The Orpheum Theatre has always been owned and operated by local families, and its rich history indicates that each successive ownership group has treated this venerable building with the care and respect it deserves.
Estevan's first theatre was The Delight that took root in 1910, but its run as a theatre was short-lived as the structure was soon turned into a hospital and then was destroyed by fire.
When Minneapolis-based contractor Emerson McKenzie arrived in Estevan in 1909 to complete the construction of the Empire Hotel under the McKenzie and Sons Construction banner, he determined there was an emerging opportunity to get more involved in the growing town, and he was right. The company was soon involved as the main contractor for the construction of a school, which became Estevan Collegiate Institute, then the Orpheum and later the International Hotel. The International went down in a fire in the 1970s and ECI, which had been turned into a junior high school went under the wrecker's equipment in the early 2000s. But the Orpheum lives on in splendour.
The McKenzie construction company was an impressive one with over 200 employees on the payroll who were well-known for their building prowess across Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as in the northwestern United States.
The Jack McKenzie family operated the theatre and at one point Fred Newcombe, who once served as Estevan's mayor, also became a part-owner/manager.
When Jack McKenzie died in 1940, his son Duane took the reins and by that time the theatre had already undergone changes. Early photographs indicate the theatre had three entrances in the early years with a 600 seat auditorium that not only had a theatre screen, but also retained proper curtains and backdrops for theatrical and musical productions.
The Presbyterian Church used the Orpheum for their Sunday services throughout 1917.
During this period of growth, right up to and past the arrival of talking pictures, Bern Turner was the lead projectionist at the Orpheum, having come over to the operation with the closure of the Delight Theatre. He remained a steadfast employee until his retirement in 1965. Philip Peters was another long-term projectionist who served the operation well for a long time.
Current co-owner Al Dougherty noted that being a projectionist in those early days was not an easy task as two to six reels of film had to be placed in proper sequence, with soundtracks synchronized, and that equipment included carbon arc rods, which had limited life and could also be dangerous when misused, not unlike welding rods of today.
That's why all projection booths are fire-proofed to this day. The projectionist would have to watch closely for the little light flicker at the top of the screen that would signal that it was time to switch reels, start up the second projector that was already loaded with the second reel, and perform a quick switch transition to ensure the movie carried on uninterrupted. The first reel (about 20 minutes worth of film) would be taken off the first projecter that would be re-loaded with reel number three. Reel one would then have to be rewound, usually by a hand crank system, and put back in it's proper metal case. When reel two was ending on projector two, then reel three was ready to show on projector one and so on until all the trailers, news reels, cartoon and the movie ended.
When the Orpheum was cited and presented with the Bronze Plaque of Honor from the Exhibition's Herald World of Chicago in 1930, for it's excellence in sound and movie projection, it was a highlight moment for Orpheum owners and management as well as for Turner and Peters. It was the first bronze plaque awarded to a theatre in Canada.
At that time, talking pictures, which were very new, featured either Vitaphone sound systems or Movietone systems. Vitaphone featured a film and then a sound disc that had to be synchronized with the film so that the actor's lip movements, for instance, were synchronized with the sound. The Movietone system used a sound track concept that placed a notched light value stream alongside the film to provide the synchronized sound with the film.
The Orpheum, it was noted, had taken on the huge investment of $12,000 to install the newest sound/film system, and their employees had embraced it and worked it with perfection, it was said.
If the owners had known that the province and the country were about to be hurled into a near-decade of financial and agricultural depression, perhaps they wouldn't have made the bold move since the downward spiral of the economy placed a number of challenges for all businesses that didn't at least serve the basic needs of households.
Admission to the talking pictures then was a mere 20 cents for adults and a dime for children. That illustrates the significance of the $12,000 investment in projection equipment.
Earlier on, public attendance at a movie theatre was considered to be a bit of low-brow entertainment and no self-respecting actors would lower themselves to be a part of the scene. But that all changed when the newly emerging Hollywood and director D.W. Griffiths produced the game-changing Birth of a Nation, a grand spectacular movie that caught the attention of the masses. When the film arrived in Estevan to be played at the Orpheum, the admission prices were raised to $1.50 and even $2 due to the significance and scope of the production and its costs.
The Orpheum's historical notes state that the theatre had been playing host to a number of civic drama productions as well as lecture series shortly after opening. In December of 1919, The Great Blackstone, a magician, played before a local audience with reserved seats being sold for as much as one dollar.
In 1918 the community put on a Pageant of Famous Women promoted by Mrs. Duncan of the I.O.D.E. that featured period costumes.
There was also the Orpheum's Guessing Contest with the winner taking home $50 if they could correctly guess the number of kernels in the jar in the lobby.
One of Hollywood's first $1 million movies, A Daughter of the Gods, starring Annette Kellerman also played at the Orpheum with adults being admitted for 50 cents and children for 25 cents with the theatre offering a money-back guarantee if the film and story didn't meet the viewer's expectations.
By 1919, the famed vaudeville circuit that had come to Estevan on a regular basis, was in jeopardy, and the Orpheum announced that the last vaudeville show of the season, and perhaps ever, would be staged on Dec. 2 due to lack of interest in the more recent productions.
But if vaudeville was dying, the St. Giles Dramatic Society wasn't in 1919 and their Dec. 11 production entitled Uncle, played to an enthusiastic local audience.
Prior to that, there had been a mass meeting of returned soldiers, held in the Orpheum on Nov. 30 to help the returned men re-establish in the community and provide a series of lectures for the future. The event also featured the music of the Big Four Orchestra.
During the First World War, the Orpheum hosted a number of Red Cross nights, and by the fall of 1919, management stated the theatre would have to close for a few nights while they installed a new dual heating plant that would increase the comfort level for patrons.
By the end of the Second World War, the Orpheum had established itself as a "go-to" establishment for news as well as entertainment.
In the 1950s, the theatre conducted a popular Best Waitress competition that was won by Joyce Smyth with W. Blomberg and Hazel Lutes as first and second runner-ups. Then there was a 30-voice choral concert in May of 1950, and in the fall, the Orpheum ran a serious gut-wrenching 18-minute documentary on the recent Winnipeg flood.
The Muss family entered the Orpheum picture in the early 1960s, taking ownership in 1962. With Frank Muss' passing in 1990 the theatre continued in the family, with sons Earl and Chuck and daughter Alice King assuming ownership with Earl and Alice continuing on the operations side.
"The Muss family really wanted to sell to another family, not a corporation, so Jocelyn and I made the decision and the move because we were very interested in doing just that," said Allan Dougherty. They took full ownership by 1998.
"Even sitting in the theatre back then I envisioned two screens, but not necessarily just cutting the existing theatre in two and running a wall between them. Some theatres did that, and it didn't work well for sound or convenience," he said.
That's when the time became right to start building a second screen for the theatre and the Doughertys decided to do it right. This also marks their second round of upgrading the sound systems that includes individual sound enhancement and the surround sound. Major renovations a few years earlier included the installation of new and much more comfortable and convenient seats in Cinema 1.
During the week of celebration beginning with that first talkie, the Alibi on April 6, the Orpheum will feature big films from each decade throughout the week.
To mark the 1930s and 1940s, they'll be showing the Marx Brothers Go West for the early feature on April 7 and Dodge City for the second feature.
On April 8, they salute the 1950s and 1960s with Lady and the Tramp on the early screen and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds for the later feature.
On April 9, it's time to celebrate movies of the 1970s and 1980s with Meatballs for the early picture and Rain Man for the late show.
Topping off the movie side on April 10 will be films from the 1990s and 2000's featuring My Big Fat Greek Wedding early and The Sixth Sense as the 9 p.m. feature.
The grand finale on Friday and Saturday will feature the music of renowned guitarist Jack Semple and his band on Friday and Alan Frew of Glass Tiger and his band, on Saturday night with advance concert tickets on sale at Henders Drugs across the street or at the Orpheum 306-634-3409.
