Theaters Stories

We received two tickets to see Italian Bel Canto Opera last Saturday, at the Orpheum, a last minute surprise.

Orpheum Theater Phoenix AZ digital image by Fung Lin Hall
Retouched digital image of the restored Orpheum Theater Phoenix Arizona

Stanley Theater by Hiroshi Sugimoto
Stanley Theater by Hiroshi Sugimoto

I received this email from Janet Paparelli when I described my experience at the Orpheum Theater in Phoenix.

When I was a child, my parents used to take me to a movie theater that looked just like your Orpheum. I remember at the age of 7 or 8, just running around the balcony lobby and pretending. There were benches covered with red velvet cushions and small ponds everywhere with small fish and gurgling water. The balcony railing was this gold baroque design. I used to play that I was a royal princess, it was so much fun. The sky inside the theater itself was blue and when the lights were dimmed for the movie to start there were crowds of stars. There were small boxes where nobody really sat, you know, the kind you would find in a Degas or Renoir painting. They hung off the side walls just waiting for royalty to arrive, and nobody royal ever came, I guess, because they were always empty. That was the Stanley Theater in Jersey City. Much more royal than the Gusman here in Miami which has been restored. I am not sure that that theater is even there any more. It was the most elegant. It became a temple for one of those groups that knocks at your door to tell you that Jesus loves you

Janet then found on youtube about the theater. 2007 Follow the Christ Convention Photos

Art Deco Neon Orinda Theater Art Deco Neon (Image source)

I grew up in Orinda—and hated it, try being one of the lone Jews among the WASPS in the 70s, but at the theater, staring at the walls painted with long-haired women, soaring upwards against blue and stars… I could forget for awhile.
a comment from here

The Only Cool Thing in Orinda (A stunning photo from flickr)

Orinda was shaken by a tragedy when a cheerleader was murdered in revenge for bullying by another student 0n June 24, 1984 when this blogger and her family lived there. (Fifteen minutes from Berkeley, conservative Orinda hides its troubled residents in leafy beautiful redwood exteriors.)

Orinda Theater by Hiroshi Sugimoto

See more and read Hiroshi Sugimoto’s statement