Orpheum Theatre

The Orpheum Theatre was a bioscope erected on the corner of Jeppe Street and Joubert Street in Johannesburg and opened in December 1911. In 1919 it was converted into a double-storey building and later converted to a department store named Anstley's, before being demolished in the 1935 and the Anstley’s Building erected in its place.

The theatre possibly opened with a showing of the first of fictional South African film The Great Kimberley Diamond Robbery, (R.C.E. Nissen), on 11 December 1911 in the evening, having premiéred at the Tivoli Theatre that afternoon.

The first film with synchronised sound effects and musical track, Don Juan[1] (1926), was also shown there.

Sources

Marc Latilla, Theatres in early Johannesburg in Johannesburg 1912 – Suburb by suburb research[2]

Sunday Times of 21 June 1914,