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Overview

The Orpheum Theatre #1 held an important place in the history of theatre in San Francisco. According to the boosterish publication, San Francisco, the Financial, Commercial and Industrial Metropolis of the Pacific Coast, (1915), this house stood at the center of a large national vaudeville circuit that had developed by the mid-1910s. It stated: "Vaudeville developed its best form in this city, and the San Francisco Orpheum is the mother theater of the famous 'Orpheum Circuit,' which supplies vaudeville entertainment in Chicago, New York, and a hundred other cities throughout the United States, and which has affiliations all over England and Scotland." (See Greater San Francisco Chamber of Commerce,San Francisco, the Financial, Commercial and Industrial Metropolis of the Pacific Coast, [San Francisco: H.S. Crocker Company, 1915], p. 127.)

Gustav Walter (d. 1898), a German-born impresario of theater and vaudeville productions, had, by 1890, built the Orpheum #1 into one of the most popular theatres in San Francsico, a city with a rich theatrical history. By the 1890s, he sharpened his focus to presenting high-quality vaudeville shows, but ran into financial trouble, owing large amounts to his theatre's liquor supplier, German immigrant Morris Meyerfeld, Jr., (1855-1935). Meyerfeld became a business partner of Walter's in lieu of the $50,000 owed to him. Meyerfeld and Walter steadily built the circuit into a national one, establishing Orpheum theatres in Los Angeles (1894), Sacramento (leasing the Clunie Opera House in 1897), Kansas City (leasing the 9th Street Theatre in 1898), Omaha (the former Creighton Theatre [1895] purchased by Orpheum in 1898), and Denver (built by the Orpheum Circuit in 1903). Walter died from appendicitis complications in 1898, but Meyerfeld continued the business with the Slovakian-born theatrical company officer, Martin Beck (1868-1940). Meyerfeld and Beck made agreements with East Coast promoters on sharing talent, producing a virtual monopoly that lasted until about 1910.

Building History

The above-mentioned book, San Francisco, the Financial, Commercial and Industrial Metropolis of the Pacific Coast,indicated that Gustav Walter founded this Orpheum Theatre: ""The Orpheum was built on its present site in 1887, by Gustav Walter, who had been successfully conducting a music hall called 'The Fountain' in the Thurlow block on Kearny Street, and the Germania Gardens, in the Mission." (See Greater San Francisco Chamber of Commerce,San Francisco, the Financial, Commercial and Industrial Metropolis of the Pacific Coast, [San Francisco: H.S. Crocker Company, 1915], p. 128.) Under Walter, the Orpheum Theatre #1 opened on 06/30/1887, rapidly becoming one of the top theatres in the city.

Demolition

The Orpheum Theatre #1 was demolished in the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 04/18-19/1906.

PCAD id: 13495