Palace Theatre

Say goodbye to Broadway, save your self a two hour trip, traffic and parking headaches, go to the Palace Theater, you’ll be glad you did. Born and raised in New York City, attended On and Off Broadway theaters until moving to CT in 1985. I heard about the “old” Palace from Waterbury born co-workers and last night for the first time, I entered the Palace doors with my wife to see Lord of The Dance. To everyone who had anything to do with the Palace Restoration project, my hat is off to you ! You have restored a Crown Jewel ! The moment you walk through the doors it is awe inspiring, the marble, the chandeliers, the grandeur of the 1920s hits you unlike any theater I
have ever seen in New York City. Seeing Riverdance perform so close to our home in Prospect, is spectacular to say the least. It is such
a pleasure to see the old craftsmanship of turn of the century
artisans, restored instead of demolished. The State of Connecticut
and the City of Waterbury have made a wise investment with the $30
million dollars spent on this project. I think anyone who has been
there to see these opening shows will agree……. it’s time to say
Goodbye to Broadway, say hello to Waterbury and save money while you’re at it !

Thank you Palace,thank you Riverdance, thank you for a wonderful
evening. We’ll be back !

Waterbury is heading in the right track with the re-opening of the Palace Theather. The Palace Theather is a historic place with alot of memories inside of it. Downtown Waterbury is in the right direction one thing Waterbury needs is to construct some high rise Office buildings that will attract companies to there ITZ zone pretty much like Downtown Stamford. I would like to see Waterbury again with the life it had before in the 1940’s packed with people and all the lighting around the Downtown area it will be a good thing to see that back in this beautiful historic City.

Re: the 84-110 address. I was born and grew up in Waterbury and remember the theater well. The building took up most of the block it is in and housed, even in the 1940s many stores, including the old Record Shop. There was a shoe shine parlor near the theater entrance, a newspaper and candy store, where we would buy candy before going into the theater. In those days, there was little, or no food available inside the theaters. As I remember it the theater had lights for the aisles, and there were a deep amber color, and had other lights which were designed, obviously, by the same person who designed the chandilier and the lighted concave area that it hung from. She was a grand old lady and I remember going to the vaudeville shows there, they were my first live stage shows, and the Plaza that was us the street on the same side was where I first saw a stage play, “Arsenic and Old Lace.” Can’t remember the year, but there was an accident outside of town, where a vehicle ran into the back of a hay wagon with many high school kids on a hayride. Thanks for the memories. Ed Duff (Kissimmee, FL)

When my father, Ed Parks (who later became an animator for Disney, Paramount, and Hanna-Barbera) was a child in the late Twenties and Early Thirties, he lived in Waterbury. At that time, there were at least seven theatres along that stretch of East Main Street. Some of the other theatres were: State, Rialto (where he went to see Tom Mix movies on Saturday mornings),Strand, Garden, and Bijou. He always referred to the theatre here discussed as “Poli’s Palace,” though the posessive form of Poli doesn’t seem to have been used on signage. Dad’s best friend, Bussy Beith, had asthma, and Bussy’s father only wanted his son to go to Poli’s because he felt it had the best air!
Dad used to tell me that the box office had a large clock on it, which was handy for planning when to get in line for the show. I later saw a photo which proved this.
Other memories of his:
He was afraid to sit under the crystal chandelier which hung under the balcony from the Mezzanine ceiling and through the oval-shaped promenade, thinking it might fall.
He said that he used to look at the impressively huge organ pipes. I wondered about this, since theatre organ pipes were typically concealed, but when visiting the Palace in 1990 with the Theatre Historical Sciety Conclave, sure enough, I saw that the chambers were fronted by towering display pipes, just for show!
Dad remembered sitting in one of the Main Floor box seats right by the orchesra pit with my Grandmother and several family friends. The kettle drums were right by them, and as the movie that night was the war picture (silent) “What Price Glory,” those drums were used a lot, and really thundered in that auditorium. Also, Dad remembered one member of the orchestra using a narrow washboard-like device which, when some sort of bar or rod was pulled through it, imitated machine gun fire!
Dad also remembered some of the vaudeville acts which appeared there. The one he told me of which I remember was a trained dog act in which a group of little dogs in overalls and caps, with tools, set about to build a miniature house onstage! This delighted Dad no end, and eventually when the dog act returned to Waterbury, he went to see them again! He used to say, “It was the cutest thing!"
Dad also remarked that the fire curtain was a beautifully painted scenic one which had advertising space on it, and sometimes commedian acts would refer to local businesses whose names were on the curtain as part of their act as they stood in front of it.
Dad said that at the time (though the theatre was quite new) he just figured it had "been there forever.” He said it was always kept spotless, but he assumed because of its ornate style that it must have been old.
Many years later, Dad got to see the theatre, from the outside at least, when we were taking a family car trip all around the US in 1981. The rectangular neon Loew’s style marquee was still on the facade then, though the Loew’s name was gone. Dad was sad that the original marquee and vertical sign were gone, though there was a small vertical which read, “Palace."
I got to photograph the theatre on 1990 during the THS Conclave, and when Dad saw the pictures of the interior he really enjoyed them.

For any Waterbury-ites reading this, Dad lived on the hillside above Downtown (within walking distance). He lived on Wyman Street, two houses up from what he called The Big House, a Victorian mansion owned by the Stanley family, who owned many of the rental houses on that block. There were no houses across the street, just a rock retaining wall and a steep embankment, with the rears of the next street’s houses backing up to it. Also, he went to Drigg’s Grammar School.

This should be listed as the Palace Theater. Its official website is http://palacetheaterct.org/

84-110 is the span of the block that runs alongside the Palace. It will contain restaurants, retail shops and offices. The theatre itself, though, is at 100 East Main.

Having worked for the Palace, oh so many years ago in so many different capacities, it does my heart good to see that the grand old lady will once again shine in all her splendor. i know every inch of that theater and know what she looked like in her prime. i look forward to once again walking up the grand staircase. i plan on volunteering some of my time for the cause, if they would let me.

louis belloisy, formerly of Waterbury, Conn.

er than should read much closer to 3000 than 3600

Does anyone know the name of the current architect in charge of the renovation?

Er that should be is NOW beginning to undergo renovations.