Morris Meyerfeld Jr. (November 17, 1855 – June 20, 1935) was a German-born American entrepreneur who through the Orpheum Circuit dominated the vaudeville market west of the Mississippi for nearly two decades.

[6][7][8] Morris, Joseph (Josef) and Jesse (Jesaja) all went on to be merchants engaged in similar lines of commerce as their uncle Moses Meyerfeld (1829–1892), a San Franciscan cigar wholesaler who came to California from Germany in 1850.

[9][10] In 1879 Meyerfeld was asked to take over operation of a successful dry goods store in Vallejo, California by the shop's owner, his maternal uncle, Salomon Dannebaum.

Also known as the Orpheum Opera House, the 3,500 seat venue on O'Farrell Street between Stockton and Powell was built by Gustav Walter in 1887 and was for a time the most luxurious theater in the West.

[15] Walter, a native of Prussia, became successful at the Orpheum putting on variety shows that appealed to wide audiences often with exotic acts from the East Coast and Europe rarely seen in the West.

With his success in San Francisco Walter began to expand his organization, by then known as the Orpheum Circuit, to include leases on theaters in Los Angeles and Kansas City.

[19] Meyerfeld had the means to purchase the outstanding shares of the Orpheum Circuit from Walter's heirs before launching an aggressive expansion of their operation west of the Mississippi River with the help of Martin Beck, his gifted general manager.

[30] Today the Palace Theatre in Los Angeles, the third Orpheum built in that city, is the oldest remaining theater in the nation that was constructed under Meyerfeld's stewardship; celebrating its centennial year on June 26, 2011.

Designed by architect Bernard Maybeck, the Roos home on 3500 Jackson Street cost $36,000 to construct, a princely sum for the time, and is today considered a San Francisco landmark.