Private Collection: Orpheum Theater Grand Re-Opening Ticket

This admission ticket was issued to those who were invited to attend the grand re-opening event on September 15, 2001. It is also a collector item for the attendees. The admissions ticket is in a private collection in NW Iowa.

Previous articles in the series:
Private Collection: Kodak Partytime Instant Camera
Private Collection: Kiwi Shoe Server Kit
Private Collection: 1930's Listerine Bottle
Private Collection: The New Orpheum 80th Anniversary Commemorative Merlot Bottle
Private Collection: Fat's Inagural Great Beer Ride Across Iowa Bottle
Private Collection: Odell Brewing and Boulevard Brewing Companies Silver Anniversary Bottle
Private Collection: 2012 Model A Day Lager Bottle
Private Collection: c.1961 Motorola Record Player
Private Collection: California Raisin
Private Collection: Bedtime Bert
Private Collection: Idora Beaute Container
Private Collection: Standard Bearings Bottle Top
Private Collection: Vintage J. R. Watkins Menthol Camphor Container
Private Collection: Moosehaven, Florida Anniversary Plate
Private Collection: 1960 Coronado Dog Tax
Private Collection: Barley Dog Tag
Private Collection: Glenwood Safety Patrol Badge
Private Collection: 1964 Journeyman Plumber Coin
Private Collection: 1961 Park Forest Dog License
Private Collection: Langridge Drugs Tiny Bond
Private Collection: 1970's Baby Cloth Diaper Safety Pin
Private Collection: Midge Toy Die Cast Car
Private Collection: Cub Scouts 50th Anniversary Mug
Private Collection: Vintage Monopoly Game Piece
Private Collection: Rengo Obesity Treatment Box Lid
Private Collection: Air Way Auto Compass
Private Collection: Norlund Ice Cleat
Private Collection: 1970's Hy-Vee Sugar Free Root Beer Can
Private Collection: Outers No. 444 Gunslick Gun Cleaning Solvent
Private Collection: Taber's Floex Metal Gasket Cement Bottle
Private Collection: Matchbook, Elliott Lumber and Coal
Private Collection: Matchbook, The Tiki
Private Collection: Matchbook, The Tin Cup Restaurant, El Mirador Cocktail Lounge, and Hotel Francis
Private Collection: Matchbook, Turn Style
Private Collection: Matchbook, Baker Auto Parts
Private Collection: Matchbook, Union Bank
Private Collection: 1930's to 1940's Hamms Beer Can
Private Collection: 1930's to 1940's Stag Beer Can
Private Collection: The Great Muppet Caper Glasses
Private Collection: Smurf Glasses, Smurfette
Private Collection: A&W Dancing Bear Glass
Private Collection: Fly Fishing Reel
Private Collection: 4th Brewing Company Beer Coasters
Private Collection: Twirling Baton
Private Collection: Pipes and Pipe Stand
Private Collection: Depression era Rittenhouse Door Chime
Private Collection: 1960's Ceramic Duck

Private Collection: Vintage Air Pump

Private Collection: Auto Strop Safety Razor
Private Collection: Hemming Reloading Service Ammunition Box
Private Collection: 1984 Chicago Cubs
Private Collection: Late 1950's, Early 1960's Tonka Allied Moving Truck
Private Collection: Schwinn American Advertisement
Private Collection: 1992 Topps Micro Baseball Cards
Private Collection: 1966 Batman Pin
Private Collection: Barilla Plus Souvenir Hacky Sack
Private Collection: Brian Duffy RAGBRAI Cartoon Cube
Private Collection: RAGBRAI Playing Cards
Private Collection: RAGBRAI XXVI, 1998
Private Collection: RAGBRAI XXXVI, 2008 Souvenir
Private Collection: RAGBRAI XXXVIII, 2010 Souvenir
Private Collection: RAGBRAI XLIV, 2006 Souvenir
Private Collection: RAGBRAI XLIII, 2015 Souvenir
Private Collection: 1985 Polish Postage Stamp
Private Collection: Bicycle Poker Chip
Private Collection: Bicycle Tournament Coin
Private Collection: 1972 Munich Olympic Games Cycling Pin
Private Collection: 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games Russian Soviet Cycling Pin
Private Collection: 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Cycling Pins, Magnet, and Coin
Private Collection: Marineland Pennant
Private Collection: Chicago Cubs 1984 N.L. East Division Champions Pennant
Private Collection: Iowa Cubs Pennant

Orpheum Electric Building

The previous building where the current Orpheum Building now stands was the Woodbury County Courthouse. This area of downtown Sioux City was also used to build the corn palaces every year.

 Designed by a prominent New York and Chicago architectural firm known throughout the country for their work with the Orpheum theater circuit, Rapp & Rapp, the Orpheum Electic Building was completed in 1927. The building is of eclectic design in the French Renaissance Revival style with some Art Deco influences. In its time the theater was one of Sioux City’s most opulent spaces with sweeping arches, long promenades, large foyers opened to a cavernous auditorium with six story tall hand stenciled, gilded ceiling and three immense crystal chandeliers.

From 1927 until 1937 the theater served as a venue for vaudeville and movies, both silent and “talkies”. After 1937 talking movies became the theater’s staple entertainment with only intermittent touring stage productions.


Best known for its theater the building also houses commercial space. In 1949 four additional floor were added to the commercial block when the Sioux City Gas and Electric Company took occupancy as the building’s major tenant.. The theater space itself reach 6 stories in the center of the building.


Over the years the theater was not used as often for live productions. In 1982 it was "twinned" or cut into two small movie houses, and a wall of sheet rock was placed down the center aisle. These movie theaters operated until 1992 when for the first time in 65 years, the Orpheum went dark.

The reconstruction and restoration to return the Orpheum Theater to its original beauty was started in 1999. Overseen by Ray Shepardson, with the expertise of architect Ed Storm from FEH Associates in Sioux City at a cost of nearly $12 million the restoration was completed in 2001 and on September 15, the Orpheum Theater held its Grand Reopening. The theater has hosted many talented live acts over the last 12 years. It has become one of Sioux City's crown jewels.