American
Theatre Organ Society
Valley
of the Sun Chapter
Phoenix, Arizona
The auditorium of the renovated Orpheum Theatre (1929), home of the
Chapter-owned and maintained Wurlitzer 3/30
theatre organ.
Photo courtesy of Gary Quesada
The Orpheum Theatre, restored at a cost of
$14,500,000 (original 1929 cost - $750,000) has risen from its long sleep as a
movie palace and emerged a state-of-the-art performing arts center.
When the Orpheum opened January 5, 1929, it was the pride of Phoenix. With 1,800 seats and "air
conditioning," (air blown over crushed ice and circulated) the theatre was
the "place" to go and be seen.
The theatre was designed
to accommodate talking pictures, vaudeville, and touring shows. Artists like
Rubenstein, Jose Iturbi and others graced the stage.
Mae West was chauffeured to the theatre in 1933 to promote her film I'm No Angel. The massive 101 foot wide stage, with 28 feet of depth, handled the
traveling shows easily. The showplace was designed in
the atmospheric style, with the audience sitting in a garden surrounded by
Spanish-style buildings and murals of mountains and forests, under puffy white
clouds moving across a deep blue domed sky.
The original theatre organ was a 3/11
Meisel & Sullivan, a Los Angeles
church organ builder that produced a limited number of organs for theatres in
the late 1920s. Using primarily Gottfried pipework,
the instrument was billed as a "Symphony of
Pipes." The two-chamber installation was traditional with ornate organ
grilles on each side of the proscenium. The console was on its own lift on the
left side of the stage. The grilles cover an area of 1000 square feet and are
delicate scroll-like wrought iron weighing four tons..
In 1949, The Orpheum was renamed the Paramount, but continued
to operate as a first-run movie palace. Phoenix suffered the decline common to
many city cores during the same time period, but the Paramount was still
considered a premier motion picture house and chapter members often played
overtures to feature films such as The Longest Day, Cleopatra and The
Sound of Music. A dedicated group maintained and rebuilt the organ during
these days and in 1963 formed the original Valley of the Sun chapter.
Unfortunately, Paramount built a new suburban
theatre as its Phoenix
flagship. James Nederlander of New York City purchased the house in 1968,
rechristened it the Palace West, and remodeled it for production of musical
comedies and plays. Although such productions such as I
Do, I Do with Mary Martin and Robert Preston played the Palace West, it
was becoming difficult to attract audiences to the downtown area. By this
point, the impressive wall murals were painted black, four of the seven
proscenium "ropes" were removed to widen the stage,
and much of the fabulous lobby and interior detail had been painted neutral.
The organ was ordered removed so space could be used
for other purposes. The organ was purchased by a local enthusiast, but
eventually broken up for parts.
In 1977, the building was
leased to a group that screened Spanish-language films. By this time,
downtown Phoenix
was starting to revive. Two new hotels, several high-rise office buildings,
Symphony Hall and a Convention Center were built
nearby.
It was the City of Phoenix who ultimately saved the theatre. In 1984, it acquired
the block containing the theatre as a site for its new 20-story city hall. The
next year, the city succeeded in having the theatre placed on the National
Register of Historic Places. City voters approved $7 million in funds for restoration
in 1988, with the Orpheum Theatre Foundation dedicated to raise the additional
funds.
The Orpheum building was
incorporated with the new city
hall building, each complimenting the other, in a brilliant stroke of planning.
The depth of the stage was increased to 47 feet, the
fly upward to 66 feet and a lower level loading dock was added. The lobby and
box office area was expanded utilizing previous leased shop space. The long
lost murals were removed, restored and reinstalled.
The four missing proscenium "ropes" were replicated and finished to
match the originals. The original carpet was duplicated
from a precious scrap found in an organ chamber. Wider seats and handicap
access was added. A spectacular "peacock" staircase spiraling from
the main lobby to the balcony level was fully restored
to its original splendor. In the spirit of true restoration, even the clouds,
stars and sunsets have returned to the theatre.
Click here for a quick
photo tour!
Click here to visit
the City of Phoenix's Orpheum Theatre Website!
Click
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