My grandfather, Leon Britton, married to Bertha Britton and living in Norwalk, CT at 4 Obrien St, was the music director for the Palace during its vaudeville and silent movie heyday, and he played the piano scores by Charlie Chaplin for Chaplin’s movies, plus any other scores handed to him for the vaudeville acts, of course. It is my understanding that he also played one of the “Great Wurlitzer Organs” that was installed there, but I don’t know of that for certain. He met all the greats. The South Norwalk Palace was near the train station, and every weekend hordes of critics from the various newspapers would arrive from NYC to review the acts whose next stop would be the Palace Theater in Manhattan. I never met him, for unfortunately he died before I was born from Tuberculous brought about from weakness to his lungs coming from exposure to mustard gas during WWI. I certainly wish I had more than vague stories to go by! Those must have been exciting times!
My grandfather, Leon Britton, married to Bertha Britton and living in Norwalk, CT at 4 Obrien St, was the music director for the Palace during its vaudeville and silent movie heyday, and he played the piano scores by Charlie Chaplin for Chaplin’s movies, plus any other scores handed to him for the vaudeville acts, of course. It is my understanding that he also played one of the “Great Wurlitzer Organs” that was installed there, but I don’t know of that for certain. He met all the greats. The South Norwalk Palace was near the train station, and every weekend hordes of critics from the various newspapers would arrive from NYC to review the acts whose next stop would be the Palace Theater in Manhattan. I never met him, for unfortunately he died before I was born from Tuberculous brought about from weakness to his lungs coming from exposure to mustard gas during WWI. I certainly wish I had more than vague stories to go by! Those must have been exciting times!