Seattle’s Magnificent Orpheum Theatre

Photo via cinematreasures.org | Contributed by William Gabel

In 1927, Orpheum Circuit,  after many years of using G. Albert Lansburgh, Rapp & Rapp, and other re­nowned  architects, finally decided on the celebrated Marcus Priteca, who was the master architect of the entire Pantages Circuit, to create its two great thea­tres for the Northwest — Seattle and Vancouver.  They were to be the two largest deluxe Orpheum Circuit houses on the West Coast, and the most beautiful.

Seattle needed an enormous house.  Orpheum head­liners were using the charming, but old-fashioned and much-too-small, Moore Theatre for 10 years, and it just couldn’t accommodate the crowds that tried in vain to see Orpheum shows each week.

A wonderful piece of property was acquired at the end of Fourth and Fifth Avenues which could be seen for blocks, and Priteca did a magnificent, tapestry brick and terracotta structure which was Italian Renaissance adapted to a modern office building.  It was a beautiful building with rounded corners and a red tile roof.  The top story had round top windows, and above on the roof was the great Orpheum Circuit sign in electric lights that could be seen all over town.

Photo via cinematreasures.org

The marquee was tremendous and the underside of it was as detailed, architecturally, as the rest of the building with graceful arches in it, all picked out in tiny white light bulbs.

The box office and entrance lobby with its graceful bronze frames for photos, etc., was as beautiful as the interior of most theatres.

The front doors were carved wood set in marble and the irregular  tops of the doors were like something out of a renaissance palace.

After entering these, one stepped into a magnificent grand lobby with  an octagonal rotunda three floors high in its center, from which hung  two exquisite crystal and gold glass chandeliers on a single chain. This room was done in lavishly carved sandstone with huge crests in the centers of each side of the octagon.  The  stairways to the mezzanine were on each side of the Grand Lobby under huge heavily-draped arches.  There was also a large elevator to take the patrons to the three upper lev­els of the theatre.

Mandel Brothers, of Chicago, who decorated all the Orpheum houses, carpeted the entire theatre in the giant black and beige design used in most Orpheum theatres.  The great stairways were done in a crimson red with borders of black and beige.

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Under the balcony was a wide and deep dome from which hung two large crystal chandeliers, and graceful arches were placed on either side of the orchestra floor leading down to the most magnificent organ screens ever to grace an Orpheum Theatre.

The organ screens were four floors tall and were higher than the proscenium arch.  The Mandels elected to cover half of the exquisitely-carved  details at the top with overpowering draperies. The nine-foot long, banjo-type crystal light fixtures that hung in front of them were lovely, however.

An outstanding feature of this beautiful house was the ceiling, as it was typical of the magnificent detail for which Mr. Priteca was noted.  The fabulous cove was installed all round the more powerful and plainer gold leafed ceiling, from which hung a tremendous chandelier.  The side walls in the balcony were a set of beautiful arches, draped in scarlet damask with damask wall coverings to match.

The huge proscenium, which was 50 feet wide, was lavishly carved all around and heavily hung with Grand Espanol tapestry over drapes.  Under this rich over drap­ery hung red silk Austrian curtains down to the front curtains.  The usual legs of draped damask and velvets were placed at either side of the  house curtains.

The theatre was equipped with a three manual Wurlit­zer featuring a gold console on an elevator at stage right.  Tiny Burnett was the orchestra leader at the house when it opened; the pit was not on an elevator mecha­nism.

Equipped with every facility available in 1927, the stage was 32 feet deep.  Artist’s dressing rooms, on stage left were carpeted and decorated as beautifully as the front of the house and were reached by their own eleva­tor.

Photo via cinematreasures.org

The big 3,000-seat house was opened in 1927 as a headline vaudeville and motion picture theatre and was a tremendous success from the beginning.  It was the most beautiful and largest Orpheum house on the West Coast, and when it finally closed in 1967, after 40 great years of service to the City of Seattle, Priteca was honored for several weeks at various ceremonies lamenting its demolition.

Marcus Priteca is the last of the great architects of the golden age of the movie theatre, while Mr. Lansburgh was the architect for the entire Pantages Circuit and also did the great Coliseum Theatre in Seattle.

After his magnificent Pantages Hollywood, which was done in the Moderne style, he was much sought after and the Brothers Warner would have no one else do their Huntington Park, San Pedro, and Beverly Hills houses.  He always did the entire buildings of any of his creations, which Mr. Lansburgh did not always do, so proved to be more valuable to Warner Brothers.

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