The Palace Theatre (New York City, New York)

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Theater opened in 1913. Designed by Kirchoff & Rose, the 1,740-seat theater was funded by Martin Beck, a vaudeville entrepreneur based in San Francisco, in an attempt to challenge Keith-Albee's east-coast monopoly. Albee in turn demanded that Beck turn over three-quarters ownership to use acts from the Keith circuit. Beck took the deal, and was in charge of the booking. From 1913 through about 1929, the Palace attained legendary status among vaudeville performers as it became the flagship of the monopolistic Keith-Albee organization, and the most desired booking in the country. The theater is notorious, too, for its enormous and difficult-to-sell second balcony in which nearly every seat has an obstructed view.

With the Great Depression came a rise in the popularity of film and radio, and vaudeville began its decline. There was a brief return to a live revue format in 1936, but finally in 1957 the Palace succumbed to the popularity of television and ceased stage presentations. In 1965, the Nederlander Organization purchased the Palace from RKO Theatres. On January 29, 1966, the Palace reopened as a playhouse with the original production of the musical Sweet Charity, although for a period of time it showed films and presented concert performances by Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Josephine Baker, Eddie Fisher, Shirley MacLaine, Diana Ross, Vikki Carr, and the like between theatrical engagements.

In the late 1980s, a towering hotel was built above and around the theater, supported by two super-columns located behind the original auditorium structure. Today the theater façade is almost entirely hidden behind a wall of enormous billboards. Only the marquee is visible. The interior was renovated in early 2014.

The north facade is more visible, clad in brown brick above a rusticated limestone base. There are numerous service entrance with black metal doors; the three western ones are set under segmental-arches. A large, double-tiered black metal fire escape descends from right to left down from the 4th floor to the ground; both tiers have black metal roofs covering them. There are a few small windows near the top of the theater facade, and at the east end (where it rises slightly higher than the west section that merges into the hotel tower), there is a cartouche and modillioned stone cornice.

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