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____________________________________________________________________________________________ Palace Theatre, Oxford Street, Manchester
Above - The Palace Theatre, Oxford Street, Manchester
- From an early Postcard.
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The Theatre was redecorated and altered in 1896 by the renowned Theatre architect Frank Matcham.
Right - The auditorium of the Palace Theatre, Manchester in 1978 - Photo Courtesy Ted Bottle. In 1979 the Theatre was threatened with closure, along with the Opera House but the Theatre was instead chosen as Manchester's touring house of the future and extensively refurbished. Raymond Slater bought the Theatre from Moss Empires, and formed the Manchester Palace Theatre Trust who also bought some land and office buildings to the rear of the Theatre which enabled them to enlarge the stage by some twenty feet. Left - Programme for the Palace Theatre, Manchester - Courtesy Peter Charlton. The Fly tower was raised by 12 feet at the same time, and the orchestra pit was enlarged so that it can now accommodate 110 musicians. The dressing rooms were also enlarged and modernised at the same time and the first computerised box office system in Europe was installed in the Theatre. The refurbishment work was carried out by Smith & Way. The auditorium is built on three levels, Stalls, and two Balconys with a capacity of 2000, and the Theatre is Grade II listed. |
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PALACE THEATRE MANCHESTER From Moss Empires' Theatres in the Fifties By Donald Auty This is a magnificent 2000 seater theatre again a Matcham house. When it opened in the early years of the twentieth century there was a problem getting a liquor licence for the bars for a number of years and it was a dry variety theatre. This affected the business quite a bit until a licence was eventually obtained.
Above - The Palace Theatre, Manchester - From a period Postcard.
It was the only theatre on the circuit that had a stage director Bert Traylor who came down from the Edinburgh Empire after it closed and a stage manager Geoff Milne. The electrician in the early sixties was Gill Binks who only died a short time ago. He operated one of the first strand consul switch boards to be manufactured and it was situated on a perch above the prompt corner. It was well past its prime in the early sixties and spare parts were difficult to obtain. Gill used to make it work when it was playing up by giving it hefty kicks. Tim Tillson was transferred from Nottingham when Moss took over as manager. The years at Manchester mellowed him and he became quite pleasant before he retired.
Left - The Palace Theatre, Manchester - From a postcard I went in with a tour of Chu Chin Chow in 1958 and decided that a donkey on stage would give extra panache to the market scene. Teddy Tingling who was on the stage staff also provided ponies for the Tom Arnold pantomimes so I hired a donkey from him for the week. There used to be double doors on the side of the stage where the dressing rooms now are that led into a passage. Teddy brought the Donkey down to the theatre on the Monday night and we put a ramp by the double doors to bring him down on stage. He got half way down splayed his feet and refused to move, he-hawing at the top of his voice. One of the quiet musical numbers from the show was being performed at the time. It is needless to say that I was not at the top of the popularity league with the cast that night.
Right - Programme for 'Autumn Crocus' at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. There were a number of musical directors at the Palace during the fifties who presided over an excellent 16-piece orchestra. One of them had a peculiar time beat with his baton and we used to say he looked as though he was knitting fog. If an act came along with difficult music he would always retire to his sick bed with what we all called diplomatic influenza. The Palace is one of the most successful theatres in the country and now owned by Clear Channel Television. It went through a period in the seventies when it looked as though it was going to go but it survived. Long may it do so. Text written for this site by Donald Auty. Also by Donald Auty on this site: |
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The
Palace Theatre was built as the Manchester Palace
of Varieties by Alfred Darbyshire & F B Smith in 
In
1913 the auditorium was reconstructed by 
It
was independently owned until Moss Empires took it over in the early
fifties although they had booked it for many years. It was the second
important theatre after the 
Bert
Trayler the stage director and myself did not have the happiest of relationships
with the equine species at this theatre. Any Cinderella 
In
one of the Spring Shows starring Beryl Read and Jimmy Edwards they both
did a sketch that featured Tunis the horse. Tunis used to get sexually
excited when he was standing next to Beryl and showed it. Whilst Wally
his trainer and myself bellowed put it away Tunis from the wings. Beryl
would then come off stage at the end of the sketch and say to me I am
not going on again if that f****** horse does that . The horse sketch
was in the early second half of the show and Curries Waltzing Water
Fountains closed the first half of the show. These were struck during
the interval and Tunis was brought in on the opposite side of the stage
through the double doors and led over to the other side of the of the
stage to the prompt corner whilst this was happening. I kept a box of
lump sugar for him in the prompt corner. One night he decided he could
not wait for his sugar and galloped across the stage to me, sending
stage hands scenery and water pipes flying. We had to lengthen the interval
by ten minutes in order to mop up the ensuing flood. I was again not
top of the popularity stakes.
