15. 1902; MARCH 15

 

New, as yet unnamed, theatre, being planned for downtown Brooklyn, March 1902.

By

Samuel L. Leiter

For comprehensive background on Brooklyn’s pre-20^th-century 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.

The entries in this blog began as annual ones, for 1898 and 1899. Because of the large amount of memory used, which made editing them problematic, subsequent entries were shortened so they covered only several months at a time, but these too needed to be shortened. Thus, beginning with 1901: September, all entries cover a single month. The quickest way to find any of these entries is probably to click on the following link, where links to everything prior to its date are provided: 1901: DECEMBER 

For 

1902: JANUARY

1902: FEBRUARY

March 1902 was another busy month at Brooklyn’s theatres, which continued doing the tried and true plays and musicals of the time as they visited in combination companies or were brought back by the borough’s five competing stock companies. The usual slate of “stars” visited, some playing a week apiece at two theatres, but only Grace George, who grew up in Brooklyn, excited much attention. Others with names of note included Virginia Harned, touring alone without her soon-to-be divorced husband, E.H. Sothern, Louis Mann and Clara Lipman in one of their familiar standbys, May Irwin, Henry Miller, and William H. Crane. But we do have interesting things to report.

The Eagle, noting the proclivity for press agents profiting from stories about the stars woven from gauzy cloth, pointed to one such implausibility going around reporting the purported marriage of Edna May Spooner, leading lady of the Park Theatre Stock Company, to Augustus Phillips, who played opposite her in romantic roles. It was supposedly mentioned in a letter from a crank who had been arrested for threatening Spooner’s life, and a rumor as to its veracity spread quickly among those who liked to gossip about theatre people. The story was false, but like so many others, then and now, it was hard to suppress. Another of the time was the rumor that star actress Maude Adams was secretly married to impresario Charles Frohman, her manager. So widespread did such stories become that newspaper reporters had to investigate and debunk them.

Press agentry was involved in another Brooklyn news story when, as reported on March 23, the agent for the Columbia Theatre, Morris Cohen, absconded with the theatre’s payroll of $850, leaving the actors and several bills unpaid. Manager David A. Weis, who usually paid the actors, was busy with other things so asked Cohen to handle the job, after which the man simply disappeared with the cold cash. “They looked for him in the cellar, among the scenery, behind barrels, in the dressing rooms, and in fact every part of the building.” Nor could he be found in his Henry Street residence, where Weis also lived. The manager paid the actors out of his own pocket and the next show went on.

Also on some editorial minds was the fashion for rural plays, barely any of which could withstand comparison with the era’s two classics of the kind, The Old Homestead and Shore Acres, both having often been seen in Brooklyn with their authors, Denman Thompson and the recently deceased James A. Herne, respectively. Of their imitators, only ‘Way Down East, a Brooklyn visitor, was a commercial hit, but it was way below the bar set by the two I’ve cited. The loving care of Thompson and Herne to craft plays that were slices of life, acted with detailed naturalism, was beyond the reach of most others in the field. Critics kept calling for a revolution in the moribund American drama, but it did not seem that plays about life on the farm was going to be the answer.

Despite all the theatres apparently going strong in Brooklyn in 1902, excitement always stirred when news of a new one was broadcast in the press. Plans for the latest such enterprise, as yet unknown, was revealed on March 16, when property on Fulton Street, Brooklyn, was purchased with the intent to erect a theatre on the site. A drawing of its interior, posted in the Eagle and seen at the top of this page, had already been prepared. It was going to be an elaborate showcase—designed by McElfatrick and Son—that would rival the Montauk in splendor, with the caveat that no plays controlled by the Theatrical Syndicate—like those at the Montauk—would be involved.

This threatened to create a Montauk-new theatre competition like that formerly between the Montauk and the Columbia before the latter turned to stock. The Eagle suggested that there were more good, non-trust plays out there than people assumed, as demonstrated by Boston’s Tremont Theatre and Chicago’s Grand Opera House, both unaffiliated with the syndicate and both profitable.  As for stars, both Henrietta Crosman and Mrs. Fiske, a limited pair, were surviving while refusing to play in any syndicate house. A couple of managers—Liebler and Co. and W.A. Brady—existed who had arrangements that allowed them to play their stars independently in some cities, and in syndicate houses in others. That was because the syndicate didn’t have enough shows to play in every one of their theatres every week. In New York, Liebler and Co. and Brady played only outside the syndicate, in theatres controlled by Oscar Hammerstein.

Still, without going into details here, the syndicate had the power to throw monkey wrenches into the bookings of all its competitors, which it often did; Mrs. Fiske, for example, often was forced to book lesser theatres, even vaudeville ones, just to get into a city from which the syndicate wanted her to remain out. Such managements would find the new Brooklyn theatre attractive for business, it was noted. Many actors were said to secretly harbor the wish to break away from the syndicate if, not wishing to play less prestigious houses, they had venues like this available to hire. In New York, David Belasco had decided to buck the syndicate by obtaining his own theatre, the Republic, where he’d begin producing in the fall, although he’d likely have to play syndicate houses outside the city just to have a stage. And, of course, there were several important actors each with their own arrangements.

The entrepreneur involved was a Brooklynite named Thomas F. Rochford, manager of the Postal-Telegraph Cubic Company, a local business. His prospects were looking very encouraging to observers in March 1902, although he could only succeed if enough other independent houses elsewhere took his cue and blocked the syndicate’s progress. But things were still up in the air, including the location, mentioned as either Fulton and Lawrence Streets or Fulton and De Kalb Avenue, a short block away. Regardless, the Eagle of the latter date declared, “Brooklyn ought to have two first class theaters and they ought to be so controlled that when one of them has a good play the other will almost certainly have a poor one.” However, for all the buzz about a new theatre, an experienced manager explained to the Eagle how nearly impossible it was for a theatre owner to make a profit, using the theatres of Manhattan as an example. This blog will report on the outcome of these plans when and if they ever blossom.

Also fueling intense speculation were reports that Mrs. Spooner, the intrepid manager of the Spooner Stock Company at the Western District’s Park, who was soon to transfer to the not-too-distant Bijou, was also considering taking over the Eastern District’s Amphion, the borough’s other high-priced, syndicate-affiliated theatre, in the fall, as a second stock theatre whose acting company would be headed by one of her daughters, Edna May, and which would alternate weekly with the Bijou company, with daughter Cecil Spooner as the star. “This arrangement will leave Mrs. Spooner with only one play to rehearse each week, and will give each of her girls a chance to appear every week in star parts,” said the Eagle.

Evening prices were announced: $.75 for several rows near the stage, $.50 for seats further back, and $.30 and $.20 for the upper seats, some maybe going for $.10. Matinees, though, would top out at $.30.  Mrs. Spooner insisted the contracts were signed with the Amphion owners, Hyde and Behman, and that royalty payments for plays to be done were being mailed even then. The current Amphion lessees, taken by surprise, were dubious, given the contractual issues involved. This, too, will be ironed out in subsequent postings.

The need for a charismatic player to be at the head of a stock company was demonstrated this month when Valerie Bergere, who recently left the Columbia when the burden of weekly stock overwhelmed her, returned—at a much improved salary—to lead the troupe as its star, beginning with East Lynne, followed by Under Two Flags (in which her role of Cigarette required her to ride her fiery steed up to the rim of a gorge to save her lover).

As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, Brooklyn’s renowned amateur theatres, now threatened by the abundance of high-quality, low priced stock companies, had produced a robust number of successful performers, mainly actresses. One of the brightest was Grace George (1879-1961), wife of bigtime manager William A. Brady, who starred at the Montauk this month in Under Southern Skies. The Brooklyn press loved to make a fuss about such local residents who made it big, When she returned to Brooklyn, she organized a theatregoing group, the Manitou Club, a group that morphed into an amateur performance society in halls and churches, and putting them (and her) on the town’s radar when they did The Noble Outcast at the Criterion Theatre, when that venue was devoted to amateur dramatics in the 1890s. She also met Brady in Brooklyn, when he saw her in an amateur production, and was so impressed he met her afterward, fell in love, married the girl, and made her a star.

1.      March 3-8, 1902

Amphion: Eben Holden, with E.M. Holland

Bijou: King of the Opium Ring

Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) The Still Alarm

Columbia: (Greenwall’s Stock Company) Lend Me Your Wife

Folly: The Head Waiters, with Ward and Vokes

Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) The Stowaway

Grand Opera House: All on Account of Eliza, with Louis Mann, Clara Lipman

Montauk: The Little Duchess, with Anna Held

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) My Official Wife

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Girl I Left Behind Me

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Current Cash

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Gayety, Unique, Orpheum

2.      March 10-15, 1902

Amphion: The Widow Jones, with May Irwin

Bijou: The Night Before Christmas

Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company) The Forger’s Daughter

Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) A Milk White Flag

Folly: All on Account of Eliza, with Louis Mann, Clara Lipman

Gotham: (Gotham Stock Company) Beacon Lights

Grand Opera House: The Head Waiters, with Ward and Vokes

Montauk: Alice of Old Vincennes, with Virginia Harned

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Little Minister

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) The Woman Hater

Phillips’s Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Silver King

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde  & Behman’s, Star, Gayety, Unique, Orpheum

3.      March 17-22, 1902

Amphion: D’Arcy of the Guards, with Henry Miller

Bijou: Sons of Ham, with Williams and Walker

Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company)

Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company)

Folly: Eben Holden

Gotham (Gotham Stock Company) The Unknown

Grand Opera House: Kellar, magician, mind reader, humorist, hypnotist

Montauk: David Harum, with William H. Crane

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Kathleen Mavourneen

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) A Lady of Quality

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The American Girl

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Gayety, Unique, Orpheum

4.      March 24-29, 1901

 

Amphion: Closed for the week

Bijou: A Thoroughbred Tramp

Blaney’s: (Blaney’s All-Star Stock Company)

Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) East Lynne, with Valerie Bergere

Folly: The Road to Ruin

Gotham (Gotham Stock Company) Leah, the Forsaken

Grand Opera House: Eben Holden

Montauk: Under Southern Skies, with Grace George

Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Man from Mexico

Payton’s: (Payton Theatre Company) Mr. Barnes of New York

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Sam’l of Posen

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Gayety, Unique, Orpheum