Palace Theatre
1207 Main Street,
Commerce,
TX
85428
1207 Main Street,
Commerce,
TX
85428
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Rowley United Theatres Inc., Texas Cinema Corporatioin
Previous Names: Cinema Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Palace Theatre was the larger of the two theatres that the Lilly Theatres owned in Commerce. Seating was listed at 745. It was opened on December 31, 1929 with Warner Oland in “The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu”.
Rowley United Theatres Inc. took over operations by 1957 and operated the Palace Theatre until 1972 when they sold it to the Texas Cinema Corporation who renamed it Cinema Theatre. It was closed on July 4, 1976 with Michael Craig in “Ride a Wild Pony” & Walt Disney’s animated feature “Dumbo”. The building was destroyed by fire in the 1990’s.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Place Theater was located 1207 Main St. The building that it was in burned sometime in the late 20th century. I worked for the Lilly family when they owned the theater. They owned the Palace Theater until 1965-66 and Rowley United purchased the theater and began ownership. I worked for Rowley United while I was attending the university in Commerce. I also worked at their drive-in that was called Commerce Drive-In and sometime was changed to High View Drive-In. Rowley United operated both theater until at least 1971 when I left Commerce after graduating from the university graduate school. All of the dates and location are incorrect posted above. I was working there from 1965 until 1971 and was working there when Rowley United took over the operation and remodeled the theater. The theater was located downtown and the drive-in was located at the time on Hwy 24 west of Commerce in the Hillcrest Addition.
Chuck, The two theaters that the Lilly family owned and Rowley United Theaters of Dallas purchased and operated was the Palace Theater downtown and the Commerce Drive-In (referred to on this site as High View Drive-In). I am not aware (or heard anything of) of any other inside theater besides the Palace.
The Palace Theatre opened its doors on December 31, 1929 with “The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu” (unclear if any short subjects were added) with sound installations of RCA Photophone. The Palace Theatre was a replacement of the nearby Hippodrome Theatre which closed a day prior due to lack of sound. Former Hippodrome manager L.O. Boggetts was the first manager of the Palace.
The Palace Theatre changed its name to the Cinema Theatre in 1972 after Rowlett United Theatres sold the theater to the Texas Cinema Corporation chain (alongside the Commerce Drive-In).
The theater closed for the final time on America’s 200th Independence Day (July 4, 1976) with Walt Disney’s “Ride A Wild Pony” and “Dumbo”.
The Palace was the “top” theater in town. When I moved to Commerce in 1956, it played the more popular films. However, it wasn’t really a first-run theater. The films only came to the Palace 2-3 weeks after they opened in true fist-run theaters in Dallas and elsewhere. There were generally 3 films shown each week. One that opened on Sunday and continued on Monday, one that showed only Tuesday and Wednesday, one that opened on Thursday and continued through Saturday as best as I can remember. That schedule made it possible to see 3 films within the same time period as in a first-run theater that typically had a film running for a minimum of a whole week. There was a period in the 1960s where there was an agreement with the local university to show foreign films on Wednesdays which gave residents a rare opportunity to see films from France, Italy, etc. Eventually, with a change of ownership, the Palace did become a first-run theater with films opening at the same time they did in large markets and running for a whole week. It continued that type of programming until it closed. My family came to Commerce to see a film at the Palace a year or two before we moved there because they had installed a CinemaScope screen and were showing a wide-screen film for the first time; the screen was up and the film was shown, but there still was no framing around the screen and we could see the “threaded” roping used to hold the screen flat and tight. Two rather awkward aspects of the Palace were: 1) The snack bar was outside the front doors in an open recessed lobby area where the ticket booth was also located, so to buy anything after entering the film one had to tell the doorman that you were going out to get a snack but would be returning and depend on him remembering that. 2) For me, the low ceiling seemed awkward. There was no balcony, so the ceiling was just above the top of the screen. The only time I ever saw the Palace almost completely full was when there was a re-release of Gone with the Wind. Usually, there were rather small crowds since TV was almost universal by the time my family moved there.