Palace Theatre
1214-16 Market Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19107
1214-16 Market Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19107
4 people
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Sorry about the geographical reference. I’m not originally from Philly, so the streets are a little confusing at times to me. Also, I was trying to remember the quote, I may have been wrong in the directions given in the movie to Ned Beatty.
I just checked the Netflix database (from where I rented the movie) and it seems that “Mikey and Nicky” has a 1976 release date on it. Given that “The Laughing Policeman” was released in 1974, and that it was billed as a supporting feature on that marquee, I don’t think this was the same Palace theater that was in Philly. Most of the movie was in fact filmed in LA, so it might have been a theatre from that town. Also, the theater shown in this movie looks like it was in good shape, not some run-down about to close flea pit.
WOW. In Philadelphia there is no 14th Street. That Street, between 13th and 15th is called Broad Street. Memory’s short here, but Market Street which was (and still is) perpendicular to Broad Street was the loction of the Palace. The theatre it was between 12th and 13th street. As a note in widescreen history, it was the 2nd house to install CinemaScope here. The Palace was, as I had said earlier, the mainstream 2nd run house. “The Robe” ran here right after closing at the Fox, the 1st C'scope house. To answer your question, I havent seen the film, but by the 1970’s the house had gone totally downhill. Remarkably, I met the manager once there back in the 1970’s. He had been the manager of the Boyd Cinerama theatre in the 1950’s. what a comedown.
In the movie MIKEY AND NIKEY, starring Peter Falk as a small-time gangster, there is a scene at a “Palace Theatre” in Philadelphia. The location of it is given in the movie, I believe, as “14th and Hall.” It’s prominent in the scene where Ned Beatty, playing a hitman, tries to track-down the man Peter Falk’s buddy. I watched the movie on DVD today and the marquee is prominent and shows anouncements for some Kung-Fu movies as well as THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN (!). I wonder if this is the theater used in the movie.
During the 50’s, it was actually the first second-run house in Philadelphia. Immediately following a downtown run, a feature would moveover to the Palace, and the Palace only, and then, 28 days after the downtown run had expired the feature would spread to numerous of what were actually third-run houses of the Stanley-Warner, Goldman, and Ellis chains, though most histories consider those neighborhood venues to be second-run.
Operated from the mid-‘50s to its closing by Stanley Warner/RKO Stanley Warner as an all-night house, running B double features and maybe some adult product at the very end. Demolished along with the News Theater at 1230 Market and several retail buildings to make room for the 1234 Market office building, best known these days as the home of mass transit agency SEPTA.
Not to be confused with two other theaters in Philadelphia that have operated under the Palace name since 1980 (neither one for very long): the Theater of the Living Arts on South Street and the former Theatre 1812 on Chestnut.