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November 28, 2006

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN - THE MUSIC PALACE HAS LEFT THE PLANET

Chinatown's Music Palace

It's gone. 6 years after closing its doors, the Music Palace has been bought, leveled, and a hotel is set to go up in its place. This was one of the last Chinese movie theaters in North America and now it's a big hole in the ground. Gone with it is the gigantic mural of Chinatown's pitfalls and pleasures that sprawled across its northern wall. I got so numb to the MP being closed years ago that I've got nothing left to say anymore. All hail the homogenizing of the North American Moviegoing Experience!

(You can read about the Music Palace and see tons of Goran's photos of it in its heyday over here)
(Thanks to Curtis for the photo)

November 28, 2006 at 08:48 AM in News | Permalink

Comments

I feel for you. and your loss. and the loss to your city. ugh. feels like someone just punched me in the stomach...

Posted by: colin | Nov 28, 2006 7:06:53 PM

I can't believe they tore it down, it was still there last year...I don't really miss it as a theater though. Chinese theaters all suffer from the same problem, nauseating smells, disease ridden seats, disruptive audience, and haunted bathrooms (god, i still have nightmares about the bathrooms of the movie theaters in toronto...) But I still mourn the loss of music palace, cause i miss the memories. I loved going to the movies when i was a kid and i didn't give a damn about all those problems, except for the haunted bathrooms...

Posted by: Charles | Nov 28, 2006 10:40:23 PM

Hell yeah, I had the same numb feeling when it closed down and the same sad feeling when I saw it had been torn down. Wow...a hotel...I hope the tourists like staying near the Manhattan bridge...whatever.

Posted by: Alex | Nov 29, 2006 7:18:20 PM

I managed to take several great pics in the depths of the Music Palace basement, not long before the place was torn down.
I was seriously contemplating a purchase of all the remaining films down there and I got a bunch of great shots all throughout the theater while I went there to check them out.
Pics of hundreds of film cannisters wasting away, tons of lobby cards and posters and even a nice shot of the old screen itself, taken from the POV of the projection booth (some pics I tried to post here, but for whatever reason, they don't allow it).
Ultimately the purchase didn't happen, as I was more interested in the Shaw Brothers stuff and according to the fellow who owns the place now, Mona Fong came to the theater years ago and snatched up every remaining Shaw print there.
Oh, well.
It was still nice to at least get one last glimpse of of my own personal Cinema Paradiso.
I'll never forget the Music Palace.
Golden memories!

Posted by: Paul | Jan 4, 2007 5:38:47 PM

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