Palace Theatre
165 Main Street,
Danbury,
CT
06810
165 Main Street,
Danbury,
CT
06810
8 people
favorited this theater
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
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- May 6, 2010 — CT Film Festival 2010 - May 4-9
- Oct 23, 2009 — Danbury's Palace Theater to get architectural/management study
- Jun 2, 2009 — Connecticut Film Festival - "Thought Provoking and Daring"
- May 20, 2008 — Palace Theatre gets new lease on life
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
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Recent comments (view all 120 comments)
Great update on the Palace renovations and cost. View link
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.
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
CT Film Fest 2011, Palace pics. View link
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.
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.
Historic Buildings of Connecticut link with the reason behind the 1999 seats.
https://historicbuildingsct.com/martha-apartments-1926-palace-theater-1928/
Reopened with 3 screens on March 30th, 1979. Ad posted.
Once operated by RKO Stanley-Warner, and later Crown Theatres LLC.
Correction: It was actually once operated by Stanley-Warner, then RKO, and later Crown Theatres LLC.