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:
Links to all of 1902’s posts can be found here.
Links to all of 1903’s posts can be found here.
A few interesting things catch one’s eyes in perusing Brooklyn’s offerings in November 1904. For one, 18 theatres were now in full-time operation, five of them specializing in vaudeville and burlesque (sometimes both on the same program and often with stars from the legitimate stage in one-act plays). There were five popular-priced stock companies—the Bijou in the Western District, the Amphion in the Eastern, the Columbia in the Western, and Payton’s Lee Avenue and Phillips’ Lyceum in the Eastern. The ambitious Spooners ran both the Bijou and the Amphion (formerly a high-priced venue), emulating the recent practice of the Paytons, who found it impossible to maintain their own second venue, on Fulton Street.
The same fate befell the Spooners, who, when both Spooner sisters were near collapse from exhaustion, abandoned the Amphion in mid-November, forcing the theatre to book combinations. Edna May and Cecil Spooners’ brief reign as rival leading ladies of Brooklyn stock thus ended. After resting, they returned to costarring at the Bijou, for the time being, at any rate.
The Montauk was, for the moment, the only so-called “high-price”
Brooklyn playhouse, with a top price of $2.00. Its first-class shows, booked by
the Theatrical Syndicate, attracted the borough’s elite theatergoing class. A bit
less expensive, at $1.50 top, was the Broadway. Then came the middle-price theatres,
among them the brand-new Majestic, which cost one dollar top, while the next
level, like the Amphion and Bijou charged no more than 75 cents. Cheapest of
all was Phillips’ Lyceum, where sensationalistic melodramas charged the old 10,
20, and 30.
November saw a handful of big and little stars, like comic
actor Willie Collier, champion boxer-turned actor Bob Fitzsimmons, Thomas E. Shea (with
a repertoire of plays), Billy B. Van, Sam Bernard, Richard Carle, William
Bramwell, Raymond Hitchcock, Maclyn Arbuckle, Yiddish-dialect actor Joe Welch
(in Cohen’s Luck), and, most memorably, England’s Mrs. Patrick Campbell,
rising above the mediocrity of her vehicle, The Sorceress.
The County Chairman, by beloved humorist George Ade—then
seen as a potential savior of American comedy—was probably the best of the month’s
offerings. Hamilton Ormsbee spent much of his November 20 column in the Eagle
explaining why he was so supportive of Ade’s potential, which he contrasted
favorably with another favorite, the late actor-playwright James A. Herne. Otherwise,
November’s offerings included the usual farces, musicals, and melodramas, with
titles like Escaped from Sing-Sing, Dealers in White Women, The
Black Hand, and Kidnappers of New York.
A small number
of classical revivals was seen, including a Hamlet starring a British-born
classical actor named Darrel Vinton, about whom barely anything is now known. He toured
with his own company and made his Brooklyn debut after barnstorming the West and South.
He gave a surprisingly creditable Hamlet, which he reportedly threw together
in 10 days when Mrs. Spooner, forced to remove her company from the Amphion,
managed to book him as her first replacement. Here’s the Eagle’s encomium:
Mention above of The Black Hand is especially appropriate
given that an Eagle headline of November 6 reads: “WOMAN PRESS AGENT TELLS
OF ‘BLACK HAND’ THREAT.” As ironed out by the Eagle’s reporter, Miss
M.V. Fitzgerald, “a young woman of most attractive personality,” whose job was
press representative of the Bijou Theatre, called members of the press as well
as police to report the delivery of a letter from the “black hand” to actress
Cora Morlan, “personal representative” to Mrs. Spooner, the Bijou’s manageress.
The “black hand” was an extortion scheme run by Italian American criminals who sent
threatening letters to people demanding money or valuables or else. A black
hand symbol was usually drawn on the letter.
Fitzgerald, who had given the letter to the authorities, said the
address was in “dreadfully red ink,” the text in all caps. The letter warned
that Morlan would be shot if she failed to wear a chrysanthemum on her bosom on
stage at a particular performance of Sardou’s La Tosca, in which she was
playing the Queen of Naples. Morlan refused to spoil the look of the show with
such a flower at her breast, even if she were killed. “An artist is an artist
all the time and is above sublunary and inartistic considerations,” wrote the
reporter. She felt secure in the knowledge that Det. O’Rourke, armed with a “big
gun,” was out front to protect her. When asked by the reporter to reveal the
letter, the detective, standing nearby, complied, showing an envelope whose
postmark stated it had been mailed from an office on Flatbush Avenue near the Long Island railroad depot. “There
was a very neat little black hand, in leadpencil [sic], on the letter, a
well-drawn black hand, indeed, with a mightily muscular thumb and a crooked
index finger." Written entirely in red
ink, it declared:
Miss Cora Morlan—We have received
a large sum for your life from a male lover of yours. If you desire your life
to be spared wear a chrysanthemum on the right hand side. If not worn on
Saturday evening, November 5, you will be shot on your first appearance, BLACK
HAND
Det. O’Rourke expressed skepticism about anyone shooting the actress but insisted he would protect
her with his life, if necessary. The very sympathetic officer added:
I was ready last night to escort
her home, and you can tell how badly I felt when she informed me that she did
not need me; that she lived with Mrs. Spooner, in rooms over the theater. I did
the best I could for her and I am here to-night to protect her. I hardly think
anybody’s going to shoot, so you needn’t wait any longer.
The performance went off without incident and Morlan got through
it without any signs of fear. Cora Morlan remained a regular presence in the Spooner Stock Company thereafter.
1.
October 31-November 5. 1904
Amphion: (Spooner Stock Company #1) My Brother’s Sister,
with Cecil Spooner
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company #2) La Tosca, with Edna
May Spooner
Broadway: The Maid and the Mummy
Columbia: (Columbia Stock Company) Fabio Romani
Folly: Tracked Around the World
Gotham: A Fight for Love, with “Bob” Fitzsimmons
Grand Opera House: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Othello,
Richelieu, “The Bells,” with Thomas E. Shea
Majestic: Captain Barrington, with Richard Bramwell
Montauk: The Tenderfoot, with Richard Carle
Novelty: Escaped from Sing-Sing
Park: Dealers in White Women
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) What Happened
to Jones
Phillips’ Lyceum (Lyceum Stock Company) The Black Hand
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Star, Unique,
Orpheum, Gayety, Keeney’s Fulton Street, Watson’s
2.
November 7-11. 1904
Amphion: (Spooner Stock Company #2) Camille, with
Edna May Spooner
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company #1) Pawn Ticket 210,
with Cecil Spooner
Broadway: The Dictator, with Willie Collier
Columbia: (Columbia Stock Company) The Climbers
Folly: The Ninety and Nine
Gotham: Why Girls Leave Home
Grand Opera House: The Volunteer Organist
Majestic: The Errand Boy, with Billy B. Van
Montauk: The Girl from Kay’s, with Sam Bernard, Hattie
Williams
Novelty: The Flaming Arrow
Park: The Little Church Around the Corner
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) Josephine,
Empress of the French, with Etta Reed Payton
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Wolves of
New York
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde and Behman’s, Unique, Star,
Gayety, Keeney’s Fulton Street, Orpheum, Watson’s
3.
November 14-19, 1904
Amphion: (Spooner Stock Company #2) The Adventure of Lady
Ursula, with Cecil Spooner
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company #1) Up York State, with
Edna May Spooner
Broadway: The Yankee Consul, with Raymond Hitchcock
Columbia: (Columbia Stock Company) Woman Against Woman
Folly: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Othello, Richelieu,
“The Bells,” with Thomas E. Shea
Gotham: The Factory Girl
Grand Opera House: The Missourians
Majestic: The Bonnie Brier Bush, with J.H. Stoddart
Montauk: The County Chairman, with Maclyn Arbuckle
Novelty: Kidnapped in New York, with Barney
Gilmore
Park: Deserted at the Altar
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) Blue
Jeans, Corse Payton, Etta Reed Payton
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Friends
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde and Behman’s, Unique, Star,
Gayety, Keeney’s Fulton Street, Orpheum, Watson’s
4.
November 21-26, 1904
Amphion: (Spooner Stock Company #2) Led Astray, with
Edna May Spooner; last week of Spooner Stock Company at this theatre
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company #1) The Irish Post Girl,
with Cecil Spooner
Broadway: Checkers, with Thomas W. Ross
Columbia: (Columbia Stock Company) Paul Revere, with
Richard Buhler
Folly: The Vacant Chair
Gotham: On Thanksgiving Day
Grand Opera House: Our New Minister
Majestic: Cohen’s Luck, with Joe Welch
Montauk: The Sorceress, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell
Novelty: Lighthouse by the Sea
Park: A Wayward Son
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) A
Trip to Chinatown, with Corse Payton, Etta Reed Payton
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Human
Spiders; or, the Power of Love
Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde and Behman’s, Unique, Star,
Gayety, Keeney’s Fulton Street, Orpheum
5.
November 28-December 1, 1904
Amphion: Hamlet, with Darrel
Vinton
Bijou: (Spooner
Stock Company #1) Hands Across the Sea, with Edna May Spooner
Broadway: The
Isle of Spice
Columbia: (Columbia
Stock Company) Virginius
Folly: The
Street Singer, with Florence Bindley
Gotham: Little
Church Around the Corner
Grand Opera House: Two
Little Sailor Boys
Majestic: Flo
Flo, with Stella Mayhew
Montauk: The
Rogers Brothers in Paris, with the Rogers Brothers
Novelty: The
Factory Girl
Park: The Stain
of Guilt
Payton’s Lee
Avenue: (Payton Lee Avenue Stock Company) Rosedale, with Corse Payton,
Etta Reed Payton
Phillips’ Lyceum:
(Lyceum Stock Company) The Orphan and the Heiress
Vaudeville and
burlesque: Hyde and Behman’s, Unique, Star, Gayety, Keeney’s Fulton Street,
Orpheum
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