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26-660: Palm Court may refer to: Palm court - a large room, usually in a prestigious hotel, where functions are staged Palm Court (Alexandria Hotel) - historic ballroom in Los Angeles, California Palm Court at the Ritz Hotel - site of "Tea at the Ritz" in London, England Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

52-705: A cinema during the period that the Empire, Leicester Square was closed for rebuilding. The initial presentation, from 6 June, was a revival of Gone With the Wind which ran for 3 months. On 2 November the World Premiere of Bachelor in Paradise took place in the presence of the film's star, Bob Hope, and following this, on 15 November, was the UK premiere of Samuel Bronston 's epic King of Kings . MGM continued to use

78-488: A large orchestra pit installed". It reopened on 21 August 1968, with a production of the opera Don Giovanni . Another extensive renovation took place between 2000 and 2004. when the design team included the architects RHWL and Arup as acousticians and building engineers. The London Coliseum has two lifts which provide step-free access for disabled patrons to all levels, except the Upper Circle. Periodically,

104-403: Is often used to describe a small orchestra playing light classical music. Light orchestras proliferated in the holiday resorts and spas of Europe from the late 1800s. By the start of the 20th century most luxury hotels, cruise ships, department store restaurants and cafes employed small orchestras or chamber groups to entertain their patrons. The Savoy Hotel in London, for instance, catered for

130-606: The impresario Oswald Stoll . Their ambition was to build the largest and finest music hall , described as the "people's palace of entertainment" of its age. At the time of construction, the Coliseum was one of the few theatres in Europe to provide lifts for taking patrons to the upper levels of the house, and was the first theatre in England to have a triple revolve installed on its stage. The theatre has 2,359 seats making it

156-474: The Coliseum was used to show films and, when the "'talkies' arrived at the Coliseum in 1933, films were run at the theatre for a year. The greatest sensation at this time was the showing of King Kong which ran at the Coliseum for months with 10,000 people seeing the film there every day." After a lacklustre period of poorly received musicals came to an end, in June 1961 the theatre was leased by MGM for use as

182-726: The London Coliseum to the Coliseum Theatre between 1931 and 1968 when a run of 651 performances of the musical comedy White Horse Inn began on 8 April 1931. Additionally, Arthur Lewis notes that: The Coliseum reverted to the original name when the Sadler's Wells Opera Company moved there in 1968 and, in 1974, the Company changed its name to become the English National Opera; it bought the freehold of

208-620: The London home of the English National Ballet . The London Coliseum was built by the architect Frank Matcham who intended it to be one of London's largest and most luxurious "family" variety theatres. Construction began in 1903 and the venue opened on 24 December the following year as the London Coliseum Theatre of Varieties. It is located in St Martin's Lane , London. Matcham built the theatre for

234-602: The Palm Court Orchestra. Max Jaffa was leader from 1956, and also performed as a member of the Palm Court Trio with Jack Byfield (piano) and Reginald Kilbey (cello). Reginald Leopold followed on from Jaffa with a 17 year stint at the orchestra. The fourth movement of Samuel Barber 's ballet suite Souvenirs (1950) is titled 'Two-Step (Tea in the Palm Court)'. Originally for piano four hands, it

260-614: The South Pacific was used in fashionable Palm Courts. London Coliseum The London Coliseum (also known as the Coliseum Theatre ) is a theatre in St Martin's Lane , Westminster , built as one of London 's largest and most luxurious "family" variety theatres . Opened on 24 December 1904 as the London Coliseum Theatre of Varieties , it was designed by the architect Frank Matcham for

286-409: The building for £12.8 million in 1992. The Coliseum hosted both the 2004 and 2006 Royal Variety Performances and is also the London base for performances by English National Ballet , which perform regular seasons throughout the year when not on tour. The Who performed there and recorded their concert, on 14 December 1969. While its wing space is limited due to the constricted site on which

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312-647: The elite of English society and to visiting foreigners. "Sedate couples on the dance floor would enjoy waltzing to The Valeta and Destiny , with perhaps an occasional two-step in between". At the Savoy in the 1920s, Carroll Gibbons directed two orchestras: Carroll Gibbons and the Boy Friends provided light music for afternoon tea in the Thames Foyer, while the Savoy Orpheans played dance music in

338-447: The evenings, with a nod towards jazz. In the UK, broadcast relays of light music from The Grand Hotel Eastbourne by the BBC began in 1925 with an orchestra under the direction of the violinist Albert Sandler (1906-1948). (The hotel didn't have a palm court, the lounge hall was used for the relays). Alfredo Campoli founded his similar "Salon Orchestra" in the 1930s. By 1942 Sandler

364-466: The format, it later became difficult to programme the theatre. It resorted to revivals of old 70mm movies before opening The Comedians on 18 January 1968 (a 70mm Panavision blow up). This ran for nine weeks and was followed by a revival of the 1956 Todd-AO epic Around the World in 80 Days , the first time this film had been shown in 70mm in London. This ran until 22 May 1968 when Cinerama pulled out and

390-590: The largest theatre in London. After being used for variety shows, musical comedies, and stage plays for many years, then as a cinema screening films in the Cinerama format between 1963 and 1968, the Sadler's Wells Opera Company moved into the building in 1968. The Sadler's Wells company changed its name to the English National Opera in 1974 and today it is used primarily for opera as well as being

416-570: The seating capacity being reduced since the Theatre's opening, it still has the largest seating capacity of any Theatre in the West End at 2,359. The theatre retains many of its original features and was given a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage in September 1960. Prior to Sadler's Wells Opera Company taking over the Coliseum in 1968, the house was "fully restored, redecorated, and

442-458: The squat columns dividing the lowest tier of slip boxes, backing the stalls, almost Sullivanesque; pairs of 2-tiered bow fronted boxes with domed canopies at gallery level and semi-domed, Ionic-columned pairs of 2 tiered orchestra boxes, contained in arched and pedimented frames surmounted by sculptural groups with lion-drawn chariots. Great, semi-circular, blocked architrave proscenium arch with cartouche- trophy keystone." The inaugural performance

468-603: The theatre even after the new Empire, Leicester Square reopened in December 1962, but MGM's lease expired on 19 May 1963 and the theatre was then leased by the Cinerama Corporation to become the second of London's Cinerama locations (after the Casino Cinerama ). Conversion to three-strip projection which used three projectors was undertaken, and an 80 ft wide, 30 ft tall deeply curved screen

494-415: The theatre was built, as Lloyd notes, "the stage of the London Coliseum was also on a vast scale; 55 feet wide by 92 feet deep". The stage is not raked . It has the widest proscenium arch in London and was one of the first to have electric lighting. It was built with a triple revolving stage , although this was rarely used. The Coliseum was originally designed to seat 2,939 people on four levels. Despite

520-429: The theatrical impresario Sir Oswald Stoll and had the ambition of it being the largest and finest "People’s palace of entertainment" of the age. Matcham wanted a Theatre of Variety – not a music hall but equally not highbrow entertainment. The resulting programme was a mix of music hall and variety theatre, with one act – a full scale revolving chariot race – requiring the stage to revolve. The theatre's original slogan

546-481: The title Palm Court . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palm_Court&oldid=549180067 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Palm court The term palm court orchestra ,

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572-671: Was PRO BONO PUBLICO (For the public good). It was opened in 1904 and the inaugural performance was a variety bill on 24 December that year. English Heritage , in its description of the theatre when it was given listed status in 1960 notes that it is "exuberant Free Baroque ambitious design, the Edwardian "Theatre de Luxe of London" with richly decorated interiors and a vast and grandiose auditorium." The description continues: "Lavish foyer and circulation areas with marble facings, culminating in vast 3-tier auditorium with wealth of eclectic classical detail of Byzantine opulence, some motifs such as

598-436: Was a variety bill on 24 December 1904, but it "was a total failure and closed down completely only two years after opening in 1906 and remained closed until December of 1907 when it was reopened and at last became successful." In 1908, the London Coliseum was host to a cricket match between Middlesex and Surrey. In 1911, dramatist W. S. Gilbert produced his last play here, The Hooligan . The theatre changed its name from

624-483: Was billed as directing "The Palm Court Orchestra", actually made up from a unit of the BBC London Studio Players, a pool of musicians put together in 1941 to form ensembles of different sizes on demand. The ensemble secured a regular broadcast slot on Sunday evenings on the programme Grand Hotel which ran from 1943 until 1973. Tom Jenkins (from 1946) and Jean Pougnet were later conductors of

650-912: Was installed. Beginning on 16 July 1963, the theatre was renamed the Coliseum Cinerama, with the UK premiere of The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm . This film transferred to the third of London's Cinerama houses, the Royalty Theatre on 27 November and the Coliseum was converted for single-projector Cinerama using 70mm film for the Gala UK Premiere of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World on 2 December 1963. Other 70mm films followed, The Magnificent Showman (the UK Title of Circus World ), The Great Race (a 35mm "blow up") and The Bible . With fewer films made in

676-668: Was orchestrated in 1952. Barber wrote of the suite: "One might imagine a divertissement in a setting of the Palm Court of the Hotel Plaza in New York, the year about 1914, epoch of the first tangos." Lennox Berkeley 's Palm Court Waltz , Op. 81 No 2 (1971) is an orchestral work written for an entertainment put on at the London Coliseum by Richard Buckle , and arranged for piano duet in 1971. Howea forsteriana from

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