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| Brooklyn Eagle, March 15, 1903, announcing widespread theatre building activity across the nation, including Brooklyn. |
By
Samuel L. Leiter
For comprehensive background on Brooklyn’s pre-20th-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 20th 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 months in 1902 click here.
In March 1903, the rivalry between what was increasingly
seen as the villainous, greedy Theatrical Syndicate, whose six partners, which held
so many plays and artists by the throat, and the heroic, altruistic Independent
Booking Agency, linked to stars Henrietta Crosman, Minnie Maddern Fiske, and
James K. Hackett, was heating up. Not only was it announced that the IBA would
control 30 theatres, some new, in major cities, from Boston to San Francisco,
but two of those venues would not only would be the new Brooklyn ones reported
here last month. The press thought it a good idea that two syndicates should be
competing, and even believed a third might join the fray before long (it did).
The press lambasted the syndicate for its ruthless grip over
the vast theatrical landscape, dictating terms to the traveling combinations as
well as to the theatres hosing them, and hoped that their new rival—if, indeed,
able to provide companies bookings for 30 weeks a year—would prove a worthy one,
forcing the wicked monopoly to compete for the first time. Meanwhile, the
booking war was helping the low-pricedl stock companies, which were neutral in
the fight, to thrive.
The addition of two new theatres to Brooklyn’s already extensive
roster was part of a remarkable efflorescence of theatre building going in the
U.S.A., as noted in the headline of the newspaper article atop this month’s
entry noting that 3,000 full-fledged theatres were operating in the country,
not to mention the countless small variety and “concert” halls offering live
entertainment wherever enough people lived to fill their seats. Three hundred
more were in the works, 13 of them in Greater New York. (Most would eventually
abandon theatre for film but no one seemed to be giving that much thought in
1903). Even William McElfatrick, of the leading theatre-building firm, R.B.
McElfatrick and Son, couldn’t account for the phenomenon. Was it the nation’s
continuing prosperity? Its ever-growing taste for frivolity? America was
experiencing a theatregoing mania, people who never went more than once in six
months 20 years ago, now attending once a week. Partly, this was because of the
greatly increased toleration for theatrical performance after so long a Puritan
backlash.
McElfatrick estimated the average cost of a first-class
theatre, from site purchase to opening night, was $175,000, New York’s being
the most expensive. I suggest that those interested in the subject—with all its
fascinating facts and figures about theatres in Greater New York in 1903—check
out the Eagle, March 15, 1903. I might mention, though, even if it’s not
about Brooklyn, that, because of the trend of building new Manhattan theatres
further and further uptown from the previous center at Herald Square, the
writer predicted that in 15 years the center of New York’s theatre would move
from its present locus at Longacre Square (which became Times Square in 1904) to
Columbus Circle. Despite some nearby theatres, that did not happen.
The odd fascination with Tolstoy’s Resurrection, seen
in Brooklyn in two different productions while another was running in
Manhattan, as reported in our last entry, stirred Hamilton of the Eagle to
demand that the actors in these shows at least unify their pronunciation of the
Russian proper names. “On the more difficult ones the actors make no pretense
of agreeing and most of them slur them over so that it is difficult to tell
what they mean to say. But even the simply spelled heroine, Maslova, suffers a various
fate. At the Columbia the leading actors
put the accent on the first syllable. At Payton’s everybody agreed that the
accent should go on the second, while the excited socialists from Brownsville .
. . put the drama on the final syllable.”
Of even greater interest to Brooklyn theatregoers was the
accession to star status—meaning he headed his own touring company—of Robert
Edeson, Brooklyn-born and raised. He was the son of another Brooklyn actor, George
R. Edeson, the Park Theatre’s stage manager, who had tried to dissuade him from
joining the profession. The younger Edeson had been developing his stage career
to growing respect and was now due to bring his art to his home town. By 1903,
the story of his becoming an actor was well known among Brooklynites.
As per the account in the Citizen of March 8, 1903,
for example, Edeson’s career got off to an accidental start in 1887 when he was
working as treasurer at Brooklyn’s Park Theatre. Cora Tanner, who later
married—and divorced—the theatre’s manager, Col. William E. Sinn, was set to
star in a play called Fascination when a minor actor took sick. Sinn
interrupted Edeson’s doing the accounts to express his dismay at the turn of
events, but Edeson responded, “Colonel, if you will allow me to straighten out
this account, I will play the part next Monday myself.”
When Edeson’s work was done and he was about to leave, the long
silent Sinn spoke up, “Young man, I’ll just bet you one hundred dollars that
you can’t make good on the bluff.” “I’ll go you,” answered Edeson. “You get a
substitute for me and give me the part.” Edeson did well enough on the night to
feel acting was what he should be doing. Now, in 1903, 16 years later, his
apprenticeship over, especially after making strong impressions in roles
opposite Maude Adams and Amelia Bingham, he would be starring at the late Col.
Sinn’s Montauk Theatre in the romantic melodrama, Soldiers of Fortune.
1.
March 2-7, 1903
Amphion: “Carrots,” A Country Mouse, with Ethel Barrymore
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Heart and Sword
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) The Merchant of
Venice, with R.D. McClean, Odette Tyler
Folly: Old Limerick Town, with Chauncey Olcott
Gotham: (Gotham Elite Stock Company)
Grand Opera House: In Old Kentucky
Montauk: Iris, with Virginia Harned
Novelty: M’liss, with Nellie McHenry
Park: The Queen of the Highway
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) Man’s
Enemy
Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company)
Lady Windermere’s Fan, with Etta Reed Payton
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Resurrection
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
2. March
9-14, 1903
Amphion: The Altar of Friendship, with Nat C.
Goodwin, Maxine Elliot
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Chimmie Fadden
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) King John, with
R.D. McClean, Odette Tyler
Folly: The Bold Soger Boy, with Andrew Mack
Gotham: (Gotham Elite Stock Company) Michael Strogoff
Grand Opera House: In Posterland, with the Royal
Lilliputians
Montauk: A Message from Mars, with Charles Hawtrey
Novelty: The Night Before Christmas
Park: Human Hearts
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) Carmen
Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company)
Resurrection, with Etta Reed Payton
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) East Lynne
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
3.
March 16-21, 1903
Amphion: Sherlock Holmes, with Herbert Kelcey, Effie
Shannon
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Kathleen Mavourneen
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) The School for Scandal,
with Marie Wainwright
Folly: In Posterland, with the Royal Lilliputians
Gotham: (Gotham Elite Stock Company) The Cherry Pickers
Grand Opera House: Kellar, the Magician
Montauk: Soldiers of Fortune, with Robert Edeson
Novelty: Over Niagara Falls
Park: A Boy of the Streets, with 10-year-old Joseph
Santley
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) Alone
in London
Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company)
The Runaway Wife
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) In the Land of
the Cajuns
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
4.
March 22-28, 1903
Amphion: Alt Heidelberg, Sodom’s Ende, Hopla!
Vater Siehte’s Ja Nicht, Wilhelm Tell, Das Baerenfell, with Adolf
Phillips and Irving Place Theatre company (in German)
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) La Cigale
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Shall We Forgive Her?,
with Marie Wainwright
Folly: Kellar, the Magician
Gotham: (Gotham Elite Stock Company) Davy Crockett
Grand Opera House: The Head Waiters, with Ward and
Vokes
Montauk: King Dodo, with Raymond Hitchcock
Novelty: Across the Pacific, with Harry Clay Blaney
Park: The Convict’s Daughter
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) The
Sunshine of Paradise Alley
Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company)
Thelma, with Etta Reed Payton
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Romeo and Juliet,
with actress Laura Joyce Bell as Romeo
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
5.
March 30-April 4, 1903
Amphion: San Toy
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Secret Dispatch
Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Resurrection, with
Marie Wainwright
Folly: The Head Waiters, with Ward and Vokes
Gotham: (Gotham Elite Stock Company) The Silver King
Grand Opera House:
Montauk: The Country Girl
Novelty: Only a Shop Girl, with Lottie Williams
Park:
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) The
Stowaway
Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company)
The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown, with Etta Reed Payton
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Nevada
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star,
Orpheum, Unique
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