The Palace Theatre of Manchester, New Hampshire was modeled after the Palace in New York City, and like that famous theater, brought vaudeville to eager audiences from its 1915 opening to about 1930, when “the talkies” replaced vaudeville as the most popular entertainment.
An elegant theater in a grand age of theater construction, the Palace boasted “air conditioning” when fans blew over large blocks of ice placed under the stage. Some of the performers who played that stage were Bob Hope, The Marx Brothers, Harry Houdini, Red Skelton, and Jimmy Durante, as well as the resident stock company The Palace Players.
Then movie era lasted until the early 1960s, and after that as with many theaters of that era, the decline began. At one point, X-rated films were shown. Then, closed to the public. In the early 1970s, the community took action, and renovations were made. The Palace opened again for live theater.
Have a look here at the website, and this season’s schedule. It takes a village to save a theater, and sometimes it really happens.
4 comments:
This looks like a really nice theater. Sounds like it has a fun history. I love when a town takes action to save a place like this. In my town, there's an old movie theater that's closed down and I feared the worst. But recently I heard that it's being turned into a little theater type operation. If it's true, I'm thrilled. I LOVE live theater and this sort of thing can only be good for a town. :)
I hope that theater in your town does re-open. Keep me posted.
Enjoyed reading this. I'm a New Hampshirite as I may have mentioned before (at least, I grew up there, seacoast area - and still spend a lot of time there), but I hadn't heard of or seen this theater. Thanks.
Hi, MovieMan. There used to be quite a few such theaters in Manchester, but I think this might be the only one left. New Hampshire also has some nice summer stock theaters.
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