Albany Palace Theatre

Albany, NY

Opened: 1931

Seats: 2,844

The Palace opened in October, 1931 as an RKO movie house that presented vaudeville acts between feature films. The building features an Austrian Baroque design with "Atmospheric elements." The Palace is the last survivor of a number of movie palaces that once entertained Albanites and has maintained many of its original design features.

When I was there in 2002, the house lights were still controlled by what was, for its day, a very high-tech vacuum tube light board. The lighting panel onstage controlled a large room of relays, transformers and tubes under the stage. Obsolete, unreliable and dangerous, I believe it had been replaced as part of a general renovation by the time I got back in 2006.

01/30/2002 10:39:36
Albany Palace_Theatre (1931?)
01/30/2002 10:37:24
Albany Palace Theatre (2002)
03/01/2006 08:31:44
Albany Palace Theatre
03/01/2006 09:39:48
Albany Palace Theatre
03/01/2006 10:38:21
Albany Palace Theatre
01/30/2002 10:30:53
Backstage control board
01/30/2002 11:00:05
Basement dimmers
01/30/2002 11:00:17
Basement dimmers
01/30/2002 11:00:25
Basement dimmers

Next: Anderson Center