an elegant theatre. Five high class vaudeville acts were presented, headlined by singer and comedian Herman Timberg, who had appeared a few weeks earlier at Chicago's Palace Theater. The evening closed with moving pictures. The manager was C. S. Harris. The Orpheum was the main vaudeville stop in Champaign and Urbana, and a member of the noted Orpheum Circuit. It played host to many famous vaudevillians, including Trixie Friganza, Red Skelton, Harry Houdini (1923), Chic Sale, Virginia Sale, Will Rogers (1915), the Marx Brothers (1918), Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1921), Jack Benny (1922), Bob Hope (1928), and Burns & Allen (1929). A few of the now classic films shown during the Orpheum's long history include Birth of A Nation (1916), Intolerance (1917), City Lights (1931), Gone With the Wind (1940 & 1968), Dumbo (1941), A Streetcar Named Desire (1952), Mister Roberts (1955), and A Hard Day's Night (1964). During the Orpheum's vaudeville period, part of the theater's second floor served as a boarding house, often housing African Americans at a time when local hotels practiced racial discrimination. As a cinema In the 1920s RKO Pictures began operating the Orpheum Theatre (it also operated the nearby Virginia Theater). Under the management of RKO, the theater was increasingly devoted to the screening of films, rather than to live performance in the vaudeville tradition. In 1967 a major renovation created a modern appearance by adding an aluminum facade and redoing the lobby. In 1971 GKC Theaters purchased the Orpheum, as the theater struggled to remain profitable. In 1982 GKC leased it, as part of an attempt to recast the Orpheum as an art house. After this attempt failed, the Orpheum briefly returned to screening first run films, before finally closing in 1986, screening the trick slasher film April Fool's Day as the theater's final showing. Preservation and Children's Museum The Champaign Preservation and Conservation Association (PACA) sponsored a public meeting on April 8, 1989, in response to plans to raze the now closed and deteriorating theater. This meeting was held to gauge public interest in saving the Orpheum Theatre. The City of Champaign purchased the Orpheum and adjacent building as a site for a possible parking deck in January 1990. The city allowed 45 PACA volunteers to spend Saturday, July 7, 1990, removing the aluminum facade to reveal the original look of the building and to assess any damage. PACA hired theatre consultant Michael