Poli's Palace - Springfield, Massachusetts

Above is the bill of acts for the Poli’s Palace in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1917. At this time, the Poli Palace was a vaudeville theater, but entrepreneur Sylvester Z. Poli was among the first to introduce movies to his theaters. So, right after Evelyn Elkins “singing comedienne” performs live, we are treated to a silent Western “Their Compact” starring Francis X. Bushman.

This post originally appeared on my Tragedy and Comedy in New England blog.  We follow up from last week's images of the 1906 Poli theatre stock company.

The flickers and the “legitimate stage” share an audience, and presumably, worlds collide.



Not that vaudeville was ever really considered “legitimate” stage, but Poli, an Italian immigrant who made his fortune through a string of theaters he owned, most located in New England, intended that his vaudeville theaters provide, according to a publication of the day called “S.Z. Poli’s Theatrical Enterprises”, quoted in The Papers of Will Rogers - Wild West and Vaudeville, Volume II (ed. Arthur Frank Wertheim and Barbara Bair, University of Oklahoma Press, 2000, p. 404) “devoted to progressive and polite vaudeville.”

We can’t be certain how progressive singing comedienne Evelyn Elkins was, but she was probably polite.

Will Rogers toured the Poli chain of theaters in 1908, and came to Sylvester Poli’s Springfield theater in February of that year. The theater was located at 286 Worthington Street, and after having its name changed to the Park Theatre in 1913, was destroyed in a fire in 1914. Poli was already busy building a new theater, called Poli’s Palace, a little farther down the street at 192-194 Worthington. This theater would continue as a vaudeville house, and after some years of sharing its audience with silent films, would eventually be turned over completely to that new medium when the talkies arrived, and Poli merged his chain with the Loew’s Corporation in 1934.



Vaudeville had its own hierarchy of “top banana” comics, and lesser acts that “played to haircuts” (meaning people walked out on them, so all the performers saw was the backs of their heads). There were “small-time” vaudeville theaters and “big-time”. In Springfield, Poli’s would have been considered small-time, compared to the vaudeville acts that were booked for the more prestigious Court Square Theater in town, which would carry an odd week or two of vaudeville in between legitimate stage shows.

The Shuberts, Keith, Albee and William Morris, all top vaudeville bookers who, regulated by the Vaudeville Managers Association, collected acts to run on the country’s regional vaudeville circuits. Springfield’s Pat Shea, one manager on the New England circuit, helped start the United Booking Office, a clearing house for vaudeville acts.

In February 1922, Shubert’s “High Class Vaudeville” played the Court Square Theater, and fifth on the bill was “Whipple and Huston.” Walter Huston, who later went on to movie fame, at this time played in comedy sketches with his wife, Bayonne Whipple.



Over at Poli’s Palace, there were lesser known acts, like the Harvey-Devora Trio, which billed themselves as “Grotesque Singing and Dancing Novelty.” We cannot be certain if “grotesque” was added to attract attention, or was merely an honest assessment of their abilities.

Things were more hopefully put with Bixley & Lerner, who called themselves “The Melba and Caruso of Vaudeville.”

Spectacular acts were saved for last, “show-closers”, and on July 13, 1914, Gilmore & Castle, “Blackface Singing and Talking Comedians” (yes, they could also talk), were followed by show-closer Hassan Ben Ali’s Troupe.



In his American Vaudeville: It’s Life and Times (NY: Dower Pub., Inc. 1968), author Douglas Gilbert noted of the Troupe, “Their handsprings were never springy, and their tumbling was wild, reckless, effortless. American acrobats could never approach them. At the end of the act Ali held the entire troupe on his head, shoulders, and arms. Then, at curtain, they would take off like pigeons, throwing themselves, so it seemed, out into space. The illusion was perfect. This was the best of the alley oops and no act has beaten it since.”



Box seats were 50 cents at the Poli’s Palace (orchestra seats were double that at Court Square), but if half a buck was still too steep, you could sit in the balcony for 10 cents.

Sylvester Poli, incidentally, was among the first theater owners to construct a single cantilevered balcony in this building, built in 1913.

Vaudeville ran with a new bill every week at Poli’s from Labor Day through May 30th, when summer stock would take over. Poli had his own traveling theater group, called the Poli Players, that would tour his theaters. One future film actress to get her start with the Poli Players was Gladys George.

Sylvester Poli, known not only for adding to his chain of theaters, but remodeling old ones, built the Poli Memorial Theater in 1927. The Springfield Republican noted in December 1926, “Modeled, to some extent, after the elaborate Metropolitan picture theater in Boston, its stage and auditorium will be suitable to legitimate productions, vaudeville, and motion pictures.”

The might be what’s known as having it all, but we never have anything for very long. Vaudeville was dead by 1930, and the talkies carried what would be known as the Loew’s Poli theater for the remainder of the decade and beyond, until that distant day when downtown theaters would be replaced by suburban cinemas.

But for a good while, one could ride the trolley on Main Street, get off on Worthington and walk up to the Poli’s Palace to see Archie Onri “The Original Juggling Genius assisted by Miss Dolly”, and Rohem’s Athletic Girls, which featured feminine exhibitions in “Fencing, Wrestling, and Bag Punching,” or the ever popular Spencer & Williams “Singing and Dancing Duo.”

Later, Loew’s Poli showed first-run MGM films for another generation.

Note: The photos of the exterior and interior of Poli's Palace are from postcards posted on the Image Museum site. The programs and tickets are from my collection.

The Poli Stock Company - 1906

Paula Gloy may have been the most well-known of the Poli Stock Company of 1906. She at least, among other alumni of that stock theatre troupe that performed at the string of Poli theaters in New England, can be traced to other more prestigious roles on Broadway.


Here is a set of promotional postcards published by Sylvester Z. Poli, theatre impresario, to attract audiences, and serve as souvenirs to fans.  The obverse:

At some point in that 1906 season, Paula Gloy left for another minor part on Broadway, in the farce “Cousin Louisa.” From the acerbic drama critic (is there any other kind?) of the New York Dramatic Mirror, May 12, 1906:

“Paula Gloy was rather unattractive as Florence, though she extracted some comedy from the situations in the second and third acts.”

Though Paula Gloy left a footprint on Broadway in a string of plays from about 1900 to about 1907, we haven’t too much information on Ruth Blake.

Or the handsome Sidney Irving.

Or this unnamed actor from the 1907 season.

Here is an actress in costume for her role as “Le Domino Rouge”, which played at the Poli’s Springfield, Massachusetts theater the week of January 29, 1906. The play was made into a silent film in 1909.

Here are the players in a candid group shot for Poli’s 1906 company.

We’ll have more next week on the Poli Palace of Springfield, Massachusetts.

My thanks go to Gail Watson for finding, and sharing these postcards.

Pledge of Allegiance - Westfield, Massachusetts

For this Flag Day, we have to assume the flag is flying on top of the ship's mast flagpole behind this small monument.  We are on the common in Westfield, Massachusetts.  For now, let's draw our attention to just the granite stone and the Pledge of Allegiance on the handy plaque, like a bronze cue card in case we have forgotten.

America's Stonehenge - Salem, New Hampshire

It is a mystery, still being discovered. “America’s Stonehenge” in Salem, New Hampshire is a site of caves and rock formations, and stone placements that appear to be an astronomically aligned calendar marking, and predicting, lunar and solar events. It is at least 4,000 years old, and is reckoned to probably be the oldest man-made structure in the United States.

We do not know who set these stone formations, but a variety of artifacts from a variety of eras in mankind’s timeline in North America are found here.

Stone tools, pottery, stone and bone pendants, artifacts from ancient Native Americans, and from the Colonial period. This site was also used, because of its caves and its isolation, as a hiding place on the Underground Railroad in the 19th century.

There are over 350 such megalithic sites in New England, and we are learning more about them. Prior to archeological study in the 20th century, they were only hidden spots, or known about through local legend and tales, and gossip. Strange things seen there, strange things imagined. We’ve passed through the era of myth and legend into the age of discovery, and this brings with it newfound awe and wonder for a people who lived here long ago.

The property on which this megalithic site sits is a private outdoor museum, and open to the public year-round. Have a look here at the website for more information.