Orpheum Theatre
346 N. Neil Street,
Champaign,
IL
61820
346 N. Neil Street,
Champaign,
IL
61820
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 41 comments found
How’s the auditorium restoration coming along?
Was a U of I student from fall 82-Spring 1986. I was THERE the last night that the Orpheum was open. The interior was VERY COOL even in those last years. I recall taking a date to see the movie “Comfort and Joy.” Movie was good, but theater FURNACE was barely working. That’s ONE WAY to get a date close to you !! Love to see the interior once again !!
This fun video tells the Orpheum Theatre history and shows interior/exterior pictures;
View link
Seeing Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” for the first time (in the ‘80’s) at the Orpheum was truly exciting; I’m thrilled for the restoration!
2010 exterior of the Orpheum Theatre.
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Oh. That makes sense.
That is definitely the reason. They sometimes used the same basic design template on different jobs, with a few customizations to create a unique product. In this case the same basic scheme was used on both the Ringling & the Orpheum.
Both Theatres were done by Rapp & Rapp, that could be some of the reason for the similarities.
I posted too soon – according to the museum’s website, they HAVE been doing a lot of renovation in the auditorium during summer 2009 – including repairing and painting the plaster in a historic color theme.
The first link above is of the Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, WI, and the second is of the Orpheum, according to the photo captions. They are remarkably similar, and the Oprheum photo looks very recent. Have they been doing some renovations recently?? (The photos in the Jan 19 post the auditorium looks father tattered.
Compare
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There’s a set of auditorium photos posted on flickr army.arch, of which this is one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/army_arch/3980160358/
There was a good article with a nice photo of the renovated auditorium in the News-Gazette back on or about November 4, 2009, which I just saw a copy of. I can’t seem to find it on their website but it was lovely. They have already hosted one wedding there, even though it’s not finished. I’ll keep trying to find that article and photo, but if anyone else can get it please post it here.
Oh. If the museum moves out than what will happen to the theatre?
Doesn’t look like it judging by the Orpheum web site. Check it out:
http://www.m-crossroads.org/orpheum/
This is where all my info is coming from.
Did that effect the renovation of the auditorium?
Oh. Must have been windy that day.:)
Take a look for yourself:
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Metropolitan Building?
what does that have to do with any thing?
Apparently a fire in a nearby building.
What was it damaged by?
There are some press releases on the official web site which indicate that the building was recently damaged, and that the organization feels they may be better off in a building other than the Orpheum.
However, the newest one is a year old, and they are still scheduling events.
Here’s another one of my recent pictures of the Orpheum:
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October 2009 photo of the Orpheum Theatre.
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This is a recent interior photo. Compare it to the 1983 interior photo linked to above on May 19, 2009.