Palace Theatre

A friend of mine from high school worked here as an elevator operator during the mid seventies, and he brought me in to see the theater and Bette Midler’s show. Both were pretty mindblowing

And at Christmas it was at the Palace?????????????

“Mexican Spitfire’s Baby”! Lupe Velez! Leon Errol! Buddy Rogers! Zazu Pitts! Not only what many consider to be the greatest movie of all, but as part of a double feature that I imagine has to have been the greatest double feature of all! An inspired pairing—I never knew that it happened that way.

Here is the ad from the Richard Burton Electronovision version of Hamlet. It opened at the RKO Palce and on the RKO neighborhood run 2 a day.

View link

Throughout most of the 1970s it was a Broadway House, and did not show movies.

“Was there a roadshow re-release of Ben Hur? I remember seing it in my suburban L.A. neighborhood theater before I graduated from high school in 1962.” (Joe Vogel)

For the premiere dates and other details, see:

“Ben-Hur” original L.A. roadshow release:
View link

L.A. roadshow re-issue
View link

New York original roadshow:
View link

New York roadshow re-issue:
View link

In my above post I forgot to add that all of the RKO theatres playing “Santa” had a Christmas magic show and santa live at each theatre on stage for Sat & Sun matinees.

“Nuremburg” opened roadshow at the Palace.

In response to a comment made on this thread early on, I think “Judgement at Nuremburg” played on reserved seat at the DeMille Theatre (Embassy 2-3-4). I am not 100% sure and maybe someone else would be. When that movie was released, I was in high school. However, I remember being in NYC during its release and I thought I remember walking past the DeMille and it was showing there. Anyone else want to hazard a guess?

Believe it or not, “Pillow Talk” with Doris Day and Rock Hudson played the Palace ( day dating with the new Murray Hill) in the fall of 1959.. I think the management of Radio City Music Hall must have been out of their minds, booking “ A Summer Place” instead.. Yikes! Subsequently, all of the other Doris Day romantic comedies played the Music Hall.

The RKO Palace. No one else would open. Hearst scared everyone away.

I think the Palace “really” permanently reopened as a “legit” Broadway theater with the opening of “Sweet Charity” on January 29, 1966. If I recall correctly, it was the Nederlander (?) organization’s first New York theater, and at that time they were trying to break into the New York theater scene.

It seems to me that from this point on, the Palace has always been primarily a “legit” theater with, mostly musicals like “Henry Sweet Henry” (1967), “George M” (1968) “Applause” (1970), Lorelei (1974) being booked into the house.

There is an apparently complete list of “legit” shows that have played at this theater at the Internet Broadway Database website. Here’s a link:

http://www.ibdb.com/venue.asp?ID=1317

RobertR mentions that the Palace also occasionally played movies between “Sweet Charity” and the late 1970’s. I don’t remember this — although it is certainly possible. My guess, though, is that if it did play movies, it was as a special event or a limited engagement and not because the theater owners were back in the movie business. I say this (and it’s only a guess), because after “Sweet Charity,” it seemed to me that the Palace was considered one of Broadway’s “prime” theaters, especially for musicals.

By the way, as a teenager, I stood outside the Palace on its “opening” (as a Broadway theater) night, just to see what it would be like. I vaguely recall also standing outside some other Broadway theaters on other opening nights too (at least until late afternoon or very early in the evening) to see what they were like, and the few that I “attended” were somewhat low-keyed and disappointing. The opening for “Sweet Charity” (and its “new” Broadway theater) however, was a “classic” opening night. I suspect this was because the people connected with the show were considered Broadway “royalty” (Verdon, Fosse, Fields, Simon, Coleman, etc.) and because of the special “fabled” nature of the “new” theater being premiered as a “legit” Broadway playhouse.

For a minute or two, the people standing next to me observing this scene was a young actor-singer whom I had seen on, if I recall correctly, the “Tonight” show and a friend (or agent). The actor-singer was the then up-and-coming John Davidson.