Vestibules are made for walking through, but the one newly restored at the Orpheum Theatre is stopping people in their tracks. The gleaming, elegant entrance instantly transports you to the 85-year-old showplace’s glory days, while stirring anticipation of what the theater will look like whenever its loving, deliberative restoration is complete. How fortunate the community was to have had volunteers step in to save the Orpheum two decades ago, so that it could again be entertaining thousands of people each year with movies and performances. Now, the Orpheum deserves all the help it can get as it tackles the rest of the big job, including the full restoration of the Spanish garden-inspired auditorium.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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35 Comments
I can still remember going to see movies that that stately old theater when I was a kid… It was something special… magical sort of… NOW, you go to a theater, stand in line at the concession stand like at a ball game, and go watch a movie in a room that might as well be a lecture hall on a college campus… Nothing very special about that!!
Just for grins… I have to mention that the old Miller Theater was also a stately old edifice, before it was so brutally torn down to make room for “progress” —
Also, the old NOMAR…
Oh hey, anybody here remember the old passion pits… errrr. I mean “drive-ins” ??? The ones I recall are the one over on West St.; and the one on K-42; and up on N. Broadway; and the Twin; and the Meadowlark??
I remember the drive ins. Starlight was another one there. Are any of the drive ins in Wichita still open? The funny thing is that here in Georgia where we have mild winters for the most part (62 today, 70 tomorrow), all of them are closed except one. When I was a kid the main indoor theatres where the Orpheum, Crest, Miller and Boulevard (which showed The Sound of Music for about 3 years!)
“”"Oh hey, anybody here remember the old passion pits… errrr. I mean “drive-ins” ??? The ones I recall are the one over on West St.; and the one on K-42; and up on N. Broadway; and the Twin; and the Meadowlark?? “”"
Check out this site. It has a history of every drive in theatre with pics of many of themhttp://www.driveintheater.com/index.htm
Wichita still has the Starlite drive in. This was formerly the Landmark.
A real loss in movie watching?
The Mall cinema. It seated 800. It’s where all the first three Star Wars films were screened.
The Orpheum is just beautiful…I wish we’d focus more on fixing up some of these old places rather than tear them down and bulding new ones..just think how Wichita could be unique if we restored these great old places. It makes me sick that they tore down the Carlton a few months ago..it would have been great to do something cool with that old building..but I guess having a new arena is more important to the powers that be.
I used to work for Mann Theatres, mostly at the Mall Cinema.Changing the sign, out on Harry, was fun, unless it was really windy. Those big, red, plastic letters would blow pretty far!
The Uptown (Now known as the Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre) was also part of the Mann group. I worked there a few times, too, when it was still showing movies.
I miss the old Crest Theatre. The Crest and the Uptown were where went. Both within walking distance for us College Hill kids.
I am glad that the Uptown was saved.
I used to have an office in the Orpheum Building. It has been nice to watch the progress.
It has been fascinating watching over the years as the Orheum has been restored. So much of the early work (roof etc) didn’t create anything one would notice. But now, with the vestibule done, the beauty of the building begins to show itself. Lets hope that the rest of the restoration might accellerate now.
There’s much to be said for restoring the old.
It teaches our kids history and conservation/preservation of what we have. Valuable in our consume and throw away culture.
Hey, thanks for the reminders on the Crest and Uptown… I think I saw my first Greek mythology movie at the Crest, when I was about 9… the story of the guy and the golden fleece… all of the many headed monsters, etc.
I also remember the old ‘Wichita” Theater on Douglas… that was the one Mother always said showed those “dirty, nasty movies” and had all of those nasty old men hovering around it!! LOL Mother would have been 98 yesterday…
SIMBAD!
LOL
I also remember the Crawford. Sad the Miller was torn down to add to the great downtowngosttown!
Yep thats the one Econ!! Sinbad!!
Where was the Crawford, GMC?? I dont remember that one… not by that name, at least…
How about the Civic, on West Douglas (two blocks west of Sycamore)? A bank now occupies the ground where the Civic Theatre was located.
I remember spending summer nights as a kid watching the drive-in movies from the front yard…we could even hear it if the wind was blowing in the right direction..no “R” rated movies playing at the drive-in back then!Everything was a double feature back then, too.When I went to see “A Hard Day’s Night” at the Orpheum for the fist time, we had to sit through an Elvis movie first!
Ok Len… the Civic rings a bell for me as well… I vaguely remember that one…
Hey Mary — Would that have been the Twin, Meadowlark, or the K-42 that you listened to from your front yard??
“”"I miss the old Crest Theatre. The Crest and the Uptown were where went. Both within walking distance for us College Hill kids.
I am glad that the Uptown was saved.
I used to have an office in the Orpheum Building. It has been nice to watch the progress.”"”
I forgot about the wonderful Uptown Theatre. We used to go there too. They had the 50 cent movies there! I really liked all the stars on the ceiling.
The Crest Theater building was up for a long time late 90s I think.
Another Theater was the Miller Theater on N. Broadway.
“”"I also remember the old ‘Wichita” Theater on Douglas… that was the one Mother always said showed those “dirty, nasty movies” and had all of those nasty old men hovering around it!! LOL Mother would have been 98 yesterday…”"”Everything on Douglas was nasty. That place, Hotel Eaton and all the drunks you had to stumble over in front of Okies bar. Glad to see they have cleaned that up. The one building I was hoping Wichita would restore was Hotel Allis. So much great history in that old place.
One other theater that has not been mentioned is the Palace Theater, which was across the street (south side of Douglas) from the Wichita Theatre. Both were in the 100 block of East Douglas.
When I was a kid and would go to the Orpheum Theatre, it seemed like I was entering an enchanted place. There was something different about it!
The Crawford was on Topeka near Williams.I also remember The Uptown,Sunset,Victory and Wonderland….yes I is old :-)
A friend’s wife remembers the Crawford Theater being just south of downtown, on Topeka Street. It evidently was a stop on the vaudeville circuit, back when that type of entertainment was flourishing.
GMC 70, you just beat me with the post about Crawford Theatre.
how about the Southern at Topeka and Harry
You are not the only one that is old.
Besides the Southern, wasn’t there another theater down in that area, on Harry Street, or thereabouts?
I remember the old Vogue Art (now the Marple) where I saw some of the best movies around. The features were what now would be considered fairly innocent skin flicks, but to keep their status as an “Art House” they showed almost every movie Ingmar Bergman made, a bunch of really good French murder mysteries, Fellini etc. It was a broken-down theater by that time, but the only place in town to see good foreign films.
The Wonderland was at the Ackerman Island amusement park.
Len,The other theater on E. Harry was the Sunset at Harry and Lulu.
Jed, thanks.
Growing up on the west side, we did not get down in the Harry and Broadway area much.
The Civic Theatre was the old stomping grounds. Dime for admission and popcorn and a nickel for a Coke.
For $.50, our folks were able to get rid of my brother and I for a Saturday evening.
I remember also the Palace, Civic, Tower, 54 DI, 81 DI……..
You used to be able to park outside the fence, at a drive in, and pick up the volume, for whatever movie was playing, on your car radio, if you played with the dial a little bit.
The reception wasnt great, but, well, the thrill was in doing it.
Chas..it was the drive-in at Hydralylic and McArthur that is still there today.
We went to the Orpheum Saturday night to see “American English”..it was a great show and the theatre is looking better than ever. What a great restoration they’re doing!