Palace Theatre

The 286-seat Palace Theatre opened in a converted retail space splitting the building with the neighboring Modern News-stand. The new theatre was across the street from the existing Majestic Theatre. Mrs. Thomas Donnell launched the new Palace Theatre in 1933 on a 30-year lease with Phil Harris in “Melody Cruise” supported by a Walt Disney Silly Symphonies cartoon. The theatre was managed by S.L. Gerhard. The theatre burned on April 5, 1938 gutting the building but leaving much of the outer structure.

Donnell rebuilt the theatre using more of the building’s footprint making the space twice as large in a new 499-seat venue. It opened as the New Palace Theatre on July 7, 1938 with Busby Berkeley’s “Gold Diggers of Paris”. Jack Arthur took on the Palace Theatre and would redesign it both in 1950 and again for a widescreen in 1955 allowing CinemaScope films to be played.

Jack Arthur Theatres would operate all five Stephenville theatres in the early-1950’s, the Palace Theatre, the Majestic Theatre, the Ritz Theatre, and both the Tower Drive-In and the Starlite Drive-In. The Palace Theatre followed the Tower Theatre and Ritz Theatre to closure with its final show on March 30, 1961 with Richard Burton in “The Ice Palace”. A news article three months later said the space had been converted for other retail purposes.

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