This 26-by-67-inch horizontal panorama documents the Palace Theatre in Cleveland’s Playhouse Square—one of the ornate movie palaces that brought glamorous entertainment to industrial cities during the 1920s. The five-and-a-half-foot width captures the theatrical grandeur of this lavishly decorated interior.

Created in 1991, the work documents one of five theaters comprising Playhouse Square, the largest performing arts center in the United States outside New York’s Lincoln Center. The Palace Theatre, opened in 1922, epitomized the “movie palace” concept: exotic architectural fantasies where working-class audiences could experience aristocratic luxury for the price of admission.

The Palace’s ornate interior—designed in Renaissance Revival style with lavish plasterwork, crystal chandeliers, and gilded details—represented aspirational entertainment architecture. Industrial workers entered through grand lobbies into auditoriums rivaling European opera houses, the theatrical environment offering temporary escape from factory floors and modest housing.

The horizontal format captures the theater’s width rather than its proscenium height, emphasizing the auditorium’s enveloping spatial experience. The photo collage technique fragments the decorative excess while preserving the cumulative impact of ornament layered upon ornament.

Playhouse Square’s theaters narrowly escaped demolition during the 1970s, saved by preservation efforts that have since restored them to operational glory. The Palace Theatre continues presenting performances in the same space where Cleveland audiences once watched silent films accompanied by a Kimball pipe organ. This panorama documents the theatrical legacy that industrial prosperity created.