Palace Theatre
100 East Main Street,
Waterbury,
CT
6702
100 East Main Street,
Waterbury,
CT
6702
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 95 comments
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Link to listing of many concerts performed at the Waterbury Palace Theater between 1971 and 1980.
In my ongoing search for information on the Palace theater, I came across a copy of the Waterbury Republican, dated January 28, 1922. On the front page and throughout the paper they talked about the Poli Palace that was to open that evening. I have copied the entire story and you can read it here. Note the different wording that they used so long ago.
Louis
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From a new publication called “Theatre CT” that I picked up at Bethel Cinema. It’s mostly for acting but they mentioned that Seven Angels and the Palace, both in Waterbury will have plans to bring community theater in, a first for the Palace, in late 2007 or 2008.
From the Waterbury Observer October 2007 – Phoenix Records in Litchfield and Waterbury will now serve as Palace Theater ticket outlets for select events.
The Palace also just received a $31,000 grant from the American Savings Bank Foundation to support the after-school arts and education program, Spotlight on Movement: Setting the Stage for Change. “It is a theater and academic program with integrated curriculum that incorporates elements of the Civil Rights Movement and current civil rights issues with the theatrical practices and applications of public speaking and the groundbreaking dance movement of the 1960s.”
50 high school students from Danbury and Waterbury will participate in 5 workshops in dance, theater and academic subjects and 80 middle school students will participate in a 10-week program on popular dances of the 60s.
It cost $1 million to build.
This was mentioned in the New Haven Advocate’s Annual Manual a few times.
“Waterbury is home to the Palace Theater…Queen first played "Bohemian Rhapsody” in Waterbury. The Palace hosted Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra, among other legends. The Palace was restored in 2004 to its historical beauty after a 16-year hiatus and is now in its fourth season.
Growing up in Waterbury,CT I frequented Lowe’s Poli and then The Palace hundreds of times . I remember seeing many movies there as a kid,then some concerts there while attending Sacred Heart High,and then on college break from UCONN.
I saw James Taylor there in the early 70’s,and i remember many rock concerts there,including Yes, Kansas, Boston…Kiss played there and legend has it they set fire to the stage drapes. Skynryd played there ,and the next day their tour bus rammed into a small drive-up bank near the Holiday Inn on Union St….Boston played there during their initial tour..I went to an Oldies show there in the mid 8o’s featuring The Buckinghams,gary Lewis,rob grill( of the grass roots),and the Turtles( who headlined ).
I was at the tony Bennett show when the theater closed; i volunteered as an usher and briefly met Tony after the show.
Many great memories of movies and shows at this venue.
Mike S. Chesapeake,VA
Lou – The only rock performers/groups that I know for sure appeared at the Palace are:
Quicksilver Messenger Service (1972)
Pink Floyd (1973)
Genesis – The Lamb Descends on Waterbury (1974) View link
Bob Dylan (1975) View link
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention (1975)
Thanks Ex, thats a wonderful photo. i wish i could find more like it. I would like to get together a list of the performers that were at the Palace during the 70’s and early 80’s.
I had a chance to talk to ‘'Weird Al’‘ Yankovic at the Palace a few nights ago. He wanted to know if “The Who” performed at the theater. I could not answer. He was very interested in the past rock groups that were here. IF you know the names of the rock performers that were here, please list them.
thanks,
lou belloisy
Thanks, Lou.
You can see a photo of the old Palace Theater marquee in the 1970s when Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review appeared there at www.freewebs.com/crosby-high-school-class-of-1975/ROLLING%20THUNDER%2040.jpg
Hello Ex Waterbury person :)
The site at Shutterfreaks is closed for additional photos. You can see more of the Palace Theater on a new web site that I have built especially to show the beauty of the theater and of the performers that are now gracing the huge stage.
Please visit this site to see current performers, enjoy a virtual tour and see the construction photos of the new marquee.
see here….. www.palacewaterbury.com
lou belloisy
Lou Belloisy: Adding your up to date marquee photo to your other gorgeous photos of the renovated Palace Theater at http://www.shutterfreaks.com/gallery2/album208 is the easiest way to get it on this site. Let us know when you do.
There are 2 great full shots of the Palace in this week’s Play, the entertainment weekly for the New Haven area (4/18/07). The articles are online, but not the pics. Page 13 shows a great shot from the balcony of the grand ceiling, the stage, proscenium and the walls. Page 15 shows the outside marquee with the headline “A royal facelift for the Palace.” The articles were about the magician David Martin and the author Candace Bushnell, of “Sex and the City”.
The Palace was mentioned in an April 5, 2007, News-Times editorial on the new owner of the Bank Street Theatre in New Milford.
Good move
Danbury should follow New Milford’s lead in saving downtown theater
Apr 05 2007
We have to agree with Richard Freedman. He thinks New Milford is lucky to have found Gary Goldring, the entrepreneur from Sherman who bought the Bank Street Theater in downtown New Milford, and so do we.
The old theater with the distinctive Art Deco exterior is a downtown landmark.
Freedman certainly has an informed opinion as he is the one who sold the gem to Goldring. The price tag was $1 million, the same amount paid by Freedman two years ago, even though he invested more with lobby renovations and new seats. Whether it is generosity or market reality, we are glad to see the building sold at that price instead of languishing for years.
Mayor Patricia Murphy rolled up her sleeves and, as she said, “went chasing” the buyer, who had earlier indicated interest in doing business in New Milford. This is one more piece of evidence that she has made economic development a priority.
Granted, a movie theater does not have the tax impact that would come with some larger potential projects, but it has considerable cultural impact.
In the early days of moving pictures, nearly every thriving downtown had its own theater and many even had competing theaters. Some were converted from vaudeville stages and most had elaborate decorations that are nearly cost prohibitive to duplicate now.
Cities that have restored their wonderful old theaters — the Shubert in New Haven and the Palace in Waterbury come to mind — have not only preserved a bit of history, but also have attracted complementary growth with restaurants and shops.
When will it be Danbury’s turn? The city’s old theater, also privately owned like New Milford’s, has sat sadly empty for years, right on Main Street.
New Milford has shown that with ingenuity deals can happen. Let’s take a step in Danbury and get talking about how the Hat City’s own piece of history can be saved.
I have an up to date marquee photo, how do i get it posted here.
lou belloisy
The marquee looks great! Exciting weekend for Waterbury – saw PP&M last night – wonderful show, sold all but 10 seats acccording to one of the ushers. Looking forward to Aretha tonight!
Good news everyone. I think someone posted this, oh well. The marquee is back on and it looks pretty good. Read the calendar in today’s Hartford Courant, they have a picture of The Palace with the new marquee.
Walking down a set of marble steps in the refurbished Palace Theater two weeks ago, 71-year-old Ada Solomiti recalled how she used to dress up to attend events at the East Main Street institution. “You wouldn’t dream of wearing slacks,” the Waterbury resident said. “You wore a dress and spike [heels].” Solomiti has traded her spikes in for more practical shoes, but she fondly remembers the times she spent nestled in the velvet seats. In fact, she was there that day to record one particular memory: watching “The African Queen” with her good friend and erupting into giggles. “We got a lot of dirty looks,” she said to the Waterbury Arts Magnet School students wielding the camera.
Solomiti’s memory was one of 12 chosen from the Palace’s Marquee Moments contest. The theater, in honor of its new digital marquee and the third anniversary of its reopening after a major renovation, asked community members to share their memories of the theater. Thirty-five people responded, and 12 were chosen to be filmed. The WAMS students will edit the clips down to a 5-to-7-minute film that will be shown the night of the marquee unveiling. “It’s been pretty cool,” said Rebecca Bradshaw, a WAMS senior and Southbury resident. “It will be a lot of editing, but we’ll be proud of what we do.”
Cathy C. Christiano of Thomaston came to the filming clutching a folder filled with black-and-white pictures, including autographed glossies of big-band leader Tommy Dorsey and actor Rory Calhoun. Christiano, 75, got a job as an usherette at the Palace when she was 17. For the showing of “Annie Get Your Gun” in 1950, she dressed up as Annie Oakley and toured downtown Waterbury on a float. Christiano worked at the Palace for 2½ years and went on to have nine children. Her hair is now white, but her vibrant blue eyes teared up when she remembered that her son, Paul, who died recently in a car accident, was on the restoration committee for the Palace. “He would have been overjoyed to see the new marquee,” she said.
Louis Belloisy, a Morris resident, also got his start at the Palace as an usher. “It was my first job when I was 16,” Belloisy said. “And at that time, it was a great honor.” Belloisy also worked at the Palace as a doorman and ticket taker. After he retired from his career as a corporate pilot, he returned to the Palace. He now is the theater’s official photographer. “I almost cried the first time I walked in here,” he said. “The restoration is even better than I remembered it.”
Joanne Hasemann shared her memories of Mr. Peanut. Planter’s Peanuts had a store next door to the theater and one of the workers would dress up in a nine-foot peanut costume. “He would stand out there,” Hasemann, a 70-year-old Waterbury resident said, motioning toward the lobby doors, “and say, ‘get your fresh roasted peanuts.’ We’d be a little scared of him, but we’d always get a bag of peanuts and go back in to see a movie.” About five years ago, Hasemann said she uncovered the identity of the boy inside the costume, but she won’t divulge his name. She’d rather talk about how excited she is return to the Palace. “That marquee made this street,” she said. “It was the brightest, most beautiful thing. I can’t wait to see the new one.”
She remembers hopping on the bus — fare was 15 cents — from her family’s restaurant in Watertown and catching a movie at the Palace. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” was her favorite. Now she’s hoping to see “Cats” when it comes to town next year. Hasemann noticed that there is less velvet in the theater now than there used to be, but she’s still happy to be back. “It will always be the grand lady of East Main Street,” she said.
Waterbury’s rehabilitated Palace Theater will trade its unpretentious, one-dimensional, tin sign for a high – tech, glowing marquee in November. The new sign will offer performers that oft-sung-about indicator of legitimacy: the chance to see their names in lights.
In addition to nearly 1,000 pounds of steel, aluminum and metal composite, plans call for the marquee to be book ended by two light emitting diode, or LED, screens. All lighting on the sign incorporates LED technology, which is more energy efficient than traditional light bulbs, said Jim McMahon, of the marquee’s maker, ABC Sign Corp. of Bridgeport. Theater leaders who selected the new sign likened its sides to the famous Times Square screen near the Cup O' Noodles in Manhattan, albeit differently proportioned.
It will be unveiled Nov. 10 at a 6:30 p.m. ceremony. The current sign — initially sufficient yet simple, but now a bent and scratched sheath — was never intended to stay. Initially, plans called for the theater’s old marquee to be restored. But theater officials later asked that the marquee be modified to include some of the high-tech elements more commonly found on modern performing arts venues. The roughly $320,000 cost of the sign is covered by the state grant money that paid for the rehabilitation.
To inaugurate the new technology, theater officials have launched a contest asking people to submit stories of life events that occurred at the Palace, be they marriage proposals or first dates. The top five selected will be broadcast at the unveiling. Explain briefly, in 100 words or less, the memorable moment, and send entries to Sheree Marcucci via e-mail at marcuccipalacetheaterct.org or by U.S mail to 100 East Main Street, Waterbury, 06702. Deadline is Oct. 6.
If anyone saw rock concerts here in 1974 and 1977 you may have information I am seeking. Mainly opening acts and things like that. Please contact me at with anything you remember or have proof of!
The marquee structure has undergone a stress test where they placed 20,000 pounds of water on it for 24 hours, it passed and the next step is the actual maquee itself. i understand its being built in bridgeport, conn and will be installed by september 15th. i will provide a link to some of the photos i took of the process.
louis belloisy, Palace Photographer
Photos of the renovated Palace Theater as magnificent (imho) as the theater itself: http://www.shutterfreaks.com/gallery2/album208
The Palace Theater is Magnificent!! Every one should come out & support this crown jewel.
I am told the new marquee will be up by early summer. I am the house photographer for the Palace and i also do the tours. the palace was my first job when i was a mere child. my knowledge of the theater has not dimmed over the years. i highly recommend the tours. if you are interested, contact the office.
also i invite you to view some of the photos of the Palace:
http://www.imagesct.com/palace/index.htm
lou
If you could see it in person —– it’s dented, mangled (truck box tops backing into it, etc), and fading.