Palace Theater 60th Birthday pamphlet

Leaders In Theatrical and Motion Picture In-
        dustries From Various Cities to Be
                   Among the Guests


MAYOR IS TO PRESIDE


First Performance in the New Palace Will Consist of
Speech-making, Music, Vaudeville Show and Feature
Photo-play- Mayor Samuel A. Carlson and Manager
Fred Shaffer of New Lafayette Theater, Buffalo, Are to
Speak- Special Musical Program by Combined Or-
chestras of Palace and Winter Garden Theaters and
New Organist, Paul H. Forester of Utica, NY- Vaude-
ville Bill of Unusual Excellence and Motion Picture,
Lionel Barrymore in The Face in the Fog - General
Public To Be Admitted on Opening Night, as Well as
Large Company of Guests.

                                        MODEL PLAYHOUSE
                                                TO FILL DEMANDS
                                                        OF GROWING CITY

                                   Motion Picture and Vaudeville Theater Which
                                              Would Do Credit to a City Many Times
                                                            The Size of Jamestown

New Palace on East Third Street Has Seating Capacity of
Nearly 2,000 and Embodies All of the Latest Ideas In
Theater Construction and Equipment--Fireproof Struc-
ture of Concrete and Steel with Motion Picture Booth
Outside of the Building Proper--Mezzanine Floor, With
Davenport Chairs, Tables, etc.; Ladies Retiring Room
and Men's Smoking and Lounging Room Are Among
the Many Up-to-date Features--Proscenium Arch is Un-
usually Large, 38 Feet Wide and 33 Feet In Height--
Heating and Ventilating Systems of the Very Latest.

Realizing the need of a vaudville house commensurate with the demands of a modern city of over 40,000 population, Marshall W. Peterson and Michael L. Woods, constituting the amusement promotion firm of Peterson & Woods, proprietors of the Winter Garden and Mozart theaters, began plans some two years ago for the erection of just such a building in Jamestown. Before any definite steps toward the construction of a new theater were taken, however, a careful survey of the amusement needs of the community and its tributary territory was made, with the result that all doubts as to the wisdom of such an undertaking were dispelled. Plans were prepared for a theater intended to be bigger and better in everyway than any building of its kind in the city, and in order to secure adequate space and at the same time locate in the business section of the city, the old Gron block on Spring street, opposite the City hall fire station, was purchased, together with the J. B. Flisher block on East Third street, the latter to provide the lobby for the new theater. The Gron block was torn down and on its site has been erected the Palace theater, large enough and fine enough and modern enough for any city of 100,000 population or even more in the United States embodying all of the very latest features of theater construction and equipment and providing comfortable seating accommodations for an audience of nearly 2,000 persons--1,200 on the main floor; 600 in the balcony, and 50 in the two large boxes.

The new theater is to be formally opened next Monday evening, Feb. 5, at 8 o'clock, and a large force of men is at work night and day completing various details in time for the initial performance. For the opening, the management has extended invitations to Mayor Samuel A. Carlson, Chief of Police Frank A. Johnson, Fire Chief Howard S. Rodgers: the contractors who have had a part in erecting and equipping and furnishing the theater; representatives of the press, and theatrical and motion picture men in this city and in various other cities, many visitors connected with the theatrical and motion picture industries being expected for this first performance. All seats not occupied by the guests of the management will be available to the general public, tickets now being on sale at the Winter Garden theater. The program for the evening will consist of a showing of unusually high-class motion pictures and several vaudeville acts in keeping with the excellence of the theater and the importance of Jamestown as it is impressed upon the minds of vaudeville booking agencies. It is expected that the audience on this occasion, the opening of the new Palace, will be such as to tax the seating capacity of the building to the utmost. The management promises a show of unusual merit from start to finish and one that will afford some idea of the character of the productions to be staged there in the future. "We intend to provide Jamestown with first class motion pictures and vaudeville," said Mr. Peterson this morning, "and

expect that the combination of the two will be such as to pack the house day after day. We intend to book only such pictures and such vaudeville acts as will be in harmony with this elegant new theater and we are confident that if we do that the people of Jamestown will do the rest. At any rate we intend to do our part and we would not have made such an investment as this had we been lacking in confidence as to the future growth and development of this community. We are here with the theater and we believe the people will appreciate the advantage which it gives them along the line of clean wholesome amusement for every member of the family."
After next Monday, the opening day, there will be daily performances at the Palace afternoon and evening. Everyday except Saturday and Sunday, the showing of motion pictures will begin at 1:45 o'clock in the afternoon, to be followed at 3:30 by the vaudeville show and this in turn by another showing of the pictures. Then in the evening, the pictures will be shown at 7:15 o'clock, followed by vaudeville at 8:30.

Houston, Bob. “Grand Opening is Third For Lenna Civic Center,” Jamestown (NY) Post-Journal 13 October 1990, Supplement:
Tempo, pp.3T – 4T.

Grand Opening is Third For Lenna Civic Center
By Bob Houston

   Last night Jamestown witnessed the third grand opening in 70 years of the Reg Lenna Civic Center, formerly the Palace Theater.
   The first was in 1923, when the Palace originally opened its doors with what has become traditional grand hoopla.
   "The new Palace... embodies all of the latest ideas in theater construction," read the newspaper account of that opening night.
   If it hadn't, there probably would not have been a building left to renovate, considering the years of neglect it suffered.
   When a small band of intrepid heroes- and heroes they must be considered among those who love the theater - got together in the early 1980's to try to save the Palace from destruction, they found and abandoned, decaying shell filled with debris and water literally running down the walls and aisles.
   For a few moments, they thought about giving up.
   "What's the worse that can happen?" Wayne Treni, local businessman, asked the group. "We can fail, that's all."
   Months, then years, of hard work by hundreds, then thousands, of volunteers turned the wrecked stage and torn seats and ripped carpets into a serviceable and successful theatrical operation once more.
   And their success proved there was a serious paying public for live entertainment in the Palace Theater.
   Their efforts paved the way for the city to buy the building from its then-owner , Nikitas Dipson, and keep it safe from the wrecking ball and those who wanted to buy it and turn it into a bar.
   It was decided to hold a fund drive to raise enough money to do a complete renovation of the building.
   The drive idea got rained on - literally - when Harry Chapin, noted singer and storyteller, performed on stage at the Palace during a rain storm.
   He got wet.
   He told the audience that, if they would try to save the grand old building, he would return to Jamestown and do the concert to help the drive.
   The drive almost immediately ran into sunshine - Reginald and Elizabeth Lenna donated $1 million to the project.
   It was decided to change the name to the Reg Lenna Civic Center. The name change reflected not only gratitude to Lenna, but also a shift in policy from using the building for strictly entertainment purposes to offering it for community programs, conventions and the like.
   Thanks to the financial shot in the arm from the Lennas the fund drive was a tremendous success, raising more than $3 million for the renovation project.
   Now, the interior of the auditorium has been completely refurbished in its original 1920s and 1930s style - elegant and comfortable.
   And the first season's schedule is in place.
   Tonight, the Chautauqua Chamber Singers present the first formal program in the new theater.
       The Theater in 1923 and Today
   When it first opened on Feb. 5, 1923, the Palace was a combination movie theater and vaudeville house.
   And the population of Jamestown was more than 40,000.
   A description of the interior of the theater noted that the walls of the lobby "are finished in Roman stone color, the woodwork has a satin finish in the natural walnut color, and a striking feature is provided by six ornamental mirrors of beveled plate glass with frames of natural walnut and a filling of gold and Delft blue."
   Today, the mirrors are gone. The gold and Delft blue are gone.
   But, unlike the rest of the theater, the lobby is not finished.
   "The lobby is unfinished," said Misty Sorensen, director of marketing and publicity for the Civic Center, "because renovating the theater is just the first phase of a five-year overall Civic Center district development plan."
   Renovations made to the lobby now would have to be done in undone within five years, Mrs. Sorensen said, to accommodate future changes called for by the plan.
   In 1923, the auditorium seats were upholstered in leather and backed with etched velour.
   Today, the seats are of burgundy fabric with painted gray metal backs.
   But one thing is the same: In 1923, the newspaper noted, "the effort of the management is to provide comfortable seating accommodations for the patrons."
   The current management has tried to provide exactly the same thing.
   The original auditorium was "finished in a color scheme which provides a combination of ivory, blue, and gold."
   Today, patrons will see walls covered in rich green fabric offset by the deep burgundy and gray of the seats.
   In 1923, the proscenium arch, or open area between the stage and the audience, was "unusually large, being 38 feet wide and 33 feet in height."
   The proscenium has not been changed.
   But the size of the playing area on stage has been enlarged by removing equipment and racks from the back wall. That means sets can now be moved up against the back wall, leaving several more feet of space for the actors.
   In 1923, to assure the best in performances, "there is of course, a complete equipment of scenery and every facility for producing scenic effects thru mechanical apparatus and electrical lights. The electric switchboard, controlling the lighting system throughout the theater, is of the very latest type."
   Today. the theater is equipped with considerably more advanced "state-of-the-art" devices.
   "Our lighting is increased 10-fold over what we had before," Mrs. Sorensen said.
   Just as important, when plans were being drawn for this latest renovation, "We were really looking toward the future," she said.
   Conduit lines were put in place that will allow additional equipment to be added to the current theater systems with minimal expense.
   "Initially, we wanted to be able to do things like television remotes," Mrs. Sorensen said. Budget limits forced such items to be cut.
   "But, we did put in the necessary lines so we won't have to tear things apart and start over when we have the need and find the money to update our systems," she said.
       The Candlesticks and the Organ
   There are two things that people often ask about when conversation turns to the old Palace - the original giant candlesticks and the theater organ.
   "On either side of the stage is a giant candlestick, nine feet in height," read the 1923 newspaper article. The candlesticks were "in the form of a fluted column finished in Delft blue and gold."
   From the top of each stick extended "an immense candle which presents the appearance of having been lighted."
   At the base of each stick was "an arrangement whereby the acts are announced in electrically illuminated letters."
   No one seems to know what happened to the candlesticks. ...
   The pipe organ has also vanished from the theater. Reports place it in an upstate theater, where it is still in working order.
   The 1923 article on the opening of the Palace stated, "The pipe organ is one of the largest instruments of its kind in any theater in this end of the state.
   "The organ is equipped with all of the devices that make theater organs popular. Every effect, from the sighing of the wind to the roar of the thunder, the trill of the canary to the scream of the eagle, the swift beat of the drums to the steady, rounding cannonade of the great guns in battle, may be registered on this marvelous instrument."
   The organ was made by Marr and Colton. At the time it was placed in the Palace, it was considered to be the highest achievement in the art of modern organ construction.
   It was played from a keyboard unit at the left of the stage. It boasted more than 60 controls arranged in a semi-circle on the console.
   The relay and pipes were on the right side of the stage.
   "The relay, or brain of the instrument, is like an immense telephone switchboard," the newspaper reported. "Thru this relay, containing thousands of electrical contacts and hundreds of miles of electric wire, the entire organ is controlled in conjunction with the keyboard."
   The organ, the candlesticks that announce each new act, the comfortable seats, the beautiful colors of the theater - all combined to make "an exceptional evening."
   And exceptional evenings are in store once again, in the newly refurbished Reg Lenna Civic Center theater.

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