Palace Theater

5 Wick Avenue at Central Square,
Youngstown, OH 44502

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1940's

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The Keith Albee Palace Theater was located at 5 Wick Avenue at Central Square in the heart of downtown Youngstown, Ohio. The theater opened on March 16, 1926 and remained in operation for only thirty eight years. The opening act was Betty & Burt Wheeler, an outstanding dance and comedy team of the 1920’s.

In 1928, the theater converted to sound equipment and as vaudeville faded into the past, the Palace Theater still retained a steady billing of live entertainment including the Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey Bands, The Glen Miller Orchestra, Paul Whiteman, Horace Heidt, and others.

A Neo-Classical style building, the theater had many unique features including an underground tunnel linking it with The Tod Hotel across Central Square.

The theater closed on Sunday, November 29, 1964. The closing picture was “First Men In The Moon”. The lavish interior appointments were dismantled and sold at auction prior to demolition.

The site still remains a parking lot thirty eight years after the Palace Theater closed it’s doors.

Contributed by John C. Harris

Recent comments (view all 61 comments)

wolfgirl500
wolfgirl500 on November 16, 2011 at 9:27 am

Barry Manalow played here recently using members of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra as backup and commented that the sold out audience was fantastic and that he’d come back any time.

We’ve become so accustom to having top shelf performers come here that we’ve been spoiled silly.

I’ve been to movies that got rave reviews at the local first run houses here that were total flops attendence wise and to others where the SRO sign was set up by the box office that got poor reviews so go figure.

Burkesniece
Burkesniece on February 29, 2012 at 7:57 am

wolfgirl500 – Thanks so much for the links! For some reason I never got a notice that you posted anything. I logged in today to get general info on theaters that they played at. THANKS!!!!

Burkesniece
Burkesniece on February 29, 2012 at 10:03 am

wolfgirl500 – Forgot to mention, my aunts also played there in March of 1936 with Ina Ray Hutton.

wolfgirl500
wolfgirl500 on February 29, 2012 at 1:28 pm

Here are two ads for the Ina Ray Hutton show. It got rave reviews here in Youngstown. SEE THEM IN THE PHOTOS SECTION.

Burkesniece
Burkesniece on March 1, 2012 at 2:21 pm

wolfgirl500 ~ WOW you are awesome, can’t thank you enough for these! (Could you post the first one a bit bigger? Hope it is okay to ask that!) Any idea of how I can get an ad for the week before when they were at the Orpheum in Akron? I am creating a scrapbook for all of the Great Grandchildren. Thanks again!

wolfgirl500
wolfgirl500 on March 1, 2012 at 3:47 pm

I tried to blow the ads up to a larger size but unfortunately they became unreadable. The process I use is to get what I want as large as possable on the screen and then print screen, copying it to Paint to save, and then edit it with a photo editor, Google News doesn’t permit saving so I have to use this roundabout method. The ads appeared in the March 22, and 24 edition of the Youngstown Vindicator on the theater page.

wolfgirl500
wolfgirl500 on March 1, 2012 at 4:15 pm

I’ve posted another cropped ad that might be better for your purpose.

Burkesniece
Burkesniece on March 1, 2012 at 4:25 pm

Thanks! For some reason the print screen on my dumb keyboard does not do anything – can’t even do what you do. I will find them on google (although it drives me crazy) and send link to husband at work.

wolfgirl500
wolfgirl500 on March 1, 2012 at 5:07 pm

The way I do it is when there is something I want to save at GoogleNews, I get it as large as I can, then click on print screen, then open up Paint click on Edit and then paste. The whole screen shows, and I save the file to a folder with an unique file name. I then go to my photo editor to crop out what I need, enlarge it and save the final product. It really doesn’t take very long to do … a couple of minutes at best.

Burkesniece
Burkesniece on March 6, 2012 at 10:45 am

I followed your steps and still did not work – think it has more to do with my keyboard possibly. Not a problem tho. I save the page under favorites and then send to hubby!

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