upgraded acoustic features and stage; and a new ticket booth in the lobby. Beginning in May 1949, under RKO vice president Sol Schwartz, the RKO Palace tried to revive vaudeville with a slate of eight acts before a feature film. Within two months of vaudeville being reintroduced, Schwartz said patronage was "very encouraging". The Palace was closed for a two-week renovation in October 1951. After the Palace reopened, Judy Garland staged a 19-week comeback at the venue, supported by acts such as Max Bygraves. This was the first occurrence of two-a-day vaudeville at the Palace in nearly 18 years. The Palace also attracted acts including Lauritz Melchior, José Greco, Betty Hutton, Danny Kaye, Dick Shawn, and Phil Spitalny. Garland returned for a successful run in 1956, this time with Alan King. While the shows were successful, they did not lead to a revival of the vaudeville format. According to theatrical historian Ken Bloom, the Palace "limped along into the fifties with an occasional good week", but the popularity of television had restricted the profitability of the Palace's vaudeville. Performances by Jerry Lewis and Liberace, in 1957, failed to attract enough audience members. As a result, the Palace dropped its vaudeville policy in July 1957. Its film screenings began with James Cagney's Man of a Thousand Faces on August 13, 1957. The films included The Diary of Anne Frank, which premiered in 1959. The Palace hosted one more vaudeville performance by Harry Belafonte in December 1959. Broadway theater Nederlander conversion The RKO Palace was no longer profitable as a cinema by March 1965, and RKO considered selling it to Sherman S. Krellberg for conversion into a Broadway theater. That July, the Nederlander Organization agreed to purchase the Palace from RKO for about $1.4 million or $1.6 million. The Nederlanders also acquired the ground lease, which had 52 years remaining in its term. The last film to play the RKO Palace was Harlow in August 1965, and the Nederlanders formally acquired the theater the same month. The Nederlanders incorporated the All State Amusement Corporation to operate the theater. For the Palace to break even, each production would have to gross $65,000 a week. The Nederlanders spent $500,000 to renovate the venue into a legitimate theater. Many of the decorations that were added after the theater's opening were removed, revealing the original design. Among the decorations uncovered were ironwork, marble balustrades, and the