Plaza Theatre
128 South Palm Canyon Drive,
Palm Springs,
CA
92262
128 South Palm Canyon Drive,
Palm Springs,
CA
92262
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The Plaza Theatre opened in December 1936 with Greta Garbo in “Camille”.
Through the years it has played host to Bob Hope’s and Jack Benny’s radio show. Other performers, including Frank Sinatra, have given live performances here.
Since 1991, it has been home to “The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies”, a vaudeville-style showcase of music and dance from the 1930’s to 1960’s, featuring famous guest stars. Regular talent, including locals, are billed as "Our lengendary line of long-legged lovelies…all 54-84 years young!"
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
I have friends who are in Palm Springs now and hopefully they’ll go see a show there. Also would like to see a photo of this theatre that featured Bob Hope, Jack Benny and Frank Sinatra.
Here is a photo.
View link
The Plaza was part of the Earle C. Strebe chain in the early seventies, along with the Palm Springs Theater and the Ramon Drive-In in Palm Springs. Strebe also ran theaters in Big Bear Lake, Crestline and Lake Arrowhead at that time.
In November, 1953, the Plaza Theatre participated in one of the first trials of pay-as-you-see TV in the United States. Seventy-five homes in the Palm Springs area were connected to a coaxial cable system operated by the Telemter subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. A TV set in each home had a cashbox attached in which viewers deposited coins to “unscramble” a new movie playing simultaneously at the Plaza Theatre. The experiment started with Paramount’s “Forever Female.” I don’t know how long the trial lasted, or its outcome, but I doubt that it proved successful. In those days, of course, home TV was only in B&W, so color movies would turn up in monochrome on the Telemeter system.
Sorry! I made a typing error in the first mention of the Paramount subsidiary. It was Telemeter (not Telemter).
This is a 2009 photo.
How did you overlook this one at your second most favorite website, or haven’t you gotten to “P” yet? View link
I wasn’t in charge of California Theaters. That was someone else’s task.
This plaque gives the opening of the Plaza as December of 1936.
Here is a nice 2009 photo.