1904: FEBRUARY

 

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 

Links to all of 1902’s posts can be found here.

Links to all of 1903’s posts can be found here.

JANUARY 1904

As we suspected in the January entry, the status of Corse Payton’s second stock company theatre, the Fulton Street Theatre—once the Criterion—at Grand and Fulton, was on shaky ground. That was confirmed in early February when noted billiard expert and songwriter Frank A. Keeney took over the venue’s lease for 10 years, changed its policy from the legitimate to popular-priced “refined vaudeville,” targeted at families. He opened it as the Fulton Street Theatre on the 15^th, offering daily matinees. The last play Payton put on here was Our New Girl, starring Ullie Akerstrom, for two days during the month’s second week.

Big stars appearing in Brooklyn this month included Marie Tempest in The Marriage of Kitty, Richard Mansfield in his latest success, Old Heidelberg, Virginia Earl in Sergeant Kitty, and Nellie McHenry in her perennial, M’liss. Most interesting was the visit of Kate Claxton, now 56, and still playing the 20-year-old blind girl Louise in The Two Orphans. That’s the classic melodrama in which she was starring on the night of December 5, 1876, when the Brooklyn Theatre burned down with a loss of close to 300 lives. Even more curious was that Phillips’ Lyceum’s stock company was also reviving the old warhorse that very week.

I guess I should mention that yet another revival of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which refused to die, was back this month, in Al W. Martin’s scenically spectacular show. To move the mammoth show, said the Daily Times of February 13, it was

necessary to transport the sixty people, scenery and equipment. . . . The company carries thirty head of ponies, horses, burrow, donkeys, oxen, tally-ho coach, traps, log cabin float, ox carts and numerous novelties, and is said to give the most elaborate street parade ever attempted by a traveling theatrical company.

Of notable plays new to Brooklyn, the most prominent, in terms of their recent Broadway financial and critical success, were Augustus Thomas’s The Earl of Pawtucket and the Mansfield vehicle, Old Heidelburg. An Americanized adaptation of the latter, by Aubrey Boucicault, from a popular German original done at New York’s Irving Place Theatre, had flopped, but Mansfield did a straight translation first seen in London with George Alexander and had a hit.

But the most significant new play seen in Brooklyn in February 1904 had only a single charity performance, for the Brooklyn Free Kindergarten Society, at the Montauk Theatre on the 16^th. It was George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 marital comedy Candida, which had been playing at the Princess Theatre in Manhattan since December 9, 1903; it ran for 133 performances through April 1, 1904, making it a modest success. This was at a time when Shaw’s genius was widely recognized and appreciated by educated audiences but his plays were box office poison, requiring bold producers to put them on. Even this production had begun cautiously; it was first seen as “special matinees” before enough interest was generated for a regular evening run. Brooklyn, which previously had seen only Arms and the Man and The Devil’s Disciple, given by Richard Mansfield, was now seeing just a single performance of Candida, staged by actor Arnold Daly, who was devoting himself to making Shaw accepted by American audiences. His staging of Candida featured himself as Marchbanks, Dorothy Donnelly as Candida, and Daly as Morell.

There had been much buzz in the press about the play, whose themes were considered controversial, and theatre people were excited by its visit because the play, in contrast to the pap so evident everywhere, was deemed manna for “intelligent theatergoers, who like at least a little brains mixed with their stage entertainment,” wrote Clay Meeker Hamilton in the Eagle of February 14. He castigated the cowardice of the typical managers (i.e., producers), believing that the time had finally come for audiences to respond to Shaw’s philosophical cynicism, witty dialogue, and unconventional characters. He noted that, for all its excellences, the play when read was not dramatic, but when acted, the “genuineness” of its characters and action “stand out with a force which they lack on the printed page.”

Despite this and other compelling reasons for seeing the play, the attendance at the Montauk matinee was disappointingly small, Brooklyn audiences apparently still not ready for Shavian dramaturgy. “It is pretty clear that the day for the intellectual drama has not dawned yet in Brooklyn, whatever the state of the public taste may be in Manhattan,” scolded the Eagle on February 17. Had the audience not been composed of many who were there for the charity and not for Shaw or these actors, “it would have had apparently an audience of about fifty.”

In theatre news this month was an announcement that threw into confusion what was reported here earlier about the rivalry between the Klaw and Erlanger of the Theatrical Syndicate and the Independent Booking Agency. This was Klaw and Erlanger’s alliance with the circuits controlled by Stair and Havlin, whose extensive portfolio included the not-yet-opened Majestic Theatre on Fulton Street, and Litt and Dingwall, owners of New York’s Broadway Theatre, as well as houses in Chicago, St. Paul, and Minneapolis. This turn of events dampened the plans of the IBA by removing from its outlets a considerable number of high-priced, non-syndicate theatres across the country. Until this point, the IBA had been making progress in its fight, being strengthened recently by support of David Belasco, who was now similarly thrown off balance.

The new alliance would force those who sought independence from the syndicate’s grip to try their pot luck finding venues, just as Henrietta Crosman and Mrs. Fiske were doing, the latter having managed nicely this way for seven years. Belasco declared he’d have eight theatres built in cities he needed to perform in; the loss to Klaw and Erlanger of the Majestic was clearly a blow. The possibility of him being joined in his endeavor by actor James K. Hackett and comedians Weber and Fields held forth some promise of gaining support from those willing to invest in theatre building. Producer Oscar Hammerstein advised, however, that the real power lay not in who controlled the theatres but in who had attractions that people were clamoring to see; such persons should always be able to put a roof over their heads.

Stair and Havlin, it should be noted, were themselves engaged in a dispute with Klaw and Erlanger, this being over control of the low-priced theatres. Many were held, profitably, by Stair and Havlin when Klaw and Erlanger entered that field. Stair and Havlin claimed this violated an agreement, so they retaliated by acquiring high-priced venues to compete , with results that caused both sides to lose money. The new arrangement allowed Stair and Havlin to control the cheaper theatres, including Brooklyn’s Grand Opera House, while Klaw and Erlanger managed the expensive ones.

1.      February 1-6, 1904

Amphion: Peggy from Paris

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Captain’s Mate

Columbia: The Way of the Transgressor

Folly: Arrah-na-Pogue, with J.K. Murray

Gotham: Hearts Adrift

Grand Opera House: Our New Minister

Montauk: A Chinese Honeymoon

Novelty: A Little Outcast, with Anne Blancke

Park: The White Slave

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

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Home and Honor

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

2.      February 8-13, 1904

 

Amphion: The Office Boy, with Frank Daniels

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The World Against Her

Columbia: Herrmann, The Great (magician)

Folly: The Ninety and Nine

Gotham: Child Slaves of New York

Grand Opera House: A Midnight Marriage, with Florence Bindley

Montauk: Old Heidelberg, with Richard Mansfield

Park: A Desperate Chance

Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company) Our New Girl, with Ullie Akerstrom (two nights only)

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

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Resurrection

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

3.      February 15-20, 1904

Amphion: Sergeant Kitty, with Virginia Earl

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Bonnie Scotland

Columbia: M’liss, with Nellie McHenry

Folly: The Peddler, with Joe Welch

Gotham: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Al W. Martin’s company

Grand Opera House: By Right of Sword, with Ralph Stuart

Montauk: The Earl of Pawtucket, with Lawrence D’Orsay

Novelty: Driven from Home, with Patrice

Park: If Women Were Men

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton’s Lee Avenue Stock Company) Between Love and Duty

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Duchesse Du Barry

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

4.      February 22-27, 1904

Amphion: The Prince of Pilsen, with Henry W. Savage Grand Opera Company

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) A Romance of Old Mexico

Columbia: The Two Orphans, with Kate Claxton

Folly: Soldiers of Fortune, with Edwin Brandt

Gotham: Her First False Step

Grand Opera House: Sherlock Holmes, with Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon

Montauk: The Marriage of Kitty, with Marie Tempest

Novelty: Hearts Adrift

Park: Wedded but No Wife

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

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Two Orphans

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