1906: DECEMBER

Robert Mantell as Richard III.

As the new century rolled along, theatre journalists kept a sharp eye out for trends that might depict a maturing American drama, or even a maturing public taste showing increasing interest in serious drama and especially in Shakespeare. Such tastes were surely trending in Brooklyn when, in December 1906, Shakespeare’s presence was unavoidable. First arrived Viola Allen as Imogen in the rarely produced Cymbeline; then came Robert Mantell playing the leads in six (count ‘em, six!) Shakespeare dramas, King Richard III, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice.

Then, the very same week, not only did Corse Payton’s Lee Avenue Stock Company—of all places—do its own Othello (which Thomas E. Shea had done locally in November), but John E. Kellerd offered two performances of Hamlet, in addition to a modern play. All this was in addition to renowned Shakespearean star Johnston Forbes-Robertson (given simply as Forbes Robertson in the press) costarring with Gertrude Elliott in George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra (staged reading, 1899; first full production, Berlin, 1906), which combined classical characters with Shavian discourse.

On December 23, Hamilton Ormsbee wrote in the Eagle of recent instances that made him hopeful that the general populace, not just those with money and education, were showing interest. In one case, a Brooklyn truck driver delivering books to a local library was seen reading a book during his break. Ormsbee noted that it was Macbeth, and asked if the man liked it. “Sure, I did. It’s great stuff. I’m going to see Mantell twice this week.”

Pointing to the educational outreach of the Brooklyn Institute in popularizing grand opera, including making tickets accessible to help fill Brooklyn’s theatres when such works visited, Ormsbee suggested they do the same for Mantell’s repertory. “It has Shakespeare’s plays read in its course and its members listen to lectures on Shakespeare, but in neither way can they begin to secure such an appreciation of the plays as by seeing them acted by a competent and intelligent company like Mantell’s.”

Ormsbee was highly supportive of Corse Payton’s company doing Othello. “It is pretty heavy work for a stock company that plays everything from farce up, but the play drew large audiences and maintained their interest throughout the week.” He suggested that the practice of Boston’s Castle Square stock company devoting one week a month to Shakespeare at reduced prices would be welcome in Brooklyn. Children were reading Shakespeare in school, he declared, so it was only natural that they would get even more from the plays by seeing them onstage. He admitted the schools would not soon make such arrangements, but urged that the Institute connect with Mantell and make his visits a yearly event for the borough’s students.

Other items of considerable theatrical interest in December were the visits of a spectacular production called The Prince of India at the Broadway, its substance drawn from a colorful novel by Gen. Lew Wallace, whose Ben-Hur had inspired one of the most elaborate and popular spectacle dramas of the last decade. Several of the usual local favorites showed up in typical disposable vehicles, among them Chauncey Olcott, Andrew Mack, and Johnny and Emma Ray, but Brooklynites did get a chance to see several first-class players, as when England’s Lena Ashwell presented two plays, The Shulamite and Mrs. Dane’s Defense, the latter, by Henry Arthur Jones; it was one of the most highly respected hits of the day on both sides of the Atlantic. And, of course, fans could never get enough of young Ethel Barrymore, appearing this month in Barrie’s whimsical Alice Sit-by-the-Fire. Brooklyn girl Grace George, wife of major producer William Brady, also was well received in her new vehicle, Clothes.

Leading men of the month were not all doing important dramas, as witness the charming presence of another Brit, Kyrle Bellew in Brigadier Gerard. Nor must we overlook Rufus Rastus, one of several now forgotten all-Black musicals that made stars of such performers as Ernest Hogan. At the other end of the spectrum was While ‘Frisco Burns, an exploitative melodrama at the Columbia about the San Francisco earthquake, which happened only a few months earlier. Other titles that spoke to the melodramatic inclinations of the day included The Train Robbers, The Phantom Detective, Under Two Flags, The Child Wife, The Burglar’s Daughter, The Curse of Drink, and The Girl and the Gambler. It seemed like a month couldn’t pass without at least one play without the words “girl” or “daughter” in the title.

One of these titles, a play that already had many productions in Brooklyn, actually had two stock revivals this month. It was Under Two Flags, a colorful melodrama about an Englishman joining the French Foreign Legion. The action features the derring-do of the heroine, Cigarette, while mounted on a brave steed. Each was a different adaptation of the same 1867 novel—later made into at least five movies—by the pseudonymous Oudda. The Bijou did J. Searle Dawley’s version, with Edna May Spooner as Cigarette, the Lee Avenue produced Sydney Macy’s, showcasing Harriet Barton.

December 3-8, 1906

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Moths

Blaney’s Amphion: At the World’s Mercy

Broadway: The Prince of India

Columbia:  While ‘Frisco Burns

Folly: Eileen Asthore, with Chauncey Olcott

Grand Opera House: The Volunteer Organist

Majestic: Down the Pike, with Johnny and Emma Ray

New Montauk: Cymbeline, with Viola Allen

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) The Life of Dora Thorne, with Etta Reed Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Train Robbers

Shubert: The Shulamite, Mrs. Dane’s Defense, with Lena Ashwell

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

December 10-15. 1906

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) 

Blaney’s Amphion: The Phantom Detective

Broadway: Alice Sit-by-the-Fire, with Ethel Barrymore

Columbia: When Girls Leave Home

Folly:  Around the Clock, with William Ritchie’s London Comedy Company

Grand Opera House: Confessions of a Wife

Majestic: Rufus Rastus, with Ernest Hogan

New Montauk: Caesar and Cleopatra, with Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Under Two Flags

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Hoodman Blind

Shubert: The Tourists

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

December 17-22, 1906

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) A Scrap of Paper

Blaney’s Amphion: Big Hearted Jim

Broadway: Brigadier Gerard, with Kyrle Bellew, Ida Conquest

Columbia: The Governor’s Pardon

Folly: Rufus Rastus, with Ernest Hogan

Grand Opera House:  A Desperate Chance

Majestic: The Girl from Broadway, with Grace Edmond

New Montauk: King Richard III, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, with Robert Mantell, Marie Booth Russell

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Othello, with Etta Reed Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Child Wife

Shubert: Taps, Hamlet, with John E. Kellerd

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

December 24-29, 1906

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Aladdin and His Magic Lamp

Blaney’s Amphion: The Burglar’s Daughter

Broadway: Clothes, with Grace George

Columbia: The Curse of Drink

Folly: The Girl and the Gambler, with Florence Bindley

Grand Opera House: Behind the Mask

Majestic: Arrah-na-Pogue, with Andrew Mack

New Montauk: His House in Order, with John Drew, Margaret Illington

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) A Midnight Bell, with Corse Payton, Ettq Reed Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Night Before Christmas

Shubert: The Love Route

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

The week of December 31-January 5, 1907 will be found in the January 1907 entry,