Digital Bob Archive

The Palace/Capital/Capitol Theater was the last of Juneau's early-day movie houses to close; the movies that were started in the days of silent pictures. It was opened by Perry E. Jackson who had started the Grand Theater in 1910 and had built Jaxon's Rink two years later and had sold them. He returned to Juneau in 1916 after working at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco and brought with him what the newspapers described as \"the famous No. 28 Kimball pipe organ.\"

Jackson leased the north end of the Hellenthal Building, now known as the First National Bank Building, which was then under construction, fitted it up for a movie house, installed and tested the organ, and hung out a big electric sign over Franklin Street, PALACE THEATER. The house had nearly 700 seats on its main floor and balcony, including four large boxes and 76 loges. Opening night was December 21, 1916, with an organ concert by \"Professor Wells.\" The movie \"The Lamb\" with Douglas Fairbanks and Seena Owen, and a Keystone comedy, \"My Valet,\" with Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand and Raymond Hitchcock.

In June, 1917, John T. Spickett, who had been running the Orpheum Theater, took over the Palace, and in the fall of 1921 he began calling it \"Spickett's Palace\" in the ads, although the big electric sign was still just Palace. In the meantime, in 1920, Miss Carol Beery arrived in Juneau as musician at the Palace and before long became Carol Beery Davis.

Spickett retired because of Door healthin 1929; on June 16 Mrs. J.H. Cann and Miss Mae Pauly took over. Mrs. Cann was the wife of a Juneau businessman and with her husband owned the Apex el Nido gold mine on Chichagof Island. Miss Pauly was described as \"the leader of the Palace orchestra for several years.\" That would seem to indicate that the \"famous No. 28 Kimball organ\" was no longer in use. At some point the organ was moved to the Northern Light Presbyterian Church at Fourth and Franklin Streets and parts of it are said still to be around.

The new owners of the Palace before long turned it over to J.B. Dalton and Max Pitschmann. Equipment for talking pictures was being installed in theaters all over the country, and in Juneau there was a race between the Palace and the Coliseum, with the latter winning by nearly three months.

On December 1, 1930, John Reck, representing the building's owner, executed a lease of the theater space to L.H. Kubley of Ketchikan. Erick Paulson arrived to close the theater and overhaul it under the direction of B.F. Shearer and Company of Seattle. The theater reopened on January 15, 1931, first, according to its advertisements, with the name Capital. This was changed after a few days to Capitol. It was billed as \"Alaska's Prettiest Theater.\" On August 30, 1971, there was a grand opening of the Lathrop theaters, Taku I and Taku II, and following the Saturday night showing of Steve McQueen in \"Le Mans\" on September 25, 1971, the Capitol closed its doors permanently.