Orpheum Theatre
2520 Washington Boulevard,
Ogden,
UT
84401
2520 Washington Boulevard,
Ogden,
UT
84401
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1929 photo added courtesy of Rod Nelson.
1968 & 1975 photos added courtesy of Carl Marsing. The large ornate marquee was removed due to a city ordinance about signage overhanging sidewalks.
1959 program image added courtesy of Kathy Malone Files. Early `70’s photo added courtesy of Rod Nelson.
In 1891, the B. F. Sturtevant Co., makers of heating and ventilation systems, put out a book displaying drawings of many of the buildings in which their equipment had been installed. One of these was the Ogden Opera House. The brief text accompanying the drawing gives the name of the architect of the opera house, S.G. Whitaker.
After the Orpheum became part of a vaudeville circuit in 1909, though it might have presented full stage shows occasionally, this would probably have been done infrequently and only for short runs— a week, or even just three or four days. The way vaudeville circuits were set up, with most of the circuit’s acts booked for 42 straight weeks of traveling from town to town, there wasn’t much flexibility in the schedules of the theaters.
Traveling road productions of popular plays and musicals might have been presented at Ogden’s Orpheum, if the town had available no other large theater capable of hosting them, but the house most likely ran combination shows of vaudeville and movies most of the year.
By the mid-1910s virtually all vaudeville theaters outside the major cities had become combination houses, offering continuous shows with four to six live acts and a feature film. Once in a while a major all-vaudeville show with ten or more acts might be presented in smaller cities, but those were special occasions. In a market the size of Ogden it would have been primarily combination shows year-round for most of the period during which the Orpheum was part of a circuit.
There is more about the Orpheum here: http://utahtheaters.info/TheaterMain.asp?ID=170
rGreenRoom listing for the Orpheum:
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rGreenRoom listing for the production there in 1923:
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The history here seems to say that there were only films and vaudeville here after 1909. Vaudeville is, of course, live performances in the form of skits – musical acts, dances, maybe scenes, but not full plays. But I think it was probably vaudeville and a legitimate theater, with a few films, until the remodel in 1928. rGreenRoom has confirmed that there was at least one full length play performed there in 1923, produced by the local Weber College.
As the Grand Opera House, this theater is listed in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide under Ogden Utah. Joseph Clark was the Mgr., the seating capacity was 1,700, and the theater was on the ground floor. The proscenium opening was 37 feet wide X 30 feet high, and the stage was 45 feet deep. Ogden newspapers were the Standard and the Press, both daily, plus 3 weeklies. Hotels for show folk were the Reed, Broom, Central and Chapman. Railroads were the UP, SP, Rio Grande Western and the Oregon Short Line. The 1897 population of Ogden was 18,000.