was originally leased from the Toronto Harbour Commission in 1922 for 21 years. Cuthbert and Deller renewed the lease in 1944 for another 21 years. They sold their rights to Joe Broderick in 1949. Broderick operated the facility as a dance hall from 1949 to 1966. 1955–present: After the Amusement Park Desegregating the Dance Hall In 1955, Sunnyside Amusement Park was demolished for the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard expansions. That summer, staff at the Palais Royale intervened to prevent a Black man and a white woman from dancing together, humiliating them and ejecting them onto the street. According to author Ernie Tate: "The couple had openly breached Toronto's unofficial form of segregation under which very little social mixing took place between blacks and whites. The Palais Royale was well known for its racist policies." In response, activists in the black community organized picket lines to protest the incident. Danny Braithwaite, a young Black activist was one of the protest leaders. Danny would continue his anti-racist organizing at Toronto's school board and in his union local. The black community was supported by Trotskyists and members of the CCF Youth Forum, who joined the picketers. Feminist activist Pat Schulz recalls that she entered the Palais in July and danced with a Black male partner without being challenged and the Palais was officially desegregated from that point on. In the period 1956-1959 the hall lost money, but Broderick was showing profits again by 1964. Broderick attempted to negotiate a further lease in 1965 but he was not successful and he sold his rights to the Polish National Union in January 1966. By this time the land had been transferred to the City of Toronto, which had placed the Palais Royale on its list of properties for demolition in 1965. It was then that the City removed the hall's east-side parking lot, formerly the mini-golf course, planting grass and willow trees. However, instead of being demolished, the property was instead designated as a historic site by the City in 1974. Since then, the hall has been used for concerts by a diverse range of musicians. From Stan Kenton, Benny Louis, Woody Herman, The Carlton Show Band, The Specials, Joe Jackson and Rough Trade around 1980 to concerts by Blur, Blue Rodeo, Sigur Rós, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Sadies, Constantines, Sloan and a The Rolling Stones concert on August 16, 2002. The