Former Palace Theatre owner still loves Greensburg’s grand dame
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Judy Marinelli couldn’t help getting a little emotional at Thursday night’s show at The Palace Theatre in downtown Greensburg.
Nostalgia was already in the air, as Cornell Gunter’s Coasters, the Drifters and the Platters performed favorites from the 1950s and ’60s. Marinelli’s thoughts invariably turned to her late husband, Carl.
“I was looking around and thought, ‘My husband started all this,’ ” said the 71-year-old Greensburg native who now lives in Palm Coast, Fla.
Marinelli returned to the area this week after a nearly 30-year absence to share stories and photos of when she and her husband ran The Palace — and to witness all the changes made since Carl’s estate sold it in 1990.
“I’m happy to see all the progress and the great things they’ve done here. I’m thrilled,” she said.
Marinelli met with Teresa Baughman, director of operations and programming, on Friday for a tour and trip down memory lane.
Backstage, the road crew for the Oak Ridge Boys was setting up for Friday night’s concert. It got Marinelli thinking about the time in 1981 when The Oak Ridge Boys played The Palace.
“Little by little, we got to the point of getting top-notch performers like you have today,” she said. “We found the country-and-western acts were the best to have. I sold tickets to people from West Virginia and Ohio. They were respectful. They really enjoyed the shows. The people were nice, and not rock ’n’ rollers.”
Marinelli noted that when she and her husband bought the historic theater in 1977, it was vacant and most recently had been used as an adult-film movie house.
“It was all painted robin-egg blue on the inside,” she recalled.
Carl Marinelli came to the project with a background in bowling alleys and real estate development. He saw the derelict building on West Otterman Street and knew it had potential based on a history dating back to the late 1800s.
“Carl was a dreamer. He loved Greensburg,” Marinelli said.
The first thing the couple did was get a crew together and erect scaffolding for a complete interior repainting. They took their cue from auspicious venues such as Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall, renovated in 1971. The robin-egg blue became white with gold leaf trim.
“We were so excited. We poured ourselves into it,” she said. “I said, ‘It looks a little like a palace, Carl,’ so we settled on that.”
The new owners started by showing second-run movies — “I probably saw ‘Saturday Night Fever’ 50 times” — and then moved to off-beat acts such as the Italian folk group I Campagnoli and a George Foreman boxing exhibition.
Then came the country acts — Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins, Waylon Jennings, Tammy Wynette, Rita Coolidge — followed by baby boomer pop acts such as The Lettermen, Ricky Nelson, Arlo Guthrie, Chubby Checker and Jan and Dean.
After picking up Rita Coolidge, the couple took her to Carl’s mother’s house for some sandwiches. They did their best to mollify Ricky Nelson, who was grouchy after appearing on “Saturday Night Live,” she said.
“We tried to please the younger set with some rock ‘n’ roll, so we had a Dr. Hook come in. And we found we had to go in and tell people to put cigarettes out. We’d hear noise and something crashing upstairs — it was ashtrays on stands that were falling over,” she said.
The couple split up their duties, playing to each other’s strengths. Carl was in charge of bookings and promotions and kept regular office hours. Judy did a little bit of everything — ticket sales, concessions and ushering.
“I just generally buzzed around the place, making sure everyone was happy,” she said.
After Carl Marinelli’s untimely death in 1989 at age 61, The Palace was sold to Greensburg Garden & Civic Center Inc. Today, it is operated by the Westmoreland Cultural Trust.
“It truly was a labor of love,” Marinelli said. “I still love it. Greensburg is fortunate to have it.”