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Published April 23, 2010, 12:00 AM

The old Orpheum and NorShor theaters

Photos from days gone by of the Orpheum vaudeville theater and the NorShor movie theater that replaced it.


Postcard of the Orpheum Theatre, built in 1910 as a vaudeville theater. The entrance was on Second Avenue East. Photo provided by Sheldon Aubut http://www.duluthhistory.com

  • Postcard of the Orpheum Theatre, built in 1910 as a vaudeville theater. The entrance was on Second Avenue East. Photo provided by Sheldon Aubut http://www.duluthhistory.com
  • The Temple Opera building was originally six stories high and featured a Moorish Tower. However, in 1942, the top three stories of the building were removed to free up the view of the building up the hill. Also, owner G.G. hartley disliked the style contrast with his classical Orpheum Theatre, on the left side of the photo. Photo provided by Sheldon Aubut http://www.duluthhistory.com
  • An artistic ornamental iron canopy was placed over the entrance, extending out over the sidewalk “in such a manner that patrons of the house may step from a carriage even in the heaviest rain, without getting wet," the Sunday News Tribune reported when the Orpheum Theater opened in August 1910. Photo credit NEMHCs2386b9f18orpheum.
  • In 1940, famous Midwestern theater architect J.J. Liebenberg extensively remodeled and redesigned the theater in an art deco fashion and made it into the NorShor, a premier movie theater. Patrons would enter from Superior Street instead of Second Avenue East. Photo provided by Sheldon Aubut, more at www.duluthhistory.com.
  • The original projector at the NorShor. Photo provided by Sheldon Aubut, more at www.duluthhistory.com.
  • Architect J.J. Liebenberg wrote that "the easy flow of the plan is particularly emphasized in the auditorium, which at no point has walls which are either parallel or straight in line." This photo was likely taken shortly after the NorShor opened in 1941. DNT file photo.
  • The NorShor tower had 3,000 lights and was visible from 60 miles.The impressive white tower was removed in March 1967. The theater’s management told the Duluth Herald that “maintenance on the structure had become too great.”