The Palladium

The Palladium was a Johannesburg Bio-vaudeville house in Commissioner Street bounded by Fraser and Simmonds Streets.

History

The Palladium from 1911 was originally the old Stock Exchange and tattersalls building and was situated on Commissioner Street bounded by Fraser and Simmonds Streets. The 1911 plan called it Coliseum Theatre which was a bioscope-vaudeville house opened by E. Hartfeil and P. Perriers in May 1910 and promoted by Americans.

From 1912 it was referred to as ‘Palladium’. A.H. Reid and Walter Reid were responsible for the Palladium conversion. When the theatre was reconstructed in 1912 by owners Johannesburg Estate Company, telephones and loudspeakers were installed in each dressing-room, in order to give the players their cues.

Ethel Irving appeared in the opening performance on 1st March 1913. The continuous bio-vaudeville theatre was managed by R. B. Young. By May of 1913, the theatre went into liquidation and was absorbed into Schlesinger’s African Theatres Trust along with Bijou and Carlton theatres in October 1913.

In 1931, the Palladium was leased by Union Theatres which was formed to show Metro talkie films. On 30th November 1931, the first MGM talkie shown in South Africa was screened at the Palladium. The opening film was Broadway Melody featuring Charles King. It was followed by Madame X and The Rogue Song. In 1936 its capacity was listed as 1150.

The building was demolished around 1938/9.

Sources

https://johannesburg1912.com/2013/07/29/theatres-in-early-johannesburg/

For more information

See Music hall and Bioscope

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