New Orpheum Theater, Sioux City Iowa

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Constructed in 1926 and completed in 1927, the Orpheum theater was designed by the nationally known Chicago architectural firm of Rapp & Rapp. It is the the last remaining of three Orpheum theaters in Sioux City.

Sioux City's relationship with the Orpheum Circuit can be traced to 1906 when owners of the popular Lyric theater, a vaudeville house located at 615-617 Fifth Street (razed), sold the theater to the Western Vaudeville Association, an organization headed by Fred Buchanan of Des Moines. Buchanan announced that the Lyric would offer high-class, nationally recognized vaudeville entertainment from the Orpheum [Western United States], Kohl and Castle [Chicago], and Keith [New York] vaudeville circuits. The main reason Sioux City was included on the national vaudeville circuit was the fact that the city was located between the larger theaters in Omaha and Minneapolis. Vaudevillians could book their shows into Sioux City without having to lose, through travel, their engagement time in either of the two larger cities.

Locally, vaudeville was very popular. The Lyric was completely remodeled into a high-class theater that could seat about 1,150 people. The opening day performance of Sioux City's first Orpheum featured a seven-act bill and a kinodrome picture (an early form of silent movie). By 1918, the city had outgrown the Lyric/Orpheum theater. On March 11^th of that year, the second Orpheum Theater located at 414 Nebraska St. (razed), and the first to be constructed specifically for the Orpheum circuit, opened to a packed house. The theater offered 1,456 seats, two shows daily; three on weekends, an orchestra, and a silent film all served up in plush surroundings. The theater was a hit. In 1922 the Sioux City Spirit of Progress reported that attendance ranged from 8,000 to 10,000 per week and that the theater was the entertainment focus of the city. It was so successful and profitable that a third theater, the "New Orpheum Theatre", more grand in size and opulence was planned for construction in 1926-27.

Nationally, vaudeville's rise in popularity began during the late 1800s when a New York theater owner decided to offer clean entertainment without the alcohol and "rank vulgarity" of the more common variety-type shows. He found that his clean, wholesome entertainment proved to be quite popular and attracted a wider patronage than the bawdy variety shows. It quickly became the chosen form of entertainment among the working class, but was looked upon with disdain by "legitimate" theater performers. At its height, however, vaudeville attracted far more patronage than any other form of entertainment, so much so that several "legitimate" artists such as Ethel Barrymore and Sarah Bernhardt performed in vaudeville in order to keep their names before the public.

Vaudeville reached its peak in the mid-1920s and, with its rise, individual theater owners organized circuits some of the largest being the Keith-Albee circuit in New York and the East Coast, the Kohl and Castle from Chicago, and finally, the Orpheum Circuit in the west and mid-western United States. Vaudeville's popularity quickly waned, however, as talking pictures and radio demanded center stage.

During the teens and early 20s, vaudeville was able to coexist with silent film by offering a movie between live stage shows. This benign association ended with the 1927 production of the first "talkie", The Jazz Singer. Many of vaudeville's star performers flocked to Hollywood to try their hand at film while other vaudevillians fled to radio. The formation of NBC in 1926 and CBS in 1928 created a real threat to vaudeville. Radio became a popular form of entertainment as it provided free variety and comedy shows for the entire family in the comfort of one's own home.

Although vaudeville's popularity began to decline nationally, it remained the entertainment of choice among Sioux Citians. Local promoter and developer Arthur Sanford forged ahead with his construction plans because Sioux City's theater patrons demanded a bigger, more elaborate entertainment palace. Sioux City's new entertainment palace opened on December 18th, 1927. It was designed following the principals set by Orpheum Circuit; that of clean, wholesome entertainment by the foremost artists; amid the finest surroundings in which entertainment had ever been conceived; and at prices every man and woman could afford. The cost of the project was estimated at $1,750,000 and it was Sioux City's largest valuation of the year.

Although Sioux City was one of the junior theatres on the Orpheum Circuit, its New Orpheum theater rivaled that of the larger cities. No expense was spared. The theater provided its patrons with opulent surroundings from its French damask wall coverings, to its European oil paintings, to its crystal chandeliers and plush carpeting. For 10 years from 1927 to 1937 movies, both silent and "talkies", played alongside vaudeville acts in the New Orpheum Theater.

In fact, on March 10th, 1929, just 15 months after opening its new theater, Sioux City's Orpheum presented its first "talkie" when it showed Richard Barthelmess in "Weary River". By this time Sunday newspaper advertisements began playing up the feature film over the vaudeville entertainment. In large type the Sioux City Journal announced that "Weary River" would be shown in conjunction with the same big Radio-Keith-Orpheum programs. Theater manager Fred LeCompte reassured patrons that the vaudeville program would be "of the same high standard as we have offered the last year and it is with pride that we enter upon a new era of entertainment for Sioux City in presenting talking pictures." The stage production was "WLS Showboat", a unit show made up of broadcasting stars from station WLS in Chicago.

In 1927 the Keith-Albee Circuit of New York and the East Coast merged with the Orpheum, creating one of the largest theater circuits in the United States. Shortly thereafter, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) purchased a controlling interest in the Keith-Albee-Orpheum and incorporated it under the name RKO - Radio-Keith-Orpheum. By January 20^th 1929, Sioux City's New Orpheum Theater began advertising itself as the RKO New Orpheum Theatre. This event was significant for Vaudeville's future as it was the first time an entertainment company owned both the Vaudeville theaters and had the capability of making movies. RKO now could package a one-hour stage show (a "unit show"), route it through the major theaters, and play it alongside their feature film. Often, producing these "unit shows" was cheaper than a bill of well-known vaudeville stars. This may have been a way for the motion picture industry to wean audiences away from the live stage shows of vaudeville. Clearly, vaudeville became merely a backdrop for the feature film.

In 1928 Sioux City's New Orpheum offered a five-act bill, playing three times a day on Sundays and Thursdays, plus a feature film. Shows began at 2:45, 6:45, and 9:10, with photoplays preceding and following the stage show. According to American Vaudeville: As Seen By Its Contemporaries, this was a typical bill of the small-time or "Junior theaters". The five-act bill usually consisted of the following types of acts:

A bicycle act
A pair of dancers
A musical number
A comedy team or single
Acrobats

After 1937, however, movies became the theater's staple entertainment, with intermittent touring music and dramatic attractions. It was during this period that Sioux City eclipsed its vaudeville-era junior theater status by drawing such stage notables as: Ethel Barrymore appearing in the play "White Oaks" and later in "The Corn is Green"; Helen Hayes in "Candle in the Wind"; author Sinclair Lewis provided the prologue and epilogue of his play "Angela is Twenty-two"; Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne in "There Shall Be No Night" and "The Taming of the Shrew"; John Barrymore in "My Dear Children"; Lillian Gish in "Life With Father"; and Katharine Hepburn, Van Heflin and Joseph Cotton in "The Philadelphia Story".

Arthur Sanford was known locally as Sioux City's Greatest Builder. A native of Minnesota, Sanford was educated at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania. After serving in France during World War I, Sanford came to Sioux City in 1920 to manage the financing of a construction project for his employer, a Minnesota finance company. He only intended to remain in Sioux City for six months but was so impressed with the business climate that he decided to stay and open his own company.

Within a few years of his arrival, he had constructed several buildings, including the Bellevue apartments and the Frances Building, and in 1926 he began organizing the financing for the New Orpheum project, his first known entertainment-related endeavor. In succeeding decades Sanford went on to build hotels, apartment buildings, office buildings, and industrial plants throughout the Midwest. In addition to the Bellevue Apartments, the Frances Building, and the Orpheum Theatre, Sanford's Sioux City projects included the Warrior Hotel, the Davidson Building (offices), the Insurance Exchange Building (offices), the Sioux Apartments, and the Sioux Soya Company soybean plant. Additionally, Sanford and his wife Stella were very active in Sioux City's community affairs and gave substantially to public causes. One such cause was the construction of a multi-cultural community house which today is known as the Sanford Center.

A 1955 Des Moines Register article noted that since the 1920s Sanford had built an average of $1 million per year in new residential and business construction. The article went on to explain that Sanford not only financed and promoted various projects, but he was a pioneer in good design and modern construction as well. One of his architects was quoted as saying, "He is a very discerning observer, knows materials and will not accept bad taste or imitation from a designer." The article went on to report that "the streets of Iowa in numerous places are more attractive because it was Sanford who had the final say on how the buildings would appear."

Sanford's influence is evident in the construction of the New Orpheum Theatre. A June 17th, 1926 Sioux City Spirit of Progress article boldly announced that an eight-story theatre would be constructed at the corner of 6^th and Pierce Streets and the financing would be provided by a group of Sioux City and Chicago financiers, headed by Arthur Sanford." By September 1926 the Sioux City Spirit of Progress announced that the theatre would be six stories and the surrounding office building would only be four-stories, but constructed with "a foundation sufficient to carry an eight-story building". Possibly during the planning stages, Sanford determined that the project's available financing could not support the construction of an eight-story building. Instead of reducing the ornamentation or compromising on the architectural design, Sanford settled for a four-story office building but had the foresight to insist that the building be constructed with a more substantial foundation.

Today, the upper floors of the building and the storefronts are occupied by office and retail users. The theatre remains vacant although the city of Sioux City has partnered with a not-for-profit organization to restore the theatre to its original grandeur. The projects estimated completion date is 2002.

Building Description

Occupying slightly more than an entire quarter block on the southeast corner of the intersection of 6^th and Pierce Streets in downtown Sioux City, Iowa, the Orpheum Theater is a tall, 8-story, blond-brick and terra cotta building of eclectic design. The building was constructed in 1926-27 as a combination theater and commercial block and connected to the eight-story Francis Building on the south side by a three-story bridge. The office portion of the building was originally four stories tall - the top four floors were added in 1949, but designed in such as way as to copy the architectural detailing of the original building. Originally, the theater structure rose a full two stories above the smaller office building. The high theater walls were needed to accommodate balcony seating, the vaulted and domed auditorium ceiling, and the backstage "flywall" (area where curtains, backdrops, and lighting was held).

The Orpheum fronts onto both Pierce Street and 6^th Street. The 6^th Street facade (the north elevation) has eight bays and the Pierce Street facade (the west elevation) has twelve bays. Each bay has paired windows and terra cotta detailing in floral patterns between each of the floors. Separating the paired windows is a fluted terra cotta pier that rises from the base of the second-floor windows to the top of the eighth-floor windows. Each bay is divided by a brick pier that rises from the second floor to the roof line. The building has no ornamentation at the cornice line.

The building has two large recessed entrances on the west facade; one to the theater and the other to the offices. The theater entrance is located in bays two through four (counting from the north to the south) and the office entrance is located in the eighth bay. A steel frame, box-type marquis is located over the theater entrance.

Also along the west facade are five smaller recessed entrances; each featuring a single, commercial-styled door and being only one door-width in depth.

Along the north facade, there are two small recessed entrances. One entrance is located in the second bay (counting from the east to the west) and another is in the seventh bay. Like the smaller entrances along the west facade, both of these north facade entrances are small, with a single, commercial-style door.

The building's south facade faces the city alley. Here a narrow alley splits the theater from the office building. Its purpose was to allow access to a large elevator. Also along the south facade is a bridge that connects the Orpheum office building to the Frances Building on the second, third, and fourth floors. Original to the Orpheum and constructed using the same blond brick and terra cotta detailing, the bridge is stepped back from the main facade, has paired double-hung windows, and adds architectural interest by providing an arched entrance to the city alley below.

The building's exterior ornamentation is rather simple. It is limited to decorative terra cotta beneath the window sills and terra cotta panels between each of the windows. The second-floor window sills are designed in a floral pattern that merges into a stylized bird's head. Beneath all other window sills, there is a simple wave-type pattern with each crest and dip punctuated by a circular indentation.

Since its construction in 1927, this building has undergone moderate alterations. In 1949, the Sioux City Gas and Electric Company purchased the New Orpheum Theatre. Desiring additional space, in that year the company constructed four stories to the building which resulted in the removal of decorative capping on each brick pier and the decorative terra cotta paneling that ran along the roof line. Additionally, at some time the 1927 storefront facade was removed and replaced with large squares of smooth, blond stone (unknown as to type). The existing smooth stone is the second known alteration of this type. A photo dating from the 1940s indicates that sometime between the building's construction and the 1940s, a dark-hued marble was added to the storefront. It is unknown as to when the dark marble was removed and replaced with the existing blond-colored stone. Other alterations include the storefront windows. Originally the building had traditional tall storefront windows with a transom above and stone bulkhead below. Sometime after 1949, and most likely when the blond-colored stone was added, the storefront window openings were shortened and narrowed and replaced with standard aluminum-clad frames.

Further alterations to the storefront included removing several of the recessed entrances along the north facade. Originally, a recessed theater entrance was located in the first bay of the north facade. This entrance has since been removed. Three other recessed entrances appear to have been located along 6^th Street. The entrances were angled 45 degrees from the sidewalk. Today, there are only two entrances along the 6^th Street facade and both meet the sidewalk at a 90-degree angle.

All of the building's double-hung, wood-framed windows have been replaced with metal sliding windows with a transom-type window above. Like the storefront windows, these sliding units have aluminum frames.

Finally, in 1994 a modern skywalk was connected to the west facade of the Orpheum at the second-floor level. This skywalk is located in the southwest corner of the building, occupying the tenth bay.

The interior of the Orpheum is divided into two sections: the offices and the theater. The office building is a narrow "L" shaped structure that conceals the theater on the north and west sides. All of the offices overlook either 6^th Street or Pierce Street and are accessed by a narrow corridor that runs along the inside "L" of the building. All of the offices have been remodeled: doors have been removed, the ceilings have been lowered and covered with acoustical-type tile, the floors have been carpeted or covered with asbestos floor tile, and any architectural detailing that was original to the office space has been removed or concealed.

The theater portion of the building consists of a large auditorium, a spacious two-story lobby, backstage, and below-stage dressing rooms, restrooms, and basement lounge areas for patrons. When it was constructed in 1926-27, the theater's interior, not the building's exterior, was the focus of the December 19th, 1927 dedicatory program:

After vaudeville stage productions began to fade in popularity during the 1930s the theater was used primarily as a movie house and secondarily as a stage for theatrical productions. By 1968, touring stage productions were a thing of the past and the old theater was used solely for showing movies. In June of that year the interior of the grand theater was substantially remodeled although theater owner Irwin Dubinsky, president of Dubinsky Bros. of Lincoln, Nebraska stated, "We plan to keep the grandeur of the theater, but modernize it considerably". Changes included removing the old seats and adding new; new carpeting; new heating, venting, and cooling system; remodeling the lobby, the grand lobby, and the box office; the basement and balcony were closed; a new projection booth added in the balcony; part of the balcony was cut-off; a new suspended ceiling covered the hand-painted, vaulted auditorium ceiling; restrooms were added on the first floor; and the refreshment stand was remodeled. Also at this time, the theater's original Wurlitzer pipe organ was dismantled and reassembled in the Sioux City Municipal Auditorium where it remains today.

In keeping with national trends, the theater was again remodeled in 1982 this time to carve twin theaters out of the single large theater. Remodeling included placing a wall down the center of the main auditorium; creating a dropped ceiling in the lobby that covered the three large ormolu gold crystal chandeliers; adding a second, suspended ceiling in the main auditorium thereby covering the old balcony projection room; and constructing a new projection room at the rear of each "twin". Remodeling also included polishing several small glass lights and hanging them over the new concession stand. At some time during the 1968 or the 1982 remodeling, holes were carved into the decorative plasterwork on either side of the stage. Presumably, this was to accommodate the large speakers needed for stereo sound systems.

Of special note is the fate of the theater's five large gold ormolu crystal chandeliers (smaller chandeliers survive in the theatre lobby). Originally located in the theater's main auditorium, the chandeliers (the largest of which weighed an estimated two-tons) were removed, probably during the 1968 remodeling, and placed in the building's basement storage. In 1985 they were discovered missing, and were later found in a Florida restaurant. Exactly how they arrived in Florida remains a mystery.

Remarkably a great deal of the original interior ornamentation remains today. The dropped ceiling in the main auditorium has been removed thereby revealing the tall vaulted, hand-painted ceiling. The ceiling is in fair condition, with some sections having suffered water damage. The false ceiling in the lobby area has been removed exposing the ormolu gold crystal chandeliers. The original carpet is still extant in the mezzanine hallway. The grand staircase with railing and bronze balustrade is intact with only minor, easily removable, modifications. The lounges, smoking rooms restrooms, and terra cotta drinking fountains located in the basement are very much intact, although in need of restoration. The backstage dressing rooms, NVA entertainment room, orchestra pit, and stage; in short, the general floor plan of the theatre; has not changed since the time of construction.

Looking southeast from the intersection of 6^th and Pierce Streets. (1939)

Looking southeast from the intersection of 6^th and Pierce Streets. (1960)

Building exterior showing north and west facades (1999)

Chandeliers in the lobby (1999)

Main stairs in the lobby (1999)

Stair rail detail (1999)

Stage (1999)

Announcement board. This is one of a pair located on either side of the stage (1999)

Painted ceilings located in the main auditorium (1999)

Typical door surround located in the balcony (1999)