London

'These Foolish Things'

1 It used to be an ice rink
The Palladium wasn’t always a theatre. It was built in 1870 on the site of the London abode of the Duke of Argyll (which is why the pub opposite is called The Argyll Arms), originally in the form of a temporary wooden building called Corinthian Bazaar, which featured an aviary and aimed to attract customers from the recently closed Pantheon Bazaar (now M&S) on Oxford Street.

The theatre was rebuilt a year later by Frederick Hengler, the son of a tightrope-walker, as a circus venue that included an aquatic display in a flooded ring.

Feature continues

It next became the National Skating Palace – a skating rink with real ice – prompting one writer to claim, ‘It requires no gift of prophecy to anticipate its complete success and popularity.’ Despite such confidence, the rink failed and the building was redesigned, opening as the Palladium on Boxing Day 1910.

'The Little Dog Laughed'

2 It had its own telephone system
The Palladium (it only became the London Palladium in 1934) was designed in Norwegian Rose granite and marble, with pink, white and gold walls, causing one journal to note, ‘There is not a dull note anywhere.’ Its outstanding features were the telephones in the auditorium’s boxes, allowing the occupants of one box to call up their friends in another. It also had a revolving stage. At first, fortunes were mixed – in 1928, the Palladium spent three months as a cinema – but success arrived in the shape of the Crazy Gang in 1931, seven comics who filled the theatre for nine years with pranks, songs, drag, acrobatics, custard pies, sketches, double entendres and impressions of Frenchmen. The Gang once nailed the shoes of a troupe of acrobats to the floor so when they put them on and tried to walk off they all fell over. Oh-ho!

3 It brought jazz to London
Also tripping up people at the Palladium was British trumpeter Nat Gonella. Infuriated by folk bailing on Louis Armstrong’s first London performance on July 10 1932, he upended them as they walked out. George V was in attendance, and received a tribute from Armstrong, who began one number in his 20-minute set with, ‘This one’s for you, Rex’, thus trumping John Lennon by 30 years. Armstrong was followed by another jazz legend, Duke Ellington, who played a two-week residency in 1933 with Max Miller. ‘His music has a truly Shakespearean universality,’ said one reviewer, ‘and as he sounded the gamut, girls wept and young chaps sank to their knees.’ Among d the 100,000 who paid to see him play over the course of a fortnight was the Prince of Wales.

4 It made Pinter pause
In 1935, while theatres around the country were struggling to face the challenge of cinema, the Palladium’s managing director, Val Parnell, hit on the plan of hiring the best American performers, paying big money for Mickey Rooney, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Danny Kaye and Judy Garland. These shows had a lasting impact on the world of theatre; critic Michael Billington once asked Harold Pinter when he first became aware of the power of the pause. Billington says, ‘He told me, with a slight twinkle, that it was from seeing… Jack Benny at the London Palladium in 1952.’

5 It helped create ‘Bullseye’
With the theatre’s reputation established, Parnell turned to telly and ‘Val Parnell’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ appeared on ITV for the first time on September 25 1955. It was hosted by Tommy ‘You lucky people’ Trinder. Other hosts included Bruce Forsyth, Norman Vaughan, who later devised darts-based gameshow ‘Bullseye’, and Jimmy Tarbuck, who was rubbish.