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About the Palace Theatre

Even before the Palace Theatre was built there, the site of 710 Dundas Street had historic significance. In March, 1896, the Women's Christian Association bought a brick building at 708 Dundas Street for $3500 to accommodate 20 patients in the Jubilee Home for Incurables. Four years later, a house to the east was added to meet the growing demand for chronic care. By 1920, the need for still larger facilities prompted the purchase of the Minnhinnick property at 81 Grand Avenue. It was decided that these new premises should also have a new name; henceforth, it was known as Parkwood Hospital.

The contractors for the Parkwood renovations were the Hyatt Bros. - the same firm responsible for the London Life headquarters, the Old City Hall at Dundas & Wellington, The Patricia Theatre (later the Victoria, Dundas & Clarence) and the Palace Theatre which interestingly, they also owned.

During the second decade of the century, at least five new theatres opened in London of which Loew's (later the Century) was the most famous. However, many of them closed over the next ten years due to the demise of vaudeville and silent movies. Although there was a stage, dressing rooms and an orchestra pit - no doubt a throwback to these times - the Palace was actually built as a movie theatre for "talkies" so it did not suffer the same fate. Leased by the Hyatt Bros. To Famous Players, it was in turn sub-leased to 20th Century Theatres.

When it opened March 9, 1929, the Palace Theatre was hailed as "one of the finest and most complete establishments of its kind not only in London and Western Ontario but in the whole of Canada". Besides boasting the latest in heating systems and projection equipment, the interior decorative elements were equally impressive. Similar to but not as opulent as another theatre of the same vintage, the Pantages in Toronto, the auditorium reflected neo-Classic detailing associated with the English Baroque period.

The original proscenium (intact behind the new stage) is framed with a plain plaster molding and frieze decorated with rosettes, urns and acanthus leaves. On either side of this are semi-circular arched faux porticos with a "seating box" hidden behind a plaster lattice screen. The walls of the auditorium are capped with a prominent cornice with egg and dart and acanthus moldings. At intervals, there are Doric fluted pilasters with ram's head capitals.

The ceiling is patterned with another decorative molding featuring rosettes and wheat sheaves, framed in egg and dart. Six diamond shaped lozenges formed by the moldings framed tiered filigree metal and opaque glass chandeliers. The colour scheme was gold and brown. In the lobby, a drinking fountain as well as a storage room for baby carriages and bicycles were considered novel innovations. And in the upper ladies lounge, a glass panel was provided so that mothers with restless children did not have to miss the show!

Early movies included such classics as The Gay Divorcee with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Return of the Cisco Kid with Jimmy Durante, Marlene Dietrich in A Foreign Affair and Carmen Miranda in Something For the Boys. Beat that for 25 cents adult admission!

- From the Commemorative Programme for the Re-Opening of the Palace Theatre