The Orpheum Theatre, located on South Main St. at the corner of Beale in Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, was built in 1928 and is one of the few remaining "movie palaces" of the 1920s. The theatre presents a variety of events from Broadway shows and concerts to films. . A $4.7 million dollar renovation in the 1980s included refurbishing of ornamental plasterwork, crystal chandeliers and original furnishings plus remodeling of backstage and technical areas. It seats 2,500.

History

The Orpheum Theatre has survived several financial bankruptcies

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

, a devastating fire

Fire

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....

, the decay of downtown Memphis and the threat of demolition

Demolition

Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....

 for the construction of an office complex. However, the Orpheum, called the "South's Finest Theatre" rose above all this and now is a premiere performing arts center for the Mid-South.

In 1890 The Grand Opera House was built on the corner of Main and Beale Street

Beale Street

Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...

. The Grand was billed as the classiest theatre outside of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 was the main source of entertainment at the time. The Grand became part of the Orpheum

Orpheum Circuit, Inc.

Orpheum Circuit, Inc., was a company started by Martin Beck who owned a series of vaudeville theaters and motion picture theaters.- The company :...

 Vaudeville circuit in 1907, and was renamed the Orpheum Theatre.

Vaudeville at the Orpheum was successful for almost two decades. Then in 1923 a fire broke out during a show that featured a strip-tease artist by the name of Blossom Seeley

Blossom Seeley

-Biography:Seeley was born Minnie Guyer, in San Francisco, California, USA. A top vaudeville headliner, she was known as the "Queen of Syncopation" and helped bring jazz and ragtime into the mainstream of American music. She introduced the Shelton Brooks classic "Some of These Days" in vaudeville...

 and burned the theatre to the ground.

Building a new Orpheum

In 1928, at a cost of $1.6 million, a new Orpheum was built on the original site of The Grand, but it was a different theater. The new Orpheum is twice as large as her predecessor and is beautifully decorated. A few decorations include lavish tasseled brocade

Brocade

Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and with or without gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli," comes from Italian broccato meaning "embossed cloth," originally past participle of the verb broccare...

 draperies, enormous crystal chandelier

Chandelier

A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...

s, gilded moldings and a large Wurlitzer

Wurlitzer

The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....

 pipe organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

. The Orpheum was purchased by the Malco

Malco Theatres

Malco Theatres, Inc. is a fourth generation movie theatre chain that has remained family owned and operated for over nine decades. The company has 33 locations with 326 screens in five states . Malco also operates four bowling lanes in southern Louisiana under the Malco Theatres Bowling name...

 movie theater chain in 1940 and presented first run movies.

The Haunted Theater

Shortly after the Orpheum reopened, people claimed to see the ghost of a young girl, who has been named "Mary". She supposedly died in an automobile accident near the theater in 1921. People claim to have spotted her in seat C-5, and claim to have heard her giggling, playing the organ, opening and closing doors, and engaging in other mischief. There was also reported blood found in the seat.

Renovation

In 1976, Malco decided to sell the building, and there was talk of demolishing the old theater to build an office complex

Office complex

Commonly referred to as a plaza, an office complex is often confused with an office building. Complexes are just one storey, with extensive fields available in retail positioning, but primarily used for medical practitioners along with a stronghold potential for community development.This due to...

. However, in 1977, the Memphis Development Foundation purchased The Orpheum and began bringing Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 productions and concerts back to the theatre.

After 54 years, The Orpheum was closed on Christmas in 1982 to begin a $5 million renovation to restore The Theatre to its 1928 opulence. A grand reopening celebration was held in January 1984 and it signaled the rebirth of entertainment in downtown Memphis.

The Orpheum, which is managed by the Memphis Development Foundation, presents two seasons of Broadway tours. In fact, on an average annual basis, The Orpheum has presented more Broadway touring productions than any other theater in the country.

In addition to bringing the finest Broadway Productions to the area, a wide array of entertainers have graced the Orpheum's stage.

Two of Memphis' local arts groups, Ballet Memphis and Opera Memphis, also call The Orpheum home.

The Orpheum Theatre, a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

, continues to flourish because of the generous support of the community.

External links

• Dark Destinations - Orpheum Theatre - info on haunted locations
• Wicked is performing at Orpheum Theatre, Memphis, TN.