The City’s Twin Entertainment Jewels

Majestic balcony
Balcony of the Majestic from a few days ago.

Bridgeport’s twin architectural jewels The Palace and Majestic Theaters, 6,000 seats combined, opened in 1922, built by Sylvester Poli. The Park City was a hot entertainment town loaded with tons of live performances. Television helped to change all that and the theaters have been vacant for decades. What do you do with them? They cost a fortune to maintain. An arts and entertainment cultural center?  Any ideas? Where’s a financial fairy godmother when you need one?

The city has reemerged with local theater and concerts at the Webster Bank Arena, Klein Memorial, Downtown Cabaret Theater and Playhouse on the Green. Support local stuff! Any memories of the Majestic?

Majestic external
The Majestic was a centerpiece of downtown entertainment.
Majestic theater stage
Current view of Majestic stage.

Check this out for more images robdobi.4ormat.com/7363-featured-essays-palace-majestic-theaters and thanks to Jenny Lynne for her column under comments.

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18 comments

  1. It won’t bring taxes, but it will bring more bodies downtown Sundays and maybe a night or two a week … SELL THEM AND MAKE THEM CHURCHES … Hey, they’ll take care of the property and it won’t sit vacant. We could use some Mega Churches!

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    1. Not a bad idea. Bishop Moales, May He Rest in Peace, spent several million building his new church in the East End. And that church isn’t half as majestic as the Majestic.

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    1. Mr BPT // Mar 22, 2011 at 6:28 pm
      to your posting

      Mr. Bpt,
      Just who are the calamarians in charge? There has been a great deal of use given to that word … but did you stop to think that the harps are also part of being “in charge?” …

      And then we could add more nationalities and cultures and ethnic identification to our blame game, and get ourselves a full-blown case of bigotry, racism and discrimination …

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  2. We have many pictures of the interior of this building. We are looking for some of the original vaudeville acts that were performed there, if anyone knows about this.

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  3. Trying to find the performers’ names and the acts. Also what was the total list of movies shown at the adjacent movie theatre? Some believe buildings are haunted due to building over the Golden Hill Native American site.

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  4. Let’s balance the budget with this, hear me out. Finch & Curwen can sell it to Sal DiNardo for 10 Million dollars ($1/yr. for 10 million years) DiNardo can make it a nonprofit halfway house that could probably shelter one thousand ex-convicts & drug addicts. This would increase our population satisfying Charlie Stallworth’s concerns. We could let the clients roam unsupervised through downtown Bridgeport with shovels & brooms to finally make us “Clean & Green.”

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    1. Carolanne,
      To your posting

      Isn’t boredom often the mark of great minds? My real idea would smoke OIB readers. Perhaps I will discuss them with you/John at a future meeting. Bridgeport’s financial future is in peril yet we are diving in dumpsters to collect nickel deposits. My other idea is to convert the Barnum Museum into a bordello to provide work for the soon-to-be-unemployed lackeys of this administration.

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  5. There is a City department that would help the taxpayer understand the efficiency of people working on City tasks. John and Carolanne are not employed there and the evidence the Mayor offers for the effectiveness of CitiStat are anecdotal attaboys that in no way reflect the power of such a system to assist leadership in finding out what the right City tasks are (effective employment) and whether the tasks are performed well (efficient employees).

    In the meantime, members of BOB will get an up-front and personal picture of how many people in how many departments are struggling to do what? And between salary, benefits and retirement they are paid very handsomely as a group relative to private employment at this time and for some years.

    Please join us: Budget Overview Bridgeport 2011 (BOB) is meeting for one hour on Thursday evening at Black Rock Library at 5:00 PM. A chance for you to participate in some non-partisan citizen action during the month of April as the Budget and Appropriations subcommittee holds multiple hearings. Take a look at how we make financial sausage in Bridgeport. Sure to be enlightening in an election year. See you tomorrow.

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  6. If this city ever returns to promise and prosperity these theater jewels would become an enormous asset and magnetic-like draw bringing people into our town.

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  7. *** Where’s the money gonna come from & when? Time to smell the coffee & knock the old “living in the past” pipe dreams down, no? *** TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN ***

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