The largest theatre in Canada opens its doors for the first time with a screening of the comedy The Wise Wife and vaudeville performances featuring comedian Pat Denning, dancing duo Chaney and Fox, and the antics of Toto the clown.
The ornate, 3,000-seat Orpheum Theatre, known at the time as the New Orpheum, was designed by Scottish architect Marcus Priteca and cost $1.25 million to build.
Its style is a mix of Romanesque, Moorish, Gothic and Spanish Renaissance elements typical of larger North American cinemas in the late 1920s.
Now a live entertainment venue, one of three operated by the Vancouver Civic Theatres group, it was declared a national historic site in 1979.
