Connor Palace

The Connor Palace,[2] also known as the Palace Theatre and historically as the RKO Palace,[3] is a theater located at 1615 Euclid Avenue in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, part of Playhouse Square. The theater opened in 1922, as Keith's Palace Theatre after B. F. Keith, founder of the Keith-Albee chain of vaudeville and movie theaters. It was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Rapp and Rapp in the French Renaissance style, and originally housed live two-a-day vaudeville shows. The $2 million theater opened in the Keith Building on November 6, 1922, seating 3,100. The interior featured Carrara marble and 154 crystal chandeliers, and the main lobby, dubbed the "Great Hall," was decorated with over 30 paintings.

Connor Palace
Palace Theatre
Former namesPalace Theatre (1922–2014)
Address1615 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio
United States
OwnerPlayhouse Square Foundation
TypeVaudeville theatre
Capacity2,714
Current usePerforming arts center
Construction
Opened1922
Rebuilt1973
ArchitectRapp & Rapp
Website
www.playhousesquare.org
Connor Palace
Connor Palace is located in Ohio
Connor Palace
Connor Palace is located in the United States
Connor Palace
Part ofPlayhouse Square (ID78002041[1])
Added to NRHPOctober 5, 1978

The advent of the motion-picture age led to the gradual replacement of the vaudeville acts with movies, although vaudeville maintained a presence at the theater until the 1950s. The Palace was subsequently transformed for the presentation of widescreen Cinerama, which required the removal of 1,800 seats.[4] On July 20, 1969, the theater closed because of air-conditioning trouble, and remained closed due to financial difficulty. In November 1973, the Playhouse Square Foundation obtained the lease for the Palace, and began producing cabaret shows in the partially reopened theater to attract attention to its efforts to restore Playhouse Square.[5] In 1978, the theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places, along with the rest of the historic Playhouse Square theaters.

After a $36.4 million renovation project, the Palace completely reopened in 1988 with 2,714 seats, making it the second-largest theater in Playhouse Square.

The Palace was renamed the Connor Palace in 2014 to recognize a donation of nine million dollars to the Playhouse Square capital campaign by the Connor Family of Hunting Valley, Ohio.[6]

George Burns and Gracie Allen were married on the stage of the Palace Theatre by a justice of the peace in 1926.[7]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Litt, Steven (June 20, 2014). "PlayhouseSquare's new $100 million capital campaign gets a $9 million boost from Sherwin-Williams chief Chris Connor and family". The Plain Dealer. Cleveland. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  3. Trickey, Erick (November 18, 2011). "Palace Theatre (1922)". Cleveland Magazine. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  4. Melnik, Ross. "Palace Theater". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  5. "Palace Theatre". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. May 13, 1998. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  6. "PlayhouseSquare to Advance Its Legacy through $100 Million Capital Campaign" (Press release). Playhouse Square. June 20, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  7. "Palace Theater". Cleveland Historical. Retrieved September 12, 2020.

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