The Sioux City Orpheum, designed originally by Chicago’s Rapp & Rapp in 1927 and reopened in all it opulent glory after a 2001 redesign by FEH Architects with theater restoration specialist Ray Shepardson, GSI Architects, recently became a star in its own right. Filmmaker/photographer and native Sioux Cityan George Lindblade has transformed more than 100 videotapes and thousands of photographs he shot over the last five years into “Puttin on the Glitz,” a just-released documentary telling the building’s rags-to-riches story “from neglected relic to sumptuous showplace.”

Shepardson speculates that the Orpheum may be the most documented theater renovation in the country. The new film tells the tale of a community committed to restoring the Sioux City Orpheum to its rightful place as a premier architectural and historical structure. As a native, Lindblade had watched the 2,600-seat Orpheum, built as part of the vaudeville circuit, fall into decline. The building, which boasted a three-story stage, suffered the further indignities of a 1968 remodeling, then was split into twin movie houses in 1982. These moves chopped off the theater’s balcony and added drop ceilings, concealing intricate painting, plasterwork, and original light fixtures. The theater, closed in 1992, faced the wrecking ball until it received a total pardon, courtesy of the Orpheum Preservation Project, a civic group that raised enough money to save the theater.

Through “Puttin’ on the Glitz,” Lindblade, who has been a photographer for 50 years, follows the Orpheum’s story thereafter, through its successful $12 million restoration, to its “return engagement at the heart of Sioux City’s cultural life.” He tells the impressive tale of how the architects restored the ornamental plasterwork and finishes to their original colors and characters while updating the systems and making the space universally accessible. They restored or replaced the theater’s 300 light fixtures, including its 30-foot-tall cut-crystal chandelier. Perhaps not as visibly opulent, but certainly impressive structurally, FEH engineered replacement of a 17-foot section of concrete balcony cut away when the theater was divided into the twin cinema. The firm also was able to recreate the original loges stripped away during the Orpheum’s downsizing.

Today, the Orpheum serves as a multipurpose performance hall, hosting events this season that include a Singing in the Rain film fest, CATS, the Sioux City Symphony, and the Moscow Ballet’s Swan Lake. And, as Lindblade’s tale and images testify, there may be good reason if eyes wander occasionally from the stage to the magnificent surroundings.

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