Orpheum Theatre, Historic theater in downtown Phoenix, United States
The Orpheum Theatre is a 1,364-seat theatre in downtown Phoenix, built in Spanish Revival style with Spanish Baroque detailing. Its tan stone facade has a corner tower topped by an open colonnade with arched openings and small statues, above a band of square relief panels. Round wheel-like windows with spokes sit on the flat wall, and the red lower facade carries the marquee reading "ORPHEUM".
Construction began in 1927 and finished in 1929 at a cost of $750,000, designed by Lescher & Mahoney with Hugh Gilbert associated, for owner-operators J.E. Rickards and Harry Nace. It opened as a vaudeville house on the nationwide Orpheum Circuit. Paramount Pictures bought it in the 1940s and renamed it The Paramount; in the 1960s Nederlander added it to the Broadway circuit as the Palace West. Phoenix purchased it in 1984 and reopened it on January 28, 1997.
The auditorium ceiling shows a Mediterranean courtyard design with painted twilight and moving cloud effects created by machinery. Visitors sitting in the hall experience the feeling of being outdoors under open sky.
The building is best reached on foot from downtown Phoenix in a busy commercial district. Visitors should know that it mainly operates for scheduled events, so access depends on what is happening that day.
The hall houses a Wurlitzer organ with 30 ranks that originally came from a theater in Middletown. This organ plays during special Silent Sunday events and adds to the experience of watching historic films.
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