Palladium Theatre
261 Main Street,
Worcester,
MA
01608
261 Main Street,
Worcester,
MA
01608
1 person
favorited this theater
The Palladium Theatre was one of downtown Worcester’s several movie palaces when it was part of E.M. Loew’s Theatres.
Today it is a popular venue for concerts featuring rock groups.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
I go often to rock (hardcore) shows there. The “upstairs” room is small and wonderful but I wonder what it was originally? It’s just above lobby level and lies under the floor of the main theatre. Anyone know what it was originally?
I am trying to find infomation about the Plymouth Theatre/Cinema. I understand that there is a recent article that said that this theatre was the Plymouth for a time. Does anyone have any information confirming this or know any information about the Plymouth?
I am also trying to learn about the Philips Cinema – one L – what it was before, after, address, any information?
There is a MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for the Plymouth Theatre in Worcester with an exterior photo dated May 1941. The theatre then had a rectangular marquee with white letters on a black background. Attractions were “This Thing Called Love” and “Dangerous Game”. There appears to be a ticket booth in the center under the marquee. The street in front consists of cobblestones and also trolley tracks. The Report says the Plymouth is on Main St.,that it has been playing MGM product for over 10 years; is over 15 years old (in 1941) and in Fair condition. Seating is listed as 1400 on the main floor and 1200 in the balcony, total: 2600. (these figures were probably rounded up.) Competing theatres are listed as the Olympia (Art), and the Elm Street. Worcester’s population in 1941 was 193,000.
A Robert-Morton theater organ size 2/8 was installed in a New Plymouth Theater in Worcester in 1928. Same theater as this one?
The Palladium Theatre opened as the Plymouth Theatre on November 24, 1928. It became the E. M. Loew Center for the Performing Arts on April 14, 1980 and the Palladium after that.
According to the Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ it did have a 2/8 Robert Morton organ. The newspaper article on the opening identified “Buddy” Webber at the console of Our Mighty Organ but did not identify the organ manufacturer.
Here is a recent photo.
1986 Photo
Another February 2009 photo of the Palladium Theatre.
View link
Item in Boxoffice magazine, March 19, 1949:
Nate Goldberg, manager of the Plymouth, discovered a Worcester GI played an extra in a scene for “Paisan” and capitalized on it, the story hitting page one of the dailies when the picture played the Plymouth.
[Rossellini’s neorealist “Paisan” hardly seems like typical fare for the Plymouth, but the movie played numerous mainstream theatres of the time.]
I moved to the Worcester area in 1973 and suspect the theatre had been recently closed – but in the winter of 1974/1975 it temporarily reopened for an exclusive engagement of “Earthquake” in Sensurround. I don’t know how/why this theatre got that lucrative gig but the theatre once-again went dark until 1980 when it reopened as the E.M. Loew Center for the Performing Arts.