Manchester Theatre History

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...

  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...

In April 1926  ‘Cochran’s Revue of 1926′ starring Hermoine Baddeley  and Ernest Thesiger was on the stage prior to its London Pavilion debut.  Hermoine Baddeley  was the sister of Angela Baddley who played Mrs Bridges in the 1971 television series ‘Upstairs, Downstairs‘.  A very talented pair of sisters!!  In September of 1926 a new musical ‘Sunny’  written by Otto Harbach,...

‘The Roaring Twenties Era’ was celebrated at The Palace Theatre with the show ‘Follies of 1921’.  Definatley a flapper’s show, it starred The Palace Girl Dancers, ‘Gus Chevalier’, (who was a top comedian of his day and in 1932 was a regular at the London Windmill Theatre), and a host of other stars. In that same year a young John...

In December 1912  in the middle of a variety performance the Palace Theatre put on a short play called ‘The Loss of The Titanic‘ as well as a film of the National Picture News Weekly.  It must have been incredibly emotional as footage was shown of the sinking of the Titanic which had only happened a few months prior. Sadly...