The Mural

Master designer, Tony Heinsbergen, wanted to put a mural on the ceiling of the newly renovated Orpheum but that wasn't in the budget. Tony kept arguing that the ceiling needed a mural and the architects kept having to say no. Finally Heinsbergen made them an offer they couldn't refuse so the architects paid for the mural out of their own pockets. (Eventually they were able to get the Vancouver Foundation to reimburse them the monies.)

During the winter of 1975/76 the mural was painted on 24 large canvas panels in his Los Angeles studio. Heinsbergen and his 61-year-old cousin and associate of 45 years, Frank Bouman, oversaw the work.  The panels were then shipped to Vancouver where they attached to the dome. Heinsbergen, Bouman and their assistants then added final details and background on the site.

The mural that Heinsbergen and his staff created may be mythical but some of the people in the painting are based on real people. There is a bearded man serenading a muse and that man is architect Paul Merrick. Merrick supplied Heinsbergen with photos of his children and they are up there in different guises as well. There is a tiger in the mural and that is to represent Heinsbergen's Nova Scotia born wife who Tony referred to as his 'little tiger'. Project architect Ron Nelson is the man conducting the orchestra.

Leonard Frank took this photo on February 9, 1928. From the Vancouver Public Library.

The mural was 75 feet by 50 feet. The technique that Heinsbergen used to attach the canvas to the dome, to make it flexible enough, was a formula that his master in the Netherlands had used. Before sailing to the United States, Heinsbergen had asked his master for his secret. As Heinsbergen went to board the ship that would take him to his new land, his master gave him an envelope he was to open once at sea. In it was the formula and Heinsbergen used that for over seventy years.

Heinsbergen told a Los Angeles interviewer that he was most proud of the mural he created for the Vancouver Orpheum. (He celebrated his 82nd birthday while working on it) His previous decoration that he had done in 1927 had been covered with felt and plastered over. This time though his work should remain for people to see for many more decades.

Leonard Frank January 2, 1929. Vancouver Public Library.

Leonard Frank, August 1932. Vancouver Public Library.

The Mural.

The Orpheum wasn't Heinsbergen's first foray into Vancouver. He had worked on the former Orpheum in 1918. From 1916 to 1924, he visited three times to work on the first Pantages Theatre, which was at 20 West Hastings.

On June 14, 1981, at the age of 86, Tony Heinsbergen died. However, the work has left behind will be admired for generations to come.

This blog entry first appeared in May of 2012.

For those of you who have read my book Missing Flowers, the house that Devon and Darius rented an apartment in was inspired by the house in the back.

Thank you goes to The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty  around you.

The Orpheum Revisited

On Saturday, my mother and I went on a tour of the Orpheum theatre and I got lots of photos. So I am going to rerun some of my earlier entries on the Orpheum theatre with the new images. Enjoy.

Founded in 1886, the Orpheum Circuit was a string of vaudeville and movie theatres in North America. Vaudeville impresario Gustav Walter started the circuit.  Walter opened a 3500 seat Orpheum Opera House in San Francisco that proved to be quite popular and successful.

Walter opened more Orpheums in Sacramento and Los Angeles but soon became financially overextended. He sold the popular theatres to Morris Meyerfield in order to cover a $50,000 liquor bill.

Meyefield hired Martin Beck to manage the theatres. Beck expanded the chain further. On December 22, 1919, the Orpheum Circuit was incorporated in Delaware.

In 1927, the Orpheum Circuit merged with the Keith-Albee theatre chain to become Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) and the year after that it merged with an FBO film company under the aegis RCA. Now we had Radio-Keith-Orpheum, RKO. RKO consisted of the theatre chain and a film studio, Radio Pictures that was to become one of the major Hollywood studios in the 1930s and 1940s.

This brings us to Vancouver's Orpheum Theatre on Granville Street. It was designed by B. Marcus Priteca and Frederick J. Peters. It was financed by local entrepreneur Joseph F. Langer.

This Orpheum - our second - was built in 1927 and cost 1.25 million dollars.

With three thousand seats, our Orpheum was the biggest theatre in Canada when it opened. It must have been so exciting for the first manager William A. Barnes. Such prestige.

However, by the early 1930s, vaudeville's heyday was at an end and the Orpheum became primarily a movie house although live shows were featured occasionally. The grand theatre was under the ownership of Famous Players.

In  1973 Vancouerites were called to action when Famous Players proposed gutting the ornate interior and changing this beauty into a multiplex. A 'Save the Orpheum' campaign began and Jack Benny even flew into Vancouver to show his support.

The City of Vancouver, in combination with the provincial and federal government, purchased the theatre on March 19, 1974.

November 1975 saw the Orpheum close while the architectural firm Thomson, Berwick, Pratt and Partners did the renovation and restoration. Tony Heinsbergen, who you may remember from Monday's entry, was the man who worked with Priteca on the interior design, was brought in to help with the restoration. The interior is apparently gorgeous but I have never seen it.

Since the Orpheum has reopened in 1977 it has been the permanent home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and in 1979 the federal government deemed the building to be a National Historic Site of Canada. Jim Pattison donated the neon sign in the 1970s.

Of course, since Vancouver is a place that is used often for the filming of movies and TV shows, the Orpheum and its neon sign have been used in a few shows such as Battlestar Galactica and The Fringe.

A few Orpheum theatres around North America that are still operating. In New York City, East Village a 1904 Orpheum Theatre is still open. Boston has a 1906 building; a 1911 one in Los Angeles; another 1911 in Flagstaff, Arizona'; one built in 1918 in New Orleans (I don't know if that survived Hurricane Katrina though, my information may be outdated); built in 1921 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; 1922 in Wichita, Kansas; there are 1926 versions in Los Angeles, Madison, Wisconsin, and San Francisco; those theatres built in 1927 include Vancouver, Omaha, Nebraska and Sioux City, Iowa; a 1928 version in Memphis and a 1929 theatre in Phoenix.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the above information. And to the historical plaque outside the Orpheum Theatre on Granville Street.

This entry was originally published on May 9, 2012. I will have more entries with interior photos this week.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

The Mural That Almost Never Was

When I left you on Friday I had just finished telling you about how master designer, Tony Heinsbergen, wanted to put a mural on the ceiling of the newly renovated Orpheum but that wasn't in the budget. Tony kept arguing that the ceiling needed a mural and the architects kept having to say no. Finally Heinsbergen made them an offer they couldn't refuse so the architects paid for the mural out of their own pockets. (Eventually they were able to get the Vancouver Foundation to reimburse them the monies.)

During the winter of 1975/76 the mural was painted on 24 large canvas panels in his Los Angeles studio. Heinsbergen and his 61-year-old cousin and associate of 45 years, Frank Bouman, oversaw the work.  The panels were then shipped to Vancouver where they attached to the dome. Heinsbergen, Bouman and their assistants then added final details and background on the site.

The mural that Heinsbergen and his staff created may be mythical but some of the people in the painting are based on real people. There is a bearded man serenading a muse and that man is architect Paul Merrick. Merrick supplied Heinsbergen with photos of his children and they are up there in different guises as well. There is a tiger in the mural and that is to represent Heinsbergen's Nova Scotia born wife who Tony referred to as his 'little tiger'. Project architect Ron Nelson is the man conducting the orchestra.

The mural was 75 feet by 50 feet. The technique that Heinsbergen used to attach the canvas to the dome, to make it flexible enough, was a formula that his master in the Netherlands had used. Before sailing to the United States, Heinsbergen had asked his master for his secret. As Heinsbergen went to board the ship that would take him to his new land, his master gave him an envelope he was to open once at sea. In it was the formula and Heinsbergen used that for over seventy years.

Heinsbergen told a Los Angeles interviewer that he was most proud of the mural he created for the Vancouver Orpheum. (He celebrated his 82nd birthday while working on it) His previous decoration that he had done in 1927 had been covered with felt and plastered over. This time though his work should remain for people to see for many more decades.

The Orpheum wasn't Heinsbergen's first foray into Vancouver. He had worked on the former Orpheum in 1918. From 1916 to 1924, he visited three times to work on the first Pantages Theatre, which was at 20 West Hastings.

On June 14, 1981, at the age of 86, Tony Heinsbergen died. However, the work has left behind will be admired for generations to come.

Thank you goes to The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Tony Heinsbergen, vaudeville, Marcus Priteca, Paul Merrick, British Columbia