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.