Palace Theater

D.L. Wood opened the Palace Theater late in 1913. The theater at the southwest corner of what were Main and Mechanic streets in Plano was open seven-days-a-week through its entire run with a Saturday matinees. The advertisements proclaim that the theater was cooled with “plenty of electric fans.” That was good because the only other theater in town was an aerodome to the north which was an outdoors operation. The theater was sold to O.B. Hancock who made many improvements to the facility. The theater’s continuous lifespan appears to be exactly 40 years with advertisements running in the Plano Star-Courier from 1914 to 1953. Ads cease after the December 2, 1953 showing of Kiss Me, Kate which times out to two 20-year lease cycles . Ads resume in the mid-1950s and cease again. On August 18, 1957, W.R. Petty reopened the Palace and ads continue through 1961.

The end of one Palace era, in the letters section of Boxoffice, April 6, 1957: “I won’t need Boxoffice any longer. I’m closing up the theatre, throwing in the sponge. The small-town theatre is finished. The practice of letting the big theatres squeeze all of the advertising and attendance out of new pictures and of selling the old ones to TV has finished the little boys. (signed) O. B. Hancock, Palace Theatre, Plano, Tex.”