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| Robert "Bob" Fitzsimmons, world champion boxer-turned-actor, who claimed to have to have taken a fall in Brooklyn (not that kind), |
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 20th century,
dying out by the 1930s.
When the new year of 1902 began,
Brooklyn was overflowing with theatres. These included—in addition to the
Brooklyn Academy of Music, used for theatre only now and then—the first-class Amphion
and Montauk, with the highest prices (albeit cheaper than similar houses in
Manhattan); the mid-range theatres, the Bijou, the Folly, and the Grand Opera
House, whose seats were somewhere between cheap and not so cheap; and the low-
or “popular”-priced theatres, comprising all five current stock companies, the Columbia,
Gotham, Park, Payton’s, and Phillips’s Lyceum. The Amphion, Payton’s, and
Phillips’ Lyceum were the only legitimate theatres remaining in Williamsburg. Of
the borough’s five vaudeville/burlesque theatres, Hyde & Behman’s, the
Star, the Orpheum, the Gayety, and the Unique, the latter two were also located
in the Eastern District.
The Criterion was silent for the
moment, but, as noted in the entry for December 1901, it had been bought by
Corse Payton, who had managed to make his Williamsburg stock company a surprising
money maker. He planned a second company soon at the Criterion, a perpetual hoodoo
except for the years when it was a home for amateur theatricals. The question
of competition from another Western District stock company, the Spooners at the
Park, was dismissed by Payton, who believed the two-mile distance between them
and his new operation made such competition unlikely. Brooklyn stock companies
had come a long way since the difficulties faced by the previous Park Theatre
effort, which couldn’t turn a profit even with the popular Henrietta Crosman on
its stage just before she blossomed as an independent star.
There were the usual rehashes of overly
familiar farces, melodramas, and the like this month, but there were also some
highlights when plays not previously seen locally were presented. In one week
alone five such offerings were seen, Quality Street, Her Lord
and Master, The Merchant, The Volunteer Organist, The
Nutmeg Match. The first, by Scotsman James M. Barrie, was the most
respected, of course, especially since it starred Maude Adams, one of the most beloved
stars of the age.
A few other big stars appeared in Brooklyn this month, such
as James K. Hackett and the husband-wife team of Nat C. Goodwin and Maxine Elliott,
the former in a costume drama about Don Cesar de Bazin, who had recently been
dramatized in another recent play with another leading man. Goodwin and
Elliott, whose production in England of The Merchant of Venice, seen in
Brooklyn for a single performance in the fall of 1901, had bombed, were back in
one of their old favorites, When We Were Twenty-One.
But the most exciting star appearance in Brooklyn was days
away, when, on February 3, the U.K.’s Mrs. Patrick Campbell would arrive with a
five-play repertory of serious plays by leading British and Continental
playwrights. One was Sudermann’s Magda, an example of the problem plays
sweeping Europe, which the intellectual class of Brooklyn had appreciated recently
in Mrs. Spooner’s performance at her stock company, but in which several
leading actresses had stumbled. Plays like this, on sensitive subjects, were
called “roquefort dramas” by one local critic, who had to hold his nose in
their presence.
Ticket prices were in the news again, when, for Maude Adams in Quality Street, the Montauk raised its top price from $1.50 to $2.00,
although its cheaper prices remained intact. Brooklyn Life asked why
this production, exactly the same as the one that just closed after a hit run at
Manhattan’s Knickerbocker Theatre, should charge any more than it recently did
for the equally good The Second in Command. The writer continued, “nor, if the star rather
than the quality of the play is to be considered, is Maude Adams worth more
than Julia Marlowe—to cite two attractions for which the price was not raised.
The Brooklyn theater-going public cannot, therefore, be expected to see any
reason for the increase.” The writer absolved the Montauk’s manager, Mrs.
Hecht-Sinn, of the blame, claiming she, like her father, Col. William E. Sinn, the
longtime previous manager, was strongly opposed to a movable scale of prices.
Finally, an amusing incident occurred in Brooklyn’s vaudeville
world when, on January 21, Robert “Bob” Fitzsimmons, resident of Bath Beach, a lanky
Australian world champion prizefighter-turned-actor, fell down the Orpheum
Theatre’s staircase leading from its lobby to its basement Rathskeller. Soon after, he sued Percy G. Williams, the owner (and the pugilist’s friend and former
manager) for $50,000. This led Williams, claiming the accident happened around
9:00 a.m., when he was not around, to inform the press that the boxer—who said
his injuries had cost him over $105,000 from a prospective rematch with James
J. Jeffries—had to be kidding. (No proof of injuries was available, nor had anyone
reported seeing them.) In retaliation, Williams said he’d countersue for trespass
and Fitzsimmons’s having dented the marble stairs. We will
wait patiently for the bell to ring on the next round in this donnybrook.
1.
January 6-11, 1902
Amphion: The
Cardinal, with E.S. Willard
Bijou: Human Hearts
Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) Slaves of
Russia
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Romeo and Juliet
Folly: The Fatal Wedding
Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) The World Against Her
Grand Opera House: The Governor’s Son, with the Four
Cohans
Montauk: Don Caesar’s Return, with James K. Hackett
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Captain Letterblair
Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) Monte Cristo
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Lost in Siberia
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
2.
January 13-18, 1902
Amphion: Her Lord and Master, with Herbert Kelcey,
Effie Shannon
Bijou: Across the Pacific
Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) A Mormon Wife,
with Sidney Toler
Columbia: (Greenwall’s Stock Company) The Danites
Folly: The Governor’s Son, with the Four Cohans
Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) The Ticket-of-Leave Man
Grand Opera House: The Volunteer Organist
Montauk: Quality Street, with Maude Adams
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) A Nutmeg Match
Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Merchant
Phillips’ Lyceum: Little Lord Fauntleroy
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
3.
January 20-25, 1902
Amphion: When We Were Twenty-One, with Nat C.
Goodwin, Maxine Elliott
Bijou: On the Stroke of 12
Blaney’s: (Blaney All-Star-Stock Company) The Only Way
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) My Friend from India
Folly: The Volunteer Organist
Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) Knobs o’ Tennessee
Grand Opera House: Lovers’ Lane
Montauk: The Messenger Boy, with James T. Powers
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Faust
Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Prodigal Daughter
Phillips’s Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Zorah
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
4.
January 27-February 1, 1902
Amphion: Colorado
Bijou: M’liss, with Nellie McHenry
Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) A Gilded Fool
Columbia: (Greenwall’s Stock Company) Shall We Forgive
Her?
Folly: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Al W. Martin’s company
Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) The Streets of New York
Grand Opera House: Sis Hopkins, with Rose Melville
Montauk: Eben Holden, with Charles Frohman’s company
Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Phroso
Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) Rosedale
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Social Highwayman
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
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