Loew's Palace Theatre
645 Main Street,
Hartford,
CT
06103
645 Main Street,
Hartford,
CT
06103
1 person
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Located almost next to its sister theater the Loew’s Poli Theatre, the Loew’s Palace Theatre opened on May 25, 1914 and ran first run movies also. It was quite obvious that the interior had been modified. Where the side box seats were once located, some type of dark filler, perhaps painted plywood, was used.
The auditorium was very plain, making one wonder just how much of the original decor was not retained. The seats had white cloth covers.
I remember commenting about it to my mother about it and she said that many high class theaters used to cover their seats in the summer because all the ladies wore white. This prevented their attire from getting soiled, at least visably.
Contributed by
Al Larkin
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
The Loew’s Palace Theatre was located at 645 Main Street and it was listed as seating 2344 in 1932 and 1639 people in 1956.
Would love to see a photo(s) of this former theatre in Hartford.
When I attended this theater in the early 50’s, as I did all of the downtown Hartford theaters, this and the Loews next door, were truly very ornate. During intermissions, when all the lights were on, I would look up at the huge chandelier, painted ceiling and ornate sculpture and think that I really was in a palace. The Allyn, Loews and the Loews Palace were the first to install air conditioning. The E.M. Loew’s that was next to the Allyn, never did get refridgerated. It was still packed in the summer time. They used big fans and opened all of the doors.
A period photo of the theatre when it was the (New) Palace Theatre can be seen in the “Images of America” book Hartford, Volume I, page 61. The marquee displays the 1929 film The Cockeyed World.
I would love to see the photos that are in the “Images of America” for the Palace and other Hartford theaters but not having the book, I would ask that the photos that Mr. DeLuca mentions, be scanned and posted along with your comments to the ‘ADD PHOTO’ link at the top of this page.
I will attempt to scan and post them as links to a photo server in the next few days. The add-a-photo function on this website doesn’t work, and in any event would allow for only one photo per theatre page.
Mentioned in http://www.hogriver.org/issues/v01n03/palaces.htm
A.K.A. Loews Poli Palace.