The vaudeville bills: the Orpheum and the Palace

The Orpheum, 1910–1934 · the Palace, from 2 November 1922 · the last vaudeville at the Palace, March 1930

The houses are in the theaters record; their bills are here. The Orpheum Theatre at 222 North Michigan Street opened on November 14, 1910, as a house of the Orpheum Circuit, running the circuit's standard bill — five acts a week to a 2,000-seat room — until it closed in 1934. The Palace at 211 North Michigan opened on November 2, 1922, built as the circuit's palace-scale house for the same road: continuous vaudeville in its first regime, a new act every ten minutes at twenty-two cents, in the venue's own account of itself, with Broadway troupes breaking the New York–Chicago journey on its stage.

The comedy on the bills: The Palace's published history names the acts of its first decades, and the comedy names are the road's first rank: the Ziegfeld Follies with Fanny Brice; George Burns and Gracie Allen; Houdini; Amos 'n' Andy; Bing Crosby — with Bette Davis beside them in the venue's account, and across the years Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, and Elvis Presley. The names print at the venue history's size, as the acts the house's own record carries, because no bill-by-bill press compilation reached this section; the Dunkle Collection named in the minstrel entry is where the individual evenings, where they survive, are documented. Vaudeville's end at the Palace is dated by the university's Building South Bend record: the last vaudeville show played there in March 1930, and the talkies took the room. One later night belongs to another file and is pointed to rather than retold: Bob Hope was in the house for the world premiere of Knute Rockne: All American on October 4, 1940, carried whole in the famous-locations record.

Sources

1. The theaters record in this history — the Orpheum's opening of November 14, 1910, its five-act circuit bill, its 2,000 seats and 1934 closing; the Palace's opening of November 2, 1922.
2. The Morris Performing Arts Center's published history of the Palace — the continuous vaudeville regime, "a new act every ten minutes" at twenty-two cents, and the named bills: the Ziegfeld Follies with Fanny Brice, Burns and Allen, Houdini, Amos 'n' Andy, Bing Crosby, and the later names.
3. Building South Bend (University of Notre Dame) — the last vaudeville show at the Palace, March 1930.
4. The famous-locations record in this history — the Knute Rockne: All American premiere of October 4, 1940, Bob Hope in the house.