Friday, May 30, 2025

7. 1901: MARCH-APRIL

 by

Samuel L. Leiter


For further background on Brooklyn’s theatre history please see my book, Brooklyn Takes the Stage: Nineteenth-Century Theater in the City of Churches (McFarland: 2024) and my blog, “Annals of the Brooklyn Stage.” The latter is a week by week description of theatre activity in Brooklyn; obviously, it will expand rather slowly because so much must be described.


Business remained brisk as Brooklyn’s theatres barreled along, offering road shows (or “combinations”), the bulk of them, however, being revivals, which, of course, was also what you got at Brooklyn’s three stock companies, the Baker, the Spooner, and the Payton. Good new plays were not arriving in abundance. Melodrama, farce, and comic opera or what would was evolving into modern musical comedy were dominant in the legit, but a few Shakespeare offerings were on view, most importantly a return visit of Richard Mansfield in Henry V and, finally, E.H. Sothern and Virginia Harned in Hamlet, which had to be canceled on its previous Brooklyn visit because of Sothern’s illness.

 

The most exciting visitor was the stage adaptation of Gen. Lew Wallace’s blockbuster novel of Biblical days, Ben Hur, with its cast of 350, its scenic spectacle, and its chariot race on treadmills. It was booked for an unprecedented Brooklyn run of four weeks before taking off on a national tour.


Sadly, Williamsburg’s Empire Theatre, a vaudeville venue on South Sixth Street, near Bedford Avenue, was forced to close on March 16, following its last show. This was caused by the building of the East River Bridge (soon to become the Williamsburg Bridge), which needed a large chunk of the theatre’s property in the stage area. Originally built as the Bedford Theatre in 1891, it took the name Empire Theatre in 1893 (there would eventually be a couple of Brooklyn movie theatres of the same name). The vaudeville proprietors, Hyde & Behman owned it. However, a new Williamsburg theatre, the Folly, would open in the fall at Graham Avenue and Debevoise Street. 


As the names in the vaudeville and burlesque theatre ads reveal, these genres were booming, with numerous legit stars doing one-act plays that sometimes occupied the most prominent place in the bills. Many of the so-called farces at the legits were as much vaudeville shows as straight plays, as the ads clearly reveal.

 

Important stars not already named who appeared in regular, full-length plays included the Four Cohans, in George M.’s The Governor’s Son, John Drew, Hilda Spong, Effie Ellsler, Ada Rehan, William H. Crane, Isabel Irving, Weber and Fields, Lillian Russell, David Warfield, Henrietta Crosman, among others. Not yet famous as one of Hollywood’s Charlie Chans was Sidney Toler, a member of the Payton stock company. And, of course, topping the list were the great foreign stars, Sarah Bernhardt and Constance Benoit Coquelin, although for only three performances at the venerable Brooklyn Academy of Music.

1898

1899

1900: JANUARY-MAY

1900: SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER

1900: NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

1901: JANUARY-FEBRUARY

1901: MAY-AUGUST

1901: SEPTEMBER 

1901: OCTOBER

1901: NOVEMBER

1901: DECEMBER


1.      February 25-March 2, 1901

 

Amphion: East Lynne

Bijou: The Mormon Wife

Columbia: Quo Vadis (a new version by Stanislaus Stange, different from those seen previously in Brooklyn)

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) Under Two Flags

Gayety: A Wise Guy, with Maggie Cline

Grand Opera House: Lost River

Montauk: Janice Meredith, with Mary Mannering

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) A Fair Rebel

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Son of Napoleon (a new version of L’Aiglon)

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

1.      March 4-9, 1901

 

Amphion: Quo Vadis

Bijou: A Guilty Mother

Brooklyn Academy of Music: Grand Carnival of the White Rats of America

Columbia: A Runaway Girl

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) Why Smith Left Home

Gayety: Lost River

Grand Opera House: A Wise Guy

Montauk: ‘Way Down East

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Wages of Sin

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Ensign

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

2.      March 11-16, 1901

A close-up of a newspaper AI-generated content may be incorrect.

 

Amphion: Arizona

Bijou: Reaping the Whirlwind

Columbia: Closed for the week

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) A Celebrated Case

Gayety: Shore Acres

Grand Opera House: The Great Kellar, Magician, Hypnotist, Humorist

Montauk: Richard Carvel, with John Drew

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Trilby

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) Camille; or, the Fate of a Coquette

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire (closes on March 16 because of construction of Williamsburg Bridge), Star, Novelty, Orpheum

3.      March 18-23, 1901

Amphion: ‘Way Down East

Bijou: The Silver King

Columbia: Lady Huntworth’s Experiment, with Hilda Spong and Daniel Frohman’s Company

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) What Happened to Jones

Gayety: Across the Pacific, with Harry Clay Blaney

Grand Opera House: Shore Acres

Montauk: Richard Carvel, with John DrewPark: (Spooner Stock Company) Fanchon, the Cricket, East Lynne

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) A Flag of Truce

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

4.      March 25-30, 1901

Amphion: Henry V, A Parisian Romance, The First Violin, Beau Brummel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Richard Mansfield

Bijou: The Convict’s Daughter

Columbia: The Governor’s Son, with the Four Cohans

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) Alabama

Gayety: The Little Minister

Grand Opera House: Barbara Frietchie, with Effie Ellsler

Montauk: Sweet Nell of Old Drury, with Ada Rehan

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The War of Wealth

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Plunger, East Lynne

5.      April 1-6, 1901

Amphion: Closed temporarily

Bijou: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Milt G. Barlow Company

Brooklyn Academy of Music: L’Aiglon, Camille, Sarah Bernhardt, Coquelin (three performances)

Columbia: The Girl from Up Here, with Edna May, Charles Frohman Musical Comedy Company

Gayety: The Bowery After Dark, with Terry McGovern

Grand Opera House: Quo Vadis

Montauk: Hamlet, Camille, with E.H. Sothern, Virginia Harned

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Pearl of Savoy

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) Nell Gwynne

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

6.      April 8-13, 1901

Amphion: Der Millionen Schwab, German light opera, with Adolf Phillip

Bijou: On the Suwannee River

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) Friends

Columbia: To Have and to Hold, with Isabel Irving

Gayety: Human Spiders

Grand Opera House: The Little Minister

Montauk: David Harum, with William H. Crane

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Butterflies

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) A Midnight Bell

Vaudeville and burlesque:  Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

7.      April 15-20, 1901

Amphion: Closed temporarily

Bijou: The Dangers of Paris

Columbia: The Lash of a Whip, The Shades of Night

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) Too Much Johnson

Gayety: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Al W. Martin’s Company

Grand Opera House: A Trip to Chinatown

Montauk: David Harum, with William H. Crane

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) That Girl from Paris, East Lynne

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Belle of Richmond

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

8.      April 22-27, 1901

 

Amphion: Richard Carvel, with John Drew

Bijou: The Tide of Life

Columbia: Ben Hur

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) The Late Mr. Jones

Gayety: Sons of Ham, with Bert Williams, George Walker

Grand Opera House: Sapho, with Sadie Martinot

Montauk: Fiddle-Dee-Dee, and burlesques of The Gay Lord Quex and A Royal Family, with Weber and Fields, De Wolf Hopper, John T. Kelly, Lillian Russell, David Warfield

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Galley Slave

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) Romeo and Juliet

9.      April 29—May 4, 1901

Amphion: Closed temporarily

Bijou: The Still Alarm, with Harry Lacy

Columbia: Ben Hur

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) The Man from Mexico

Gayety: Sapho, with Sadie Martinot

Grand Opera House: Old Jed Prouty, with Richard Golden

Montauk: Are You a Mason?

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) A Soldier of the Empire

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Sporting Duchess

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Novelty, Orpheum

 

 

 

 

 

at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

17. 1902: MAY-AUGUST

  Grace George (1879-1961), a famous actress often referred to as a “Brooklyn girl,” because she was raised there, although born in Manhat...

  • 1. 1898
    1898 1899 1900: JANUARY-MAY 1900: SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1900: NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1901: JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1901: MARCH-APRIL    1901: MAY-AUGUST 190...
  • 3. 1900: JANUARY THROUGH MAY
      By Samuel L. Leiter For further background on Brooklyn’s theatre history please see my book,  Brooklyn Takes the Stage: Nineteenth...
  • 2. 1899
    By Samuel L. Leiter For further background on Brooklyn’s theatre history please see my book, Brooklyn Takes the Stage: Nineteenth-Centur...