Manchester Theatre History

Manchester at War 1940 was the first time the bombs fell on Manchester.  Both the Palace and Opera House theatres were bombed but they still remained open.  Manchester Cathedral, the Royal Exchange and the Free Trade Hall were among the large buildings that were damaged.  That same year saw the start of food rationing and the  Home Guard was formed, it was otherwise...

World War Two 1939 was a memorable year in British History as in September that year World War Two started when things began to change as the dark days were just around the corner! With the advent of identity cards, petrol rationing and Parliament introducing national service for all men aged between 18 and 41. William Joyce began broadcasting Nazi...

Women on stage in 1938 Three great actresses appeared in plays at the Palace Theatre in 1938. The first one to appear was Margaret Rutherford who was in my opinion the one and only  ‘Miss Marple, she had an unusual childhood, because her father suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum, sometime after his release, he killed...

A concert in aid of Cancer, back in 1937 At the beginning of 1937 a gala classical concert  was held in aid of Christie’s Cancer Hospital.  Quite amazingly  The Christie  opened in 1901. After opening The Christie quickly pioneered treatment for Cancer and established the firm reputation it still has today in 2019.Today it is a front runner in cancer...

The Palace of Variety The Palace theatre was originally known as ‘The Palace of Variety’ and it certainly lived up to its name in 1935 Max Miller ‘The Cheeky Chappy’ Max Miller who was well known as a stand up comic, also for the very flamboyant attire and his risque jokes!!  If you go to Brighton you can see a...

  In July 1934 the late, great one and only Sophie Tucker, known as ‘the Last of The Red Hot Mama’s‘ appeared in Manchester at the Palace theatre.  It must have been wonderful to see her live.  I was totally spoilt for choice of the many  songs that she was well know for, especially ‘My Yiddishe Mama‘  but this is the...

    In September 1928 the theatre broke new ground by putting on the latest Jerome Kern musical ‘Show Boat‘, which made its Broadway debut in 1927 and was produced by Florenz Zeigfield, this was a totally new concept for him to be involved in. As most people know this went on to gain worldwide fame in its film version...