stairway" was reconfigured so that a doorway could be opened to the main balcony. A wall was built right down the middle of the balcony so that black folks could sit on the north side (house right) and white folks on the south side. This lasted until the Jim Crow laws were repealed.
The organ the Memphis Orpheum is the original 3 manual, 13 rank Wurlitzer installed in chambers left and right. The building was designed with 4 organ chambers and a relay room in anticipation of a 4 manual, 20 rank instrument. Oral tradition is that the order was reduced after it became obvious that "talkies" were not going away. As installed, the solo chamber is upper house left and the main chamber is upper house right. The organ relay was installed in the chamber lower house left. The chamber lower house right is accessible only through a trap door in the floor of the main chamber and has never had anything in it. The relay room is at orchestra level and has served for many years as the lamp storage room.
In the mid 1950's a stage fire burned the ornate main valance over the proscenium. The burning valance fell onto the dark wood organ console in the pit badly scorching it. The console was repaired and painted white. This fire also smoked the auditorium rather badly. The simplest method to disguise the soot and dirt was to lower the light levels to "very low." Patrons to THE MALCO during those days remember it as being vast and dark. The valance and the interior paint were not replaced until the building's first renovation in 1982-83.
It is noteworthy that the Memphis Orpheum never had a large chandelier in the dome. Rumors that one was removed are false: the original drawings survive and show nothing of the sort. The auditorium does have 2 very large chandeliers in front of the organ boxes and 2 smaller, though still heroic, over the balcony.
The Memphis Orpheum has a medium size lobby with two handsome chandeliers and 6 large sconces. Twin stairs rise to the mezzanine and descend to the lower lounges and restrooms. During the 1982-83 renovation the storefronts south of the lobby were opened into the main lobby for extra restroom and concession space. This addition picks up some design cues from the theatre while being modern enough to be obviously new.
A new extremely large women's restroom was added to the lower lounge during the early 1990's. It is oddly clumsy though the extra stalls are quite welcome.
The original stage was only 28' deep. A new stage and dressing rooms were added in the mid-'90's giving the theatre a space large enough to mount the largest touring shows.