Orpheum Theatre

JackCoursey on October 10, 2006 at 2:47 am

Just about all of the 2006 links appear to be operable as of today. Click on the words with the blue font (such as “This” and “Here”) and they should take you right to the photos. Here is a night photo of the theatre made in 2005.
Here is a rare photo of the original Orpheum Theatre (circa 18889-1925) which existed on the same site of the current Orpheum.

CHICTH74 on July 12, 2006 at 6:44 am

The Orpheum was the theatre that was use to flim “the queens of comedy” tour their are some very nice shots of the theatre.
Go to special features there are some very good shots of the seating area. Thank you for your time.

Will Dunklin on April 22, 2005 at 10:58 am

TC nice photos! These would have been taken in the early 1990’s I think. The stagehouse has since been extended, the vertical sign rebuilt and the marquee sign boards changed to electronic displays. The old milk glass letters in these photos were purchased from the Ohio and Palace theatres in Columbus Ohio with some letters also coming from a Memphis salvage yard which had torn down Memphis’s Loew’s Palace. The milk glass letters looked great, but were terribly fragile and after too many were broken the management rebuilt the signboards with electronics.

Will Dunklin on March 2, 2005 at 1:04 pm

Funny how the story about the ghost keeps changing. The only thing that seems to stay the same is the little girl’s name. Her death date, what theatre she haunts, and where she is seen seems to be a moving target. In the 3 years that I worked at the theatre, the only para-normal phenominon I ever saw was the former house manager who haunted some pretty unsavory corners of downtown.

Will Dunklin on April 7, 2004 at 12:55 pm

More history: the Marquee and the giant vertical sign survived the various owners and renovations. The original marquee had milk-glass letters and electric waterfalls cascading on each of the three sides. The name ORPHEUM was spelled out in incandescent lamps on the front.

The vertical sign hangs at the corner of Main and Beale. The bottom of the sign is about 20' above the sidewalk, the sign itself is about 55' tall. It had single stroke neon spelling the name ORPHEUM with an incandescent cascade/surround.

When MALCO bought the hall (on the courthouse steps in 1940) they simply had new neon channel letters put on the vertical sign and a script MALCO covered the original name on the marquee.

During the 1950s the sign boards were replaced with white, back-lit boards and metal letters.

When the Memphis Development Foundation bought the hall in 1976 it was very simple to restore the original designs.

The vertical sign was completely rebuilt in the last renovation and an electronic display replaced the old sign boards.

Will Dunklin on February 17, 2004 at 2:51 pm

The Orpheum (Opened as the RKO Orpheum) was designed by Rapp and Rapp of Chicago and is quite similar to the larger Orpheum in Omaha, Nebraska. Both are “Movie Palace Baroque” which Rapp and did so well.

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.