Palace Theatre

165 Main Street,
Danbury, CT 06810

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Related Websites

Palace Theatre, Danbury (Official)

Additional Info

Previously operated by: Crown Theatres LLC, RKO, Stanley-Warner Theatres, Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.

Architects: Edward T. Wiley

Functions: Movies, Movies (Film Festivals), Performing Arts

Styles: Neo-Classical

Phone Numbers: Box Office: 203.794.9944

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News About This Theater

The Palace's Mezzanine/Balcony

Opened on September 6, 1928, this 1,999-seat theater features a classically designed auditorium with a long oval lobby with Corinthian columns and a nice balustrade, and a large Carrera marble statue. By 1941 it was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.

It was triplexed on March 30, 1979 in an effort to stay alive(orchestra divided down the middle, balcony walled off into separate screen).

Sadly, it closed in 1995, but in 2008, the owner Joe DaSilva announced plans to renovate and reopen a restored Palace Theatre as a single-screen venue for performing arts and movies.

To this end, significant initial renovations were done - repainting in lobbies, auditorium seats cleaned, and new carpeting installed in time for the Palace Theatre to host a portion of the Connecticut Film Festival in May 2008.

Further renovations will come as it is restored into a single-screen venue for performing arts and movies.

Contributed by Roger Katz, Dave Litterer

Recent comments (view all 120 comments)

bicyclereporter
bicyclereporter on January 11, 2011 at 9:39 pm

Great update on the Palace renovations and cost. View link

bicyclereporter
bicyclereporter on March 3, 2011 at 1:57 pm

I struck gold! I was researching today for a doc I’m producing and Diane at the Museum showed me an old postcard of the 1934 blizzard with the Empress and Palace marquees visible.

I’ll post them later today as well as photocopies of pics (the person didn’t want to donate) of the Capitol’s exterior and INTERIOR! Not ornate at all.

bicyclereporter
bicyclereporter on March 4, 2011 at 10:33 pm

Postcard from 1934 showing Palace and Empress marquees.
Both movies, “Six of a Kind” and “Long Lost Father” are from 1934.

http://yfrog.com/h2e623j

bicyclereporter
bicyclereporter on April 9, 2011 at 9:19 pm

CT Film Fest 2011, Palace pics. View link

cinemascope
cinemascope on May 7, 2012 at 11:28 am

In the 1976 film ONE SUMMER LOVE (originally titled DRAGONFLY) Susan Sarandon plays a candy/popcorn girl at the Palace and the marquee, lobby, mezzanine, auditorium and even manager’s office are shown. A hard to find film that popped up on TV today here in Richmond, VA. Hope all get to see it.

spectrum
spectrum on November 27, 2015 at 7:38 pm

Can’t find any recent news reports about the renovation but from the pictures at their official website it looks like they’ve done a great job restoring the lobby areas – they look quite beautiful.

It also looks like they have a reasonably active schedule of shows and events, live performances, concerts and occasional movies.

No views of the auditoria – from the seating map on their website it looks like they still haven’t yet removed the partitions and are still working out of one half of the orchestra section. But what renovations they’ve done look great and they have a reasonably active schedule, which are the most important things at this point. The article linked from above indicates they’re looking at approx. 17 million for the renovation, which is not high at all compared to other renovations I’ve seen attempted so I think it’s quite doable – I expect progress will continue to happen.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on May 31, 2019 at 7:09 am

Historic Buildings of Connecticut link with the reason behind the 1999 seats.

https://historicbuildingsct.com/martha-apartments-1926-palace-theater-1928/

rivest266
rivest266 on June 20, 2024 at 3:23 pm

Reopened with 3 screens on March 30th, 1979. Ad posted.

50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on July 1, 2024 at 9:50 am

Once operated by RKO Stanley-Warner, and later Crown Theatres LLC.

50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on July 1, 2024 at 2:24 pm

Correction: It was actually once operated by Stanley-Warner, then RKO, and later Crown Theatres LLC.

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