One of the saddest days of my young life, at the time, was learning of the decision in 1965 to have the RKO Palace downtown demolished. This was long before anyone routinely gave a thought to preservation, restoration, or declaring historic buildings city landmarks.
While the Eastman Theatre was (and still is) the classiest place to attend a concert, when it came to the movies, nothing beat the RKO. As a kid, especially, everything truly seemed larger than life… whether it was the lobby itself, crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, staircases to the upstairs balcony, the stage curtain lighted with that alternating red and black glow, or the screen itself. If you were lucky, the sounds of the Mighty Wurlitzer theater organ might greet you on the way in. And if it were a popular enough feature with continuous showings, you could spend hours there, and no one batted an eye.
Actually, the routine was pretty simple. My Mom and I would take the bus downtown, have lunch in a nearby department store (when they had restaurants or snack bars as part of their design), and then walk a couple of blocks to the Palace. The outer lobby was full of artistic décor and chandeliers, and then the inner lobby had all sorts of food and snacks available (Hot Dogs were a big ticket item at 30 cents, and the Popcorn was always fresh).
Once inside the theater, I can remember standing and looking up at walls that seemed to reach to the sky, separated by a huge balcony seating area. The proscenium arch was accented by red and blue colored lighting, and there was always a thrill when that red velvet curtain opened to reveal the screen that we all escaped into.
The RKO Palace opened on Christmas Eve in 1928, and like many theaters of the time, had a live show on the 80 foot deep stage, short subjects and a sing-along in addition to the main feature. The side of the building advertised “The Showplace of Rochester”, and as you went in the main entrance, there was the proclamation over the doors “Rochester’s Most Beautiful Theater”.
As television loomed larger, profits got smaller and movie-going routines changed. “Urban Renewal” became the justification for its destruction.
The fate of the Wurlitzer organ was a different story, though. The original 4/21 model was restored and updated to a 4/23 model (Opus 1951) thanks to the efforts of the Rochester Theatre Organ Society, who moved it to the Auditorium Theater, where it is featured today at scheduled concerts.
Today, the actual Palace site is still an empty parking lot, so who knows whatever then-announced project it was that must have fallen through…
While it’s rare to find much material on the RKO now, let alone its final days, how interesting that all these years later, there is evidence that the last feature that played the RKO Palace in1965 was “Von Ryan’s Express.”
Here’s a toast to a great movie palace. Excuse me while I go out to the lobby and get some popcorn…
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