Orpheum Theatre
884 Granville Street,
Vancouver,
BC
V6Z 1K3
884 Granville Street,
Vancouver,
BC
V6Z 1K3
10 people
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High resolution of a corner of the Orpheum marquee. gif below that highlighting signs.
https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/1/0/1084127/d9fbe604-5871-4858-a6db-5ac8173e7559-A59874.jpg?token=0acb761d3db90b72cb7acdb3e25faf237c7787f3e6cbb6b4100a0971b948ea0d&fbclid=IwAR0hQXjYpEnpAKM2Ackg1DslCgWE-z83uaN0ngLFnvoLhYoFAPlsY3F5wdk
https://j.gifs.com/76wWLj.gif?fbclid=IwAR3ogK6pE9hcePFRmekr-HFUhJMwuwCNu6XI_xlYMK3l8KzeQf0EVVywQvY
Opened on November 7th, 1927 and stopped showing movies in 1975. Grand opening ad posted.
Construction announcement by the Langer Circuit
Orpheum theatre opening Sat, Apr 3, 1926 – 1 · The Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
October 15, 1973 photo added credit Vancouver Archives CVA 800-0438.
Link with a high resolution version of the April 1975 photo of the Orpheum & Vogue.
http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/1/3/1375699/af30cd6b-4c1a-4f15-914a-a5bbd09d4feb-A71430.jpg?token=31e0c7946c4a0067c6d7831b0b8e1776ad565bf8f2ccf0dd5aaa6a8db78946c4
There is an excellent 1928 illustration of The Orpheum on the Historic-Memphis.com website’s Theatre page. Here’s a link to the page.
Interesting trying to find the theatre on the Google aerial photos. Their website says they’re located at the intersection of Smythe & Seymour, but the address Cinematreasures has is 884 Granville, two blocks over!
Well, the original entrance is at 884 Granville, and that takes one through a VERY long lobby, all the way to the other side of the block and over a service street, into the main building on the next block. Patrons then enter the main lobby and turn left into the auditorium. If they turn right, they go out to Smythe Street through a new entrance added onto the side of the lobby.
…And a great panorama of the auditorium at the official website top page:
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Here are some more auditorium, also from Susan Griffin’s Flickr Photostream:
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…and the lobby
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Nice photos.
2007 photo of awesome looking grand lobby
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pomax/514661349/
2009 photo of lobby
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2010 photo of auditorium
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The grand lobby of the Vancouver ORPHEUM is featured prominently and repeatedly in ‘Caprica’ (2009), the pilot film for the forthcoming television series of the same name which is the prequel to the famed ‘Battlestar Galactica’ saga. In the ‘Caprica’ DVD’s bonus-scene link, additional production scenes at the ORPHEUM are available including a brief glimpse of the auditorium.
The Leslie Neilsen spoof “ Wrongfully Accused ” was also filmed at the Orpheum, featuring a nice sweeping shot of the interior.
Terry Gilliams currently unreleased film Dr. Parnassus was also filmed at the Orpheum, they were there for a couple of days.
Westcoast Hall was a hotel that was on the corner ( The name escapes me ) which was bought out when the Orpheum was purchased by the city.
one of the chandeliers from the Capitol Theatre in Prince Rupert was bought by the Orpheum Theatre when they renovated in the 1970s.
I think the Vancouver Orpheum’s interior is the “Opera House” that keeps appearing in dream sequences in recent episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
The movie “Elegy” starring Ben Kingsley was indeed filmed in Vancouver and the Orpheum Theater was used in filming.
Also to clarify a few things, the main address is 884 Granville St.
Previously, prior to major renovations being done (addition of the Westcoast Hall as a secondary entrance), there was another entrance on Seymour Street. The old Capitol Theatre and its replacement, the now demolished Capitol Six also had a second entrance on Seymour Street.
884 Granville St would seem to be correct since the Vogue theatre (seen near the Orpheum in the above photo and still open) has an address of 918 Granville.
There was an Orpheum theater in the new movie “Elegy” which was set in New York but I believe filmed in Vancouver. Is it this one?
This is the 3rd Theater to grace the name Orpheum. The first was the old Alhambra on Pender and Howe. The second was the old Vancouver Opera House on Granville. At one time, it was also known as RKO Orpheum. The 3rd, which is currently the home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra was first known as the New Orpheum Theater until the original neon signage was replaced sans the word “New”.
In its vaudeville life the Orpheum saw such greats as the Jack Benny, bob Hope and Jimmy Durante grace its stage. In recent years they’ve had the occasional showing of silent pictures, like Phantom of the Opera, with original music played on a big old organ. Kind of cool. Well maintained and worth checking out.