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The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on September 24, 1915:
NEW PALACE THEATRE TO OPEN WEDNESDAY
First Attraction in Luverne’s New $50,000 Opera House Will be “The Prince of Tonight.”
THEATRE BUILDING IS HANDSOME STRUCTURE
Gives Luverne Splendid Opera House, Beautiful Ball Room, Two Store Rooms.
Luverne’s handsome new theatre — the New Palace — built at a cost exceeding $50,000, will be formally opened next Wednesday evening, September 29th. The attraction will be “The Prince of Tonight,” a fantastic musical comedy, with a cast of thirty-five people.
Seats for the opening performance were placed on sale Tuesday morning, following a canvass of the business district for ticket subscriptions. In view of the fact that the proprietor of the opera house, Herman Jochims, built the opera house without asking a cent of financial assistance and thereby gave Luverne a public institution the city has greatly needed for twenty years, and, moreover, one that would be of credit to a city several times the size of Luverne, it was expected that the advance sale for the opening attraction would be very large, the people of Luverne accepting this opportunity to show their appreciation of Mr. Jochims’ enterprize.
These expectations, however, were not met, and up to the hour of going to press yesterday afternoon the advance sale was less than half the capacity of the house. There remains, accordingly, an abundance of good seats for those who have not yet been able to secure their tickets and reservations.
Custom has decreed that the opening of a new opera house shall be a benefit performance and ticket prices for the opening show are boosted accordingly. In many instances the prices of the best seats in the house are placed anywhere from $10 to $50. Mr. Jochims, however, had no desire to make prices exorbitant and accordingly fixed his prices at $3, $5 and $7.50. The highest price named was for the first seven rows of seats in the parquet and the first row in the balcony. Seats in the next three rows in the parquet and the next two rows in the balcony are priced at $5 and all remaining seats at $3. The seats taken are fairly well distributed, so that there are plenty of seats at each price stated remaining for those who have not secured reservations, and all of them are good seats.
For the opening attraction Mr. Jochims has secured in “The Prince of Tonight” a company of exceptional merit and one that he feels assured will give the people of Luverne a performance suitable in the occasion. It will be the forerunner of many similar high-class productions that the building of the new opera house will permit being brought to Luverne. At times when theatrical attractions are not available, moving pictures will be shown, and the first moving picture show will be given on Thursday evening, the 30th.
As stated above, the opera house is built at a cost in excess of $50,000. Its ground dimensions are 65x136 feet and it is constructed of dark cream-colored Luverne sand–lime brick and trimmed with yellow stone.
The lobby of the opera house is in the center of the building on Main street and is 14x60. On each side of the entrance and lobby is a store room, one 25x50 and one 25x60. The opera house is approximately 76x63, the parquet proper being 52x63 and the stage 26x54. The dressing rooms eight in number, are in the basement under the stage. The stage has 39 foot ceiling and the proscenium is 38 feet wide and 18 feet high. Above the store rooms and the lobby is a ball room 48x63 feet with 16 foot ceiling. A balcony extends across the south end, 12x63 feet in size and off this in the center is the orchestra “pit.” Connected with the ball room are ladies’ dressing room, check room and toilet rooms. On the ground floor between the store rooms and the parquet are broad stairways leading from the lobby to both sides of the opera house balcony and to the ball room. The ticket office is to the right of the lobby and a gentlemen’s toilet room to the left. A ladies’ toilet room opens off the northeast corner of the parquet. The stage entrance is off Freeman avenue. The seating capacity of the parquet is 352 and of the balcony 286, and on each side there are two boxes with chairs for 22 persons.
The woodwork in the opera house, ball room, lobby and stairways is mahoganized birch, and the walls and ceilings are finished in what is termed a sand float. In the opera house and ball room the walls and ceilings are decorated in water colors with scenic panels, and in the lobby the walls are decorated with landscape panels done in water colors. The floor in the lobby is of tile and the parquet floor is of concrete, which will be covered with a cork carpet. The seats in the parquet are of mahaganized wood upholstered in Spanish leather.
The lighting system is semi-direct. Four large indirect electroilers in the parquet proper and three under the balcony and three in the foyer furnish the principal light in the opera house. The ball room is lighted with a large indirect electrolier in the center of the ceiling and smaller lights in each corner.
The plans for the building were drawn by Architect W.E.E. Green; the building was constructed by Green & Jensen; the electric work, plumbing and heating has been done by Greene, DeLate & Fritz, all of the city, and the decorating by the Monarch Decorating Co., of St. Paul.
The store room east of the lobby will be occupied by A. L. Vanderpoel, proprietor of Le Bon Marche, and the room west of the lobby by Fred Gimm, who will open a confectionery store there about the first of October.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.