1905: DECEMBER

Digby Bell, center, in Act II of The Education of Mr. Pipp, Seattle's Grand Opera House, October 1906.

The ever-shifting landscape of Brooklyn theatre ownership, management, and naming continued to churn up interest in a volatile theatrical environment. In it, Williamsburg’s Garden Theatre rejoined the vaudeville fraternity in late November, boosting the list of non-legits to 10, in addition to 10 legitimate theatres. Twenty theatres were a lot for Brooklyn but with the emphasis so strongly on lighter fare, with specialty acts often inserted into straight plays, even the legits could be said to have had one leg in the vaudeville world.

In fact, when William T. Grover, already in charge of the Amphion and the Brighton Beach Music Hall, took over the old Montauk recently, he reopened it—as the Imperial—with a “high-class” stock company (the Imperial Theatre Company) performing standard dramas sandwiched between opening and closing vaudeville shows.

Grover’s concept—one best known for its use at the Proctor chain of theatres—was partly driven by Brooklyn’s extremely strong appreciation of vaudeville. In the late 1890s, the Park Theatre had included vaudeville at the beginning of its stock company performances, but not, like the Imperial, at the beginning and end. News that a Western vaudeville circuit that supplied all a show’s acts was coming to Brooklyn was in the air, but local managers weren't ready to embrace it, preferring to book their own acts by always keeping their eyes open for new talent. One of the most powerful of such men, Percy G. Williams, with several Brooklyn and Manhattan theatres in his hands, had his own circuit of a sort, as did the long-practicing team of Hyde & Behman.

Also driving Grover was a desire to revive the borough’s interest in stock, recently on the retreat locally after having gone from a surprisingly high group of six companies down to three (at the Bijou, the Lee Avenue, and the Lyceum). The first two, run by the Spooners and the Paytons, respectively, were top of the line, each with a devoted following. With the Imperial, the total ticked back up a bit to four. The Imperial Theatre Company was deemed by some to be of even higher quality, even better balanced than the one at the Park in the late 90s featuring Henrietta Crosman just before she blossomed as a major star.

On December 10, Hamilton Ormsbee of the Eagle was extremely positive about the Imperial’s leading man and woman, Edwin Arden and Cathleen Countiss (sometimes misspelled Countess). And Julie Herne, daughter of the late, famed playwright actor James A. Herne was scoring highly as the company ingenue. Ormsbee also appreciated the stocks for reviving the best of the plays that had been touring but, in some cases, never made it to Brooklyn, like the recent Mary Magdala. He did acknowledge that the quality might sometimes be more creditable than brilliant, and that the best plays were mixed with the second best; the number of excellent ones was obviously limited.

And the steady diet of nonmusical dramas was welcome since the combination companies could only survive if they offered not only plays but musical comedies and spectacles. With “An increasing number of people [having] grown tired of the pointless wit, the buffoonery and the bad taste of the average musical comedy,” Ormsbee averred, access to a theatre where “they get a dramatic story intelligently treated” was a necessity for the intelligent theatergoer. Stock filled a need that frequently was not otherwise being met.

Ormsbee, unfortunately, insists that plays, no matter how intellectual, avoid anything tasteless, vulgar, immoral, or salacious. But he does state that bad apples shouldn’t be an excuse to condemn all apples. “The time for the assumption that the stage as a whole is wicked has long passed.”  He does, however, provide a list of all the things one must demand to rid theatre of its evils.

Ormsbee, later in the month, noted how the trend in plays until now had been to emphasize fun, not thought, and how rare it was—especially in American drama—to have anything serious to think about. The world was a dark place, went the old argument, and people didn’t go to the theatre to be reminded of it. Thus, the increasing slippage in representation of not only socially and intellectually challenging plays, but of Shakespeare and other classics. Instead, laughter, singing, and dancing ruled the boards, and, as noted before, vaudeville specialties were even interpolated into otherwise straight farces or comedies.

However, there was an increasing tendency to put on more of such thoughtful plays for the growing number of theatregoers interested in seeing them. Most such productions were produced in Manhattan, but now and then Brooklyn got the benefit of such attempts, several of which were promised in the near future by producers independent of the Theatrical Syndicate’s control.

Of course, even new plays aiming for commercial, not artistic, success could be satisfactorily entertaining, even if quickly dated, particularly when performed by popular stars, like Digby Bell as Mr. Pipp, a character inspired by the illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, in The Education of Mr. Pipp. Other December examples included Kyrle Bellew in Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman; Joseph Cawthorne in Fritz of Tammany Hall; Marie Cahill in Moonshine; De Wolf Hopper in Happyland; Lew Fields in It Happened in Nordland; Sidney Toler in How Baxter Butted In, John Drew in De Lancey, and Effie Fay in The Belle of Avenue A (not to be confused with The Belle of New York, which was given the same week!). 

Notice how many of these—including Moonshine—have titles naming the leading role. And, of course, visitors like James O’Neill, closing in on his record-breaking 5,000 performances of Monte Cristo, still caused hearts to flutter.

Still, there were recent hits of some, if only slight, intellectual, social, and artistic heft, like Mrs. Fiske in Leah Kleschna, or Charles Klein’s The Lion and the Mouse, being given in Manhattan; Brooklynites were forced to cross the river to see them because getting them on their side of the bridge was taking so long. For example, The Lion and the Mouse, important because, for all its flaws, it was that rare American play that dealt with such social issues as great wealth and the buying of congressional favors, was simultaneously enjoying success on Broadway and on the road, but its long run meant it wouldn’t get to Brooklyn until two years later.

Making things even more difficult was the recent completion of the downtown subway in Manhattan. Even though one still had to cross the Brooklyn Bridge to reach the subway, it took riders uptown to the high-priced theatres on 42^nd Street so quickly that it was drawing many Brooklyn theatregoers. As Ormsbee wrote, it made them less interested in sampling the local equivalent, “unless the attraction was far above the ordinary.”

One columnist claimed that Brooklyn in December 1905 had three elite venues, the New Montauk, the Shubert-Park, and, in Williamsburg, the Broadway, just as the big three for years had been the former Park (under Col. William E. Sinn), the Columbia (now the Alcazar, doing vaudeville), the old Montauk (now the Imperial, with stock and vaudeville), and Williamsburg’s Amphion (also now devoted to vaudeville). Another contemporary, without naming any, says there were four “first-class houses,” probably including the Majestic in his group. These were all still in the black.

Despite the borough’s population jump over the past few years, however, the high-priced theatres had not seen a proportionate rise in their profits. In the eyes of the Standard Union, the crowds traveling nightly from the Western District into Manhattan, however, were a sign that Brooklyn needed even more, not fewer, first-class theatres if it wanted to keep its folks on their own terrain. Transportation to Broadway from the Eastern District was more limited at the time.

The high-priced Western District theatres were competing for an audience that could probably fit into the largest one, the New Montauk, apart for exceptional productions. The Shubert-Park was still in the infancy of its new life and hadn’t yet overcome its recent reputation as a cheap venue. None of its initial offerings had the kinds of recognition—either from the plays or stars—designed to draw crowds. And, since they’d likely seen the shows already in New York, potential New Montauk audiences were not rushing there to see them again.

Ormsbee pointed out that Brooklyn had always been a tough place for producers, noting that even plays making their debut here did not usually succeed; Brooklynites were too used to waiting for their Manhattan reception before deciding whether to go. And long runs on Broadway only served to dissipate a Brooklyn audience that could so easily travel to see them on their home turf. Then, when a show finally did make it to Brooklyn after a long Broadway run, it was often by a “second-class” troupe that wasn’t up to the original’s standards.

“Brooklyn people have learned to dread ‘No. 2’ companies as they dread the plague, and the only place they are willing to pay for them is in the dollar theaters, where the price of the seats corresponds to the quality of the goods,” wrote Ormsbee. He thought the best way to make a Brooklyn engagement click was to bring over the New York company in the last week of its run. He warned the managers that it was useless to send anything over other than “really first-class attractions.” He also cautioned them to send them over before the blush of newness had worn off and interest had shifted elsewhere.

Another threat to Brooklyn’s standing as a home for live performance lay in the tardiness of those tasked with raising money to built a new, much-needed, Brooklyn Academy of Music. The lack of rich investors to cough up the required sum, now cited as $300,000. was frustrating. Quoth the Standard Union on December 24, “No one who is in touch with amusement affairs need be told that because of the lack of such auditoriums as would be provided by the proposed Academy of Music, Brooklynites are becoming more and more confirmed in the habit of seeking their amusements in Manhattan.” The writer even suggested that the “purely commercial,” profit-generating sale of mortgage bonds to the public be attempted.

News reports on these issues underlined what was becoming an unsolvable problem, despite the hype that filled the weekend theatre pages about how the local amusement business was flourishing. When, in hindsight, we consider the threat waiting in the imminent rise in popularity of motion pictures, the outlook of Brooklyn’s live entertainment industry for the long term was looking bleak.

Another blow was suffered regarding the “sacred concerts” filling many venues on Sundays. In past entries I mentioned how the blue laws prohibiting Sunday theatrical performances were circumvented by these events, which were really vaudeville programs under a phony name. The authorities looked the other way and the practice spread to many theatres, just so long as the shows remained clean and wholesome. Even the pulpit had ceased regularly criticizing the shows. This would change before too long, however, and by 1907 was again being fanned into a chronic issue. 

Nevertheless, in December 1905, a case in the Appellate Court changed the complexion of things when a performer sued a management for a week’s unpaid salary, a decision was reached, and an appeal was filed. The performer’s contract specified that he must perform on Sunday, in violation of the statute. This meant he wasn’t legally entitled to his salary. Since over 200 acts were presented each week at the multiple Sunday concerts, none was legally entitled to payment under this construction of the law. Further legal appeals were expected.

Courts of law were increasingly involved as well in the ongoing business rivalry of the Theatrical Syndicate/Trust and the independent managers and stars. Most recently this involved David Belasco and David Warfield over money owed Warfield by syndicate managers Klaw and Erlanger for his tours. Belasco, his civil suit to recover the money having failed, declared that, as the Standard Union wrote on December24, “he was only beginning to fight.”

Actors and actors in early 20^th-century Brooklyn, for all the progress they had made in gaining respectability, had still not completely escaped the social opprobrium with which the theatrical profession often was smeared, On December 3, the Standard Union felt it necessary to stand up for actresses, noting “The morals of women on the stage are probably quite as correct as the morals of the average women in private life.” What was problematic was that certain members of the press felt it necessary to attract readers by writing about anything potentially scandalous associated with a prominent actress.

“Burlesque ladies” were particularly susceptible to charges of naughtiness. However, the writer, after investigating a day of rehearsal for such ladies at Brooklyn’s Alcazar, reasoned that they would have to be very ingenious to be guilty of such charges. They worked such long and arduous hours practicing their profession, it was surprising they had time for any private life at all! Here'e his report on what he witnessed:

It was only 10 o’clock in the morning, and save for their surroundings, scenery and other appurtenances of the house, the girls might easily have been mistaken for the class of working lasses who don’t know what “make-up” is. They were plainly and soberly dressed, and were as earnestly rehearsing a dance as any bunch of young women at a dancing academy. It’s one of the newer tricks in burlesque for the song publishing houses to send out a young man to teach the chorus girls the “business” of a new song, and that is what these young women were learning with so much patience. They were put through the steps and the gestures were which were to lend the necessary emphasis, again and again; the song publishers’ young man working just a little harder than any of them, and teaching by example as well as by voice. This . . . continued for something over two hours. They wouldn’t always have the advantage of having the . . . young man with them to show them how, but after he had gotten through with them, the manager of the company would keep them equally busy—a couple of hours every morning for some weeks. Before two o’clock, the girls were expected to be back at the theatre for the matinee. There is no time for festivities while the curtain is up, and when it is down, there is plenty to do in the dressing rooms, for in these days there must be numerous changes in costume to a song and dance turn. Of course the evening performance keeps the girls bushy from before eight o’clock until eleven or so, and if there is any inclination in them after getting through the amount of work to go forth and sow a few wild oats they will certainly have earned the right to do so. Some of them do, but the great majority of them prefer a few hours of good sleep to the hot birds and cold bottles with which they are supposed to beguile their many leisure hours.

December 4-9, 1905

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Mary of Magdala

Broadway: Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman, with Kyrle Bellew

Folly: Fantasma

Grand Opera House: The Queen of the Highbinders

Imperial: (vaudeville and the Imperial Stock Company) The Dancing Girl

Majestic: The Isle of Spice

“New” Montauk: Fritz in Tammany Hall, with Joseph Cawthorne

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Little Church Around the Corner, with Etta Reed Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Doctor’s Crime

Shubert-Park: That’s John’s Way, with Melbourne MacDowell

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden

December 11-16, 1905

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Night Before Christmas

Broadway: Moonshine, with Marie Cahill

Folly: Confessions of a Wife

Grand Opera House: The Curse of Drink

Imperial: (Imperial Stock Company and vaudeville) The Butterflies

Majestic: Monte Cristo, with James O’Neill

“New” Montauk: The Education of Mr. Pipp, with Digby Bell

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Searchlights of a Great City, with Etta Reed Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Runaway Wife

Shubert-Park: Happyland, De Wolf Hopper

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden

December 18-23, 1905

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Fanchon, the Cricket

Broadway: Miss Dolly Dollar, with Lulu Glaser

Folly: Secret Service Sam

Grand Opera House: Queen of the Convicts

Imperial: (Imperial Theatre Company and vaudeville) Miss Hobbs

Majestic: Oliver Twist, East Lynne (Saturday matinee only), with Eugenie Blair

“New” Montauk: It Happened in Nordland, with Lew Fields and company

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Her Mad Marriage, with Etta Reed Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Leah, the Forsaken

Shubert-Park: Closed for a week

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden

December 25-December 30, 1905

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Belle of New York

Broadway: The Education of Mr. Pipp, with Digby Bell

Folly: The Duke of Duluth, with Nat M. Wills

Grand Opera House: How Baxter Butted In, with Sidney Toler

Imperial: (Imperial Theatre Company and vaudeville) The Christian

Majestic: The Belle of Avenue A, with Effie Fay

“New” Montauk: De Lancey, with John Drew

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Up York State, with Corse Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Lost in the World

Shubert-Park: The Heart of Maryland, with Odette Tyler

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden

December 4-9, 1905

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Mary of Magdala

Broadway: Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman, with Kyrle Bellew

Folly: Fantasma

Grand Opera House: The Queen of the Highbinders

Imperial: (vaudeville and the Imperial Stock Company) The Dancing Girl

Majestic: The Isle of Spice

“New” Montauk: Fritz in Tammany Hall, with Joseph Cawthorne

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Little Church Around the Corner, with Etta Reed Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Doctor’s Crime

Shubert-Park: That’s John’s Way, with Melbourne MacDowell

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion

December 11-16, 1905

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Night Before Christmas

Broadway: Moonshine, with Marie Cahill

Folly: Confessions of a Wife

Grand Opera House: The Curse of Drink

Imperial: (Imperial Stock Company and vaudeville) The Butterflies

Majestic: Monte Cristo, with James O’Neill

“New” Montauk: The Education of Mr. Pipp, with Digby Bell

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Searchlights of a Great City, with Etta Reed Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Runaway Wife

Shubert-Park: Happyland, De Wolf Hopper

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion

December 18-23, 1905

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Fanchon, the Cricket

Broadway: Miss Dolly Dollar, with Lulu Glaser

Folly: Secret Service Sam

Grand Opera House: Queen of the Convicts

Imperial: (Imperial Theatre Company and vaudeville) Miss Hobbs

Majestic: Oliver Twist, East Lynne (Saturday matinee only), with Eugenie Blair

“New” Montauk: It Happened in Nordland, with Lew Fields and company

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Her Mad Marriage

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Leah, the Forsaken

Shubert-Park: Closed for a week

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden

December 25-December 30, 1905

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Belle of New York

Broadway: The Education of Mr. Pipp, with Digby Bell

Folly: The Duke of Duluth, with Nat M. Wills

Grand Opera House: How Baxter Butted In

Imperial: (Imperial Theatre Company and vaudeville) The Christian

Majestic: The Belle of Avenue A, with Effie Fay

“New” Montauk: De Lancey, with John Drew

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Up York State, with Corse Payton

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Lost in the World

Shubert-Park: The Heart of Maryland, with Odette Tyler

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden