 Vintage photograph of the ornate exterior of the OrpheumPhoto courtesy of the Library of Congress
Other Loop houses in the chain included the Bijou Dream, which was next door to the Orpheum, the Rialto and the Randolph.
The Orpheum was in a highly busy area, near the corner of State and Monroe, so it never had problems playing to packed houses. It featured "continuous vaudeville", from nine in the morning to at least eleven at night, fifteen nearly hour-long shows a day, stopping only to let one audience out and show the next in. At one point, daily attendance on weekends was over 10,000 a day.
The Orpheum's facade was stunning, a masterpiece of Beaux-Arts architecture, and one of the most beautiful theater facades in Chicago's history. A two-story archway capped by a figure of a goddess was illuminated by electric lights and sparkling white terra-cotta, meant to resemble marble. Over the arch, a sea-shell pattern raditated outwards from a terra-cotta peacock in the center. The words "Continuous Vaudeville" were inscribed around the edge in gold-painted letters.
Inside, the Orpheum took up the first two stories of a multi-story office building. The interior was decorated in the style of a late 19th century opera house, with a double aisle, a small balcony, and several "opera boxes".
An innovation which made the theater particularly popular (especially during the often times miserably muggy Chicago summers) was its cutting-edge ventilation system, which blew ice-cooled air through the auditorium, a rare treat in early 20th Century public buildings in Chicago, which drew as many raves from theater-goers as its beauty did.
Early on, the theater's management boasted it had the finest staff in any theater in the city, as well as "high class entertainment". Thus, its patrons felt a bit less put-off by its dime admission cost, while most of the vaudeville houses in the Loop cost a nickel.
In 1909, Jones switched from vaudeville to movies, becoming one of the first theaters in Chicago to screen motion pictures (outside nickelodeons). Besides movies, the Orpheum began to feature sing-along slide shows. Its popularity remained as strong as ever.
In the 20s, Aaron Jones sold the Orpheum to Warner Brothers, which continued to operate the theater as a first-run house until its closure around 1936 or 1937.
Unfortunately, this treasure of early movie theater architecture was demolished decades ago and its former site now home to a fast food chain restaurant.
Contributed by Bryan Krefft
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