Palace Theatre
1564 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1564 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
23 people
favorited this theater
Showing 201 - 225 of 292 comments
Wow Warren, so you were talking about the this Palace. When did the last show close there, and what show was it? This is really a shame, because this theater shouldn’t be closed.
Why would it be such a long time for the Palace to find a new tenant?
It was supposed to get Mame but a production of that size seems no longer a propect on Broadway. Something big is coming in in the fall.
While we’re at it I hate that they got rid of the great facade and put up a slick plastic looking front. I can’t believe people are paid a ton of money to come up with these horrible new designs. Contemporary architecture not global warming will be the end of the human race.
Bway you must be very very young. Lucky you!
I remember seeing Beauty and the Beast at the Palace. I had no idea it used to show movies there at one time, I thought it was always a live theater. The theater was beautiful inside, I had balcony seats for Beauty and the Beast.
Warren,did RKO have a Broadway Movie House for first run films?
In Dean and Me written by Jerry Lewis the Palace is mentioned as being one of the many theatres that Martin & Lewis performed over their 10 years together. Is this the theatre?
1962 Judgement at Nuremberg
View link
The first souvenir programs I purchased for “Ben Hur”, “Spartacus,” “How The West Was Won”, and a few others, were hard bound programs. I think they cost $1 or $5! Then later they changed to glossy paper covers. I have about 20-25 in my collection from various roadshow films back in the 50’s and 60’s.
EdSolero: It’s been a couple of months since you asked about roadshow souvenir programs, but here’s what I know about them:
They were usually about nine by twelve inches or larger, contained 32 pages or more, were printed on heavy, glossy paper, with a slightly heavier paper cover. They contained pictures of the stars, stills from the movie, behind-the-scenes photos, text about the movie, the actors, the director and producer, the composer of the score, etc. There was no advertising in them, unlike the free playbills given out at legitimate theatres. The roadshow programs were not free. I only ever bought one of them, myself, at the roadshow of the original release of Lawrence of Arabia, at the Warner Theatre in Beverly Hills. I think it cost a dollar. (My balcony ticket for a Wednesday matinee was only a dollar fifty, if I recall correctly. The booklets would have been too costly to give away, with some ticket prices being that low.)
These souvenir programs are sometimes available in the movie memorabilia section of eBay, though the sellers' photographs of them don’t give a very good idea of what they are really like. I would suppose that retail shops specializing in movie memorabilia would also sometimes have them for sale, so if there is such a shop in your area, you might be able to get a close look at an example.
>>>>ALSO!
Not sure if this is the right theater, but from old photos compard to what I saw, the Palace Theater, Staten Island, New York, is in ruins, closed.
It’s located on Richmond Terrace, which is a long street that runs along the north shore of the island.
Some GREAT old postcard renderings of many New York theaters and other landmarks can be found at this website:
View link
I am looking for info on Percival “Patty” Roberts, my great-grandfather, stage manager of Palace Theater in New York (not sure if Staten Island or Manhattan). I have old turn-of-century photos of him standing next to switchboard backstage which is about six feet wide by eight feet tall…, lots of “Frankenstein” switches.
He knew vaudeville stars Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, etc. My grandmather would fill in between acts singing opera onstage as a little girl. Can you help me?
Thanks, Rennie Miller
One Sunday afternoon in the mid-1980s I was walking west on 47th St and noticed that the scene door of the Palace was open— they were loading in a TV awards show. The scene door was on the rear stage wall, near its north end. The stage door for performers was located under some fire escapes at stage-right on W. 47th St. As I stood in the alley by the scene door, I noticed a sign in large white letters painted on the wall of a building at the south end of the alley which said “Stage Door” with an arrow pointing to the right. This implies that the stage door of the Palace was originally at stage-left, not at stage-right on 47th St. as it is today. Does anyone know anything about this ??
Check out this anti-Japanese ad from 1943
View link
New Years 1960 “Can Can” day and dated with the Brooklyn RKO Albee
View link
1961 another Rock Hudson movie at the Palace, day and dating with Trans-Lux 85th Street.
View link
1961 another Rock Hudson movie at the Palace, day and dating with Trans-Lux 85th Street.
View link
In 1960 the Palace went legit for a few months for this engagement of Belafonte.
View link
Talking about the trashing of original exteriors, didn’t the Broadway Theater get the same treatment? I remember seeing Les Miserables there in 1988 and the exterior was under scaffolding. I believe the facade was completely modernized (removing all traces of character, taste and architectural merit) to fit in with the new hi-rise that was constructed above and around the theater’s shell. I just took a peak at the Broadway’s page and there is very little information about its architectural style. If anyone has any recollections, please add to the page: /theaters/2250/
I might be attending a performance of the new musical The Color Purple at the Broadway in the coming months so I’ll try to make some mental notes (and see if I can’t grab some photos).
Don’t get me wrong, Vincent… I take issue with it as well. We all probably would have been very sad had the developers kept the Rivoli’s interior but obliterated it’s colonaded facade, but better to have the theater preserved to such a large degree than to have it permanently eradicated from existence as it was. Since most Times Square facades were (or would have been by now) completely obscured by billboards, electronic signage and other forms of over-the-top advertising, I’m quite satisfied to trade off the loss of the original neo-classical limestone facade for the preservation of the Palace’s gorgeously opulent interior appointments.
As for those free programs… were they like the Playbills you get at a Broadway theatrical show? Or like the programs at RCMH? Perhaps towards the end of the roadshow era, not every theater had them. Maybe only the Roxy and RCMH. Perhaps others can elaborate here?
Good post however I do take issue with the developer completely obliterating the wonderful New York facade and marquee of the Palace. It had all the glamour and brilliance of a New York jewel. Now it is just another generic attempting to be snazzy might as well be a theme restaurant front.
Even though I came at the depressing tail end of the roadshow era(Fiddler and Nicky and Alex) I don’t remember any free programs or leaflets being handed out. Only programs for sale. Anybody out there who went often in the 50’s and 60’s remember free programs in the NY theaters for hardticket engagements?
Going back to Gustavelifting’s post in August… those souvenir booklets were not exclusive to classic “roadshow” engagements. I grew up and started going to movies after the “roadshow” era had ended and can recall being able to purchase souvenir booklets for all sorts of movies even at the local neighborhood twins and quartets. Throughout the 70’s and well into the 80’s I was able to purchase these booklets at the candy counters of theaters like the UA Midway, the Lynbrook, the Meadows, Century’s Green Acres Theater and other cinemas. I have booklets for movies like “Moonraker”, “Rocky 2”, “Hair”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and all three original “Star Wars” films.
Free programs are another matter alltogether and were probably restricted to the finest first-run theaters back in the “roadshow” heyday… but those souvenir booklets were definitely available on wide release with good regularity through, say, 1983 or 84 when they seemed to just tail off rather rapidly. I remember when I saw “Apocalypse Now!” at it’s first run engagement at the Ziegfeld, the film was presented without any credits or title sequences at all and, instead, patrons were handed a bi-fold that listed the full film credits. I don’t think “Apocalypse Now!” had an exclusive engagement at the Ziegfeld – at least not for long – but that was the only theater in NYC that presented the film in that way, as far as I can recall. The neighborhood showcases ran a version of the film that included the end titles sequence superimposed against the footage of nepalm explosions that you now see when the movie runs on TV (I assume the DVD presents it the same way).
Anyway, the Palace Theater presents a fine example of how developers were able to take advantage of a classic theater’s air rights yet still be able to build over and around to preserve the complete interior of the theater. The Liberty Theater on 42nd Street is another example, sitting silently within the structure of the recent Hilton Hotel and awaiting completion of renovations for adaptive re-use. Too bad the Rivoli Theater just up the road from the Palace couldn’t have been treated with as much respect. Or the old Strand across Duffy Square… Or the Capitol and Astor or ANY of the old palaces that once proudly anchored Times Square. Not to mention the RKO Keith’s in Flushing.
This picture of the Palace is so representative of how Broadway used to be.
View link
I remember those souvenir booklets. I must have been to those roadshow pictures not knowing what they are.
“Roadshow” was the terminology used when the studios opened a particular film in one theatre in larger cities. The film was presented at separate performances with reserved seating. Tickets could be purchased in advance. In many instances the films played for months to even a year or longer at this one theatre. In other threads were mentioned the “roadshow houses” of New York City. They were the Loew’s Capitol and State. The Warner, Rivoli, Criterion and DeMille Theatres all located in the Times Square area. On a usual week, there was normally one evening performance and a matinee performance on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Additional shows were added for holiday periods and Summer months. In most instances the roadshow films were presented in 70mm with 6 track magnetic stereo sound. Paper programs were handed out and in many cases “souveneir books” were available for purchase. Ticket prices were higher and there were different prices for the various locations in these theatre palaces – Orchestra, Loge, Balcony, etc.
That was the way to see movies! It was an event and not just a night out at the movies. Living in Lancaster, PA, my parents used to take us to center city Philadelphia to see the “roadshow films.”
What was “Roadshow”?