Palladium Theatre

In Weymouth, Dorset, Frederick Hall opened the Palladium Theatre by the Town Bridge on 29th July 1912. The original presentations were a mixture of theatrical shows and films, but later films were shown full-time. Early advertisements rather extravagantly claimed that “The Palladium comics are absolutely guaranteed to bring joy-tears to a pair of glass eyes”! By 1914 it was operated by the Albany Ward Circuit.

By the time ‘talkies’ arrived in the town in 1929 the Palladium Theatre, along with the Regent Cinema and the Belle Vue Cinema, was managed by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres.

However, although there were plans to install sound at the Palladium Theatre, the projection box was considered too cramped to accommodate the new equipment. So the cinema closed on Saturday 3rd January 1931, with the rather prescient “Life’s Like That” and Matheson Lang in “Port of Lost Souls”.

The building was subsequently used as a motorcycle showroom and workshop then, in the 1970’s, as a nightclub. In October 1999, when I visited, it was Rendezvous pub/bar/club, which continues in 2015.

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