When it opened October 26, 1921, the 3,880-seat theater was promoted as the "Wonder Theatre of the World". Capacity crowds packed the theater during its opening week for the First National Pictures feature "The Sign on the Door" starring Norma Talmadge. Other attractions included a 50-piece orchestra, famed organist Jesse Crawford at the 26-rank Wurlitzer theatre organ—"Oh, yes, it was mighty," recalled Orson Welles— and a live stage show. Poet Carl Sandburg, reporting for the "Chicago Tribune", wrote that mounted police were required for crowd control. The theater's strategy of enticing movie patrons with a plush environment and top notch service (including the pioneering use of air conditioning) was emulated nationwide.