Friday May 7, 1954.

AFTER 41 years of a varied existence - during which it has been devoted in turn to professional and amateur band shows and professional boxing tournaments - the Palace Theatre, Redditch, will close at the end of tomorrow's show, possibly forever.

Mr Wilkinson said this week: "The town does not seem to be interested in a theatre and I have had no response to the letter you published recently.

"I have no alternative to closing it."

He thought changing tastes in entertainment has been responsible for the lack of interest in the theatre.

If there were two good stage shows watched on television, people were not going to go out to a show, particularly on a bad night.

As far as films in the Palace were concerned, they were not enough films being made to make it possible for him to show four "first run" films a week there without clashing with other cinemas in the town.

Several suggestions of ways in which the theatre might be kept open have been made in recent weeks but so far nothing has been done.