11: 1901: NOVEMBER

 

Grand Opera House, Elm Place, between Fulton and Livingston.

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 and the present blog will be occupying my attention until live theatre in Brooklyn begins to fade over the early decades of the 20^th century, dying out by the 1930s.

1898

1899 

1900: SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER

1900: NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

1901: JANUARY-FEBRUARY

1901: MAY-AUGUST

1901: SEPTEMBER

1901: OCTOBER

1901: NOVEMBER

1901: DECEMBER

Theatre in Brooklyn was going full steam by November 1901. Not only was there no sign of shrinkage but, amazingly, Thanksgiving week saw 18 theatres, legit and nonlegit, in operation (these included the Brooklyn Academy of Music, only rarely doing theatre at the time). Although, as noted below, one stock company had recently left (temporarily they said), five remained, those at the Columbia, Gotham, Park, Payton’s, and Phillips’s Lyceum, and all somehow surviving. The Spooner Stock Company, at the Park, even successfully tackled Sudermann’s 1893 German play Magda (originally called Heimat), one of the advanced, realistic plays coming out of Europe that were beginning to change the face of modern drama. This was a play even Eleanora Duse, Helena Modjeska, and Mrs. Fiske had struggled with, yet Edna May Spooner carried it off and helped pack the Park all week.

One stock company, however, the Bakers, at the Criterion, was leaving at November’s end, heading for Halifax, St. John’s, New Brunswick, and Providence, R.I. But not to fret, since plans were underway for them to return in the fall of 1902 in a new playhouse which, it was announced, would be built for them on Bedford Avenue near Fulton. The amount of $175,000 to build the place was said to be in the bank, but we’ll have to wait until the time comes to see if these dreams came true. “Mr. Baker has not lost his faith in Brooklyn,” said the Eagle, “though his experience has at times been hard,” a hint that all may not have been as rosy as the press often made it seem. His tenure at the Criterion, “that tomb of managerial hopes,” had begun slowly, but gradually improved (despite a slight hike in prices), giving him reason to suspect a move to a more convenient location might be wise. As the Criterion’s lessee for the year, he changed its policy for the time remaining to that of a combination company, bringing in The Queen of Chinatown on November 18.

Brooklyn’s theatre terrain continued to shift shapes as what had opened in the spring as Haverly’s Musee, a combination of wax museum and vaudeville (it was dubbed a “parlor theatre”) located at 19 Smith Street near Fulton, now reopened as Paula’s Musee. Meanwhile the Gayety, a legitimate theatre, switched to vaudeville, while the same owners’ very recently opened Folly Theatre took on legitimate shows. On the musee’s opening bill were Paula and her performing crocodiles, alligators, and serpents. Also shown were Professor Campbell and Electita, the latter being seated in an exact duplicate of Sing Sing’s electric chair. Then 3,000 volts of electricity were said to be passed through her body. She verified her electronification by lighting gas with her fingertips and creating sparks by rubbing her hands together. A shocking act, indeed.

Unfortunately, Brooklyn was not getting as many shows new to the borough as once was true, the landscape being largely made up of both home-cooked and road revivals or return engagements of work already seen, in some cases, like A Hot Old Time, starring Johnny and Emma Ray, or The Village Postmaster, more frequently than one might have thought likely. Even Uncle Tom’s Cabin, around since 1853 in countless productions that made it the most produced play in the world, would not go away. In fact, Thanksgiving week saw TWO productions, one being William A. Brady’s elaborate production, with a chorus of 250 Black singers, costing $25,000, and starring veteran vaudevillian Edward Harrigan as Uncle Tom, and its competitor, a far less elaborate touring production presented at the Criterion, from which the stock company recently had departed.

But the most exciting happening of the month was the latest visit to America of England’s foremost acting couple (although not married), Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, he 63 and she 54, in a repertory of their costume-heavy dramas, including The Merchant of Venice and Louis XI. For those interested in great actors of the past, I append a description of Irving and Terry’s performance of The Merchant of Venice from the Eagle of November 12, 1901, under the heading: “Irving in Brooklyn.”

 1.      November 4-9, 1901

Amphion: Tom Moore, with Andrew Mack

Bijou: Treasure Island

Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Lights o’ London

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) “A Poster Maid,” My Uncle’s Nephew

Folly: (now a legitimate theatre) Mrs. B. Shaughnessy (Wash Lady), with George W. Monroe

Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) Woman Against Woman

Grand Opera House: A Hot Old Time, with Johnny and Emma Ray

Montauk: Florodora

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Fatal Card

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Hidden Hand

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Woman in Black

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Orpheum, Gayety (now a vaudeville house), Brooklyn Academy of Music (Election Night only), Unique

2.      November 11-16, 1901

Amphion: The Altar of Friendship, with John Mason

Bijou: Two Little Vagrants

Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) The White Squadron

Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) The Boarding School

Folly: (now a legitimate theatre) Lost River

Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) All the Comforts of Home

Grand Opera House: The Merry Tramps, with the Lilliputians

Montauk: The Merchant of Venice, King Charles I, Nance Oldfield and “The Bells,” Louis XI, “Waterloo” and The Lyons Mail, with Henry Irving and Ellen Terry

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) A Fair Rebel

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Parisian Princess

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Jack Royal

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Orpheum, Gayety (now a vaudeville house), Unique, Paula’s Musee (formerly Haverly’s Musee)

3.      November 18-23, 1901

Amphion: The Red Kloof, with Louis Mann, Clara Lipman

Bijou: Are You a Buffalo?

Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) A Lady of Quality

Criterion: (stock ends; combinations begin) The Queen of Chinatown

Folly: (now a legitimate theatre) A Ragged Hero

Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) Sapho

Grand Opera House: Garrett O’Magh, with Chauncey Olcott

Montauk: When Knighthood Was in Flower, with Julia Marlowe

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Magda

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Silver King

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Raglan’s War

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Orpheum, Gayety (now a vaudeville house), Unique

4.      November 25-30, 1901

Amphion: Are You a Mason?

Bijou: The Village Postmaster

Brooklyn Academy of Music: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Edward Harrigan in William A. Brady’s company

Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Tennessee Partner

Criterion:  Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Folly: The Merry Tramps, with the Lilliputians

Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) The Wages of Sin

Grand Opera House: Garrett O’Magh, with Chauncey Olcott

Montauk: Mrs. Dane’s Defense, with Empire Theatre Company

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Mexico

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) Flirtation

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Voice of Nature

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Novelty, Orpheum, Gayety (now a vaudeville house), Unique