Orpheum Theatre
210 W. Seventh Street,
Okmulgee,
OK
74447
210 W. Seventh Street,
Okmulgee,
OK
74447
2 people
favorited this theater
The Cook Opera House opened on August 23, 1920 with 1,200 seats. In 1974, the former balcony was converted into a second auditorium.
Contributed by
Todd Scott
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Recent comments (view all 25 comments)
In the 50’s & 60’s auditorium main floor walls were lined with six Art Deco lighting fixtures identical to the one pictured here. Manager Ed Swallow would lamp these four-foot long fixtures to match the season. During cool winter months lighting colors were warm red, yellow, and orange. During hot summer seasons colors were cool blue and green.
My guess would be that these chandeliers were brought in from some other theatre.
http://www.robbender.com/gallery/broadway/P5234446
I don’t believe the fixtures in the Orpheum were quite like the one pictured. The Orpheum’s fixtures were faced with strips of frosted glass, as the fixture in the picture does, but the strips were the full length of the fixture, which was about four feet, and the fixtures were a little less elegant than the one pictured. The fixtures that were on the Orpheum sidewalls were mounted where oscillating fans were originally installed.
Video Theatres (and their predecessor, Griffith Theatres), used the same fixture that was in the Orpheum in several of their theatres.
Allowing for colorful versatility, these frosted fixtures seemed to be popular amoung theatre operators. This style of lighting is also found inside the Art Theatre (AKA-Park), Champaign, IL.
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and
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A 1984 photo of the Orpheum Theater showing “Temple of Doom” and “Sixteen Candles”.
The Orpheum, taken April 2009 – the very nice crew let me come in before they opened to take a look around. Magnificent place, a must-see if you’re in the area.
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Symco; If you really want to see exactly what the frosted glass sidelight fixtures looked like inside the Orpheum auditorium, then go to this site and type in word “Dixie”. Auditorium views for the Holdenville Dixie Theatre show the exact same sidewall fixtures. These fixtures were more fancy than those found inside the Art Theatre, Champaign, IL.
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Several sources have told me about an Orpheum doorman, named Jeff Chapman, who was the crush of all local junior high girls during the late 1960’s.
After college Jeff was house manager of the Sooner Theater in Norman, OK, where his charm earned him the same admiration as he had enjoyed in Okmulgee.
As mentioned above, originally the Orpheum Theatre had an Austin pipe organ. Hear a couple of those instruments on this site –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV5NwBNtamY
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXdOhGK1xxk
Sharp vintage interior/exteriors images of the Orpheum Theatre can be found on this nice web site,
http://www.roadsideoklahoma.com/node/581
photos including ornate lobby here http://www.flickr.com/photos/sethgaines/page4/