I'd wanted a picture of the exterior of the Palace Theatre; all I can find are shots of the Civic Center, which is not quite the same thing. The Palace was the biggest theater in Lorain, the flagship, if you will...admission for kids was a lordly thirty-five cents when it was a quarter at the Dreamland. Still, going to the Palace was worth it.
One of my earliest memories is of being led by the hand, into this vast, dark room, packed with people, all staring at a huge screen, on which Daffy Duck was portraying Duck Dodgers...my first view of the Palace, my first of many over the next seventeen years-the Theatre mutated into the Civic Center in '76.
The Palace was the place for big, grand films - I saw "YELLOW SUBMARINE" there, and films like "JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS", "ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT","DELIVERANCE", and "BONNIE AND CLYDE". They had Midnight Scream Shows, the Summer Vacation Film Program, the Back to School Show, where every kid got a pencil box, and the Christmas Show, complete with Santa Claus.
The last film I saw there was "CARRIE".
I've seen films at the Civic Center, 4-X, "THE COLOR PURPLE", and "BATMAN", but it's not the same. I'm glad that it's still there in some form, but I really wish there was still a movie theater in downtown Lorain.
The Palace still shows films. ( www.lorainpalace.com ) I have an old exterior picture of the Palace. I can send it to you if you like. The place has been fully restored to it's original state with the exception of the marquee. It costs over $200K, but they're working on it. The interior picture you have is from my premiere of That Day. It was a fun night. Originally the palace could hold 2 thousand people. That crowd was 1,200. 100 shy of it's current capacity of 1,300. The 100 seats were removed for handicap seating for wheel chairs. love your blog.
ReplyDelete700 seats not 100 seats were removed.
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