1907: APRIL

April 1907 was one of the 1906-1907 season’s buzziest for Brooklyn’s theatre, both onstage and off. The most prominent stage production was Puccini’s Italian opera, Madame Butterfly, rendered into English and making its week-long local debut. Offstage was the decision not to demolish the old Montauk Theatre (once a center for high-price legit, now specializing in burlesque as the Imperial) but to move the whole kit and caboodle to a site behind where it currently stood, so it fronted on Flatbush Avenue Extension, the widened thoroughfare leading to and from the in-progress Manhattan Bridge. But there were other developments in each department, the highlights described below.

As per the Eagle (April 26), the imminent physical changes promised would alter the landscape of local theatre in the coming season, among them the shift of the Grand Opera House, long a mid-level stalwart of the legitimate (most recently of the low-price melodrama variety), to a vaudeville theatre, moving from the hands of vaudeville impresarios Hyde & Behman to the circuit of Theatrical Trust kingpins Klaw and Erlanger. This left open the question of what Hyde & Behman would focus on at their eponymous vaudeville house on nearby Adams Street, as the competition for acts and audiences between two bigtime vaudeville resorts in such proximity would have been difficult to maintain. Complicating things was the presence nearby of a third bigtime vaudeville house in the Orpheum, a short distance east on Fulton at Rockland Place.

Would the Grand Opera House’s melodramas find a home at the Adams Street venture or at the Bijou? The Bijou, apparently, as Mrs. Mary Gibbs Spooner, the ambitious manageress of the Spooner Stock Company, so successful at the Bijou for most of the past six years, had decided to move her troupe to Manhattan, despite its popular status in the borough. The Eagle (April 27) confirmed this without revealing what would fill Hyde & Behman’s Adams Street emporium; an announcement was said to be forthcoming in May.

Mrs. Spooner, claiming to have been motivated by a steep rise in her rent at the Bijou, planned on occupying the venerable Fifth Avenue Theatre beginning in May. She’d been offered other options in Brooklyn, but none were satisfactory, forcing her to cross the river. Her belief was that her company’s fans would come to Broadway to see her company, since they were so faithful; some of her 3,000 subscribers even came to Brooklyn from Harlem!

She was beloved locally because she was not only active in civic women’s organizations, which involved considerable charity work, but because of the post-performance “teas” she offered her subscribers as part of their subscriptions. She even served for several years as president of the Church Alliance for Actors. “I found, when I came to Brooklyn, many women who had plenty of money, but nothing to do, so in this way the idea of social work was taken up.”

She told the Eagle that it was not a permanent move, just a “long term engagement,” and that she planned to build her own theatre in Brooklyn and “within a year . . . give the people of Brooklyn entertainments similar to those that I have been producing at the Bijou.” Mrs. Spooner, her actress daughters, and, briefly, even her company, would return to Brooklyn, always warmly welcomed, but they would never again establish a “permanent” home in the borough.

Speculation also circulated about the fate of what was then called the Family Theatre, at Willoughby and Pearl, and known earlier as Watson’s Cozy Corner and the Nassau. It appears to have been inactive as of late but had been purchased in mid-April by Marcus Loew, an up-and-coming impresario, who planned to reopen it with vaudeville. The name Marcus Loew should resonate with most readers of these entries.

As for the plans to move the Montauk, the Daily Times reported (April 2) that certain real estate interests had been buying up the property along Flatbush Avenue that would not be disturbed by the extension, and that the theatre’s move to its new, nearby locale would keep the building intact except for the front entrance, which would have to come down and then be rebuilt. The new location was considered the best in Brooklyn because of its ease of access from everywhere. Someone said the move should cost $200,000, but that it would be worth twice that to the owner.

April’s offerings included the usual mix of perennials mingled with new works, including, three premieres by the Spooners at the Bijou, an unusual change of pace, although none were especially notable. But theatergoers continued to support friendly old visitors like ‘Way Down East, the rural classic that, while still behind Uncle Tom’s Cabin in its statistical achievements, was estimated this month to have been seen during its ten-years on the road by 5,500,000 people, earning a gross of about $4 million, and with more New York runs than any other current work. Uncle Tom’s Cabin itself was back, with a company consisting “of fifty white people, including a chorus of twenty singers and dancers blackened to impersonate the negroes,” according to the Daily Times (April 6). Another now forgotten perennial was The Volunteer Organist, in its seventh year of touring.

At the same time as the Spooner Stock Company was retreating from Brooklyn, Hal Clarendon's Stock Company booked a brief season at the Gotham in East New York at the end of the month, opening with Northern Lights. This meant, for the moment at least, one less vaudeville house for Brooklyn.

Theatrical spectacle continued its innovative ways—soon to be overwhelmed by what the movies could do much more believably—with this month’s most notable highlight being the automobile race in The Vanderbilt Cup, a musical comedy starring Elsie Janis, who was given opportunities to introduce her impressions of famous women. When the chauffeur assigned to drive his rich employer’s car in the eponymous race along Long Island roads becomes unavailable, Janis’s character, puts on male garb, takes on the job, and wins the race. The illusion of a car race was created by two cars in combination with moving pictures (Vitagraph).

More importantly, April in Brooklyn brought two major plays of the day in the thoughtful, socially relevant category, one being Charles Klein’s The Lion and the Mouse, the other Shaw’s Widower’s Houses, both in their Brooklyn debuts. The borough had to wait two years to see the first because it was doing so well in its Broadway run, even sending out five companies on tour, while the version at Manhattan’s Lyceum had reached some 600 showings. The Lion and the Mouse was considered an attack on the Standard Oil Company and the attempts of it and other monopolies to gain control of the government through the Senate and the courts. Shaw’s play aimed its cannons at slum lordism.

Finally, April 1907 was historically important for being when, as noted earlier, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, rendered into English and given a splendid production by Henry W. Savage, spent a week in Brooklyn. Opera is generally not considered in these entries except on rare occasions; the importance of this work and its relationship to a significant recent play makes its description here necessary.

David Belasco’s production of John Luther Long’s one act play, Madame Butterfly, originally staged in London in 1900, had had its Broadway premiere, with Blanche Bates as Cho-Cho-San, in February 1906, and ran for 226 performances. In March 1906, Savage opened his English-language production of Puccini’s opera in Washington, D.C., after which it toured extensively, compiling something like 250 performances before it arrived in Brooklyn, as discussed in the March 1906 entry. Its New York premiere was at the Garden Theatre in January 1907, just before the Metropolitan Opera House gave the Italian version six performances in February, starring Geraldine Farrar and Enrico Caruso.

Luther’s one-act had been expanded by the librettist with a first act showing the marriage of Pinkerton and his Japanese bride, with Luther’s play now divided into what constituted Acts Two and Three. With eight performances scheduled for Brooklyn, five alternating Butterflies were cast, Elza Szamosy, Rena Vivienne, Florence Easton, Estelle Bloomfield, and Dora de Fillippi. Two actors shared Lt. Pinkerton, Joseph F. Sheehan and Francis McClennan. A 60-member orchestra was led by three alternating conductors. The costumes and props were said all to have been made in Japan, and the entire production was lauded for its great beauty.

Just before April ended, news of a major merger among rival theatrical trusts was announced, auguring important changes in managerial policies, but we’ll wait until May before describing it.

April 1-6, 1907

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Aunt Cynthy’s Homestead (premiere), with Mrs. Spooner

Blaney’s Amphion: The Boy Behind the Gun

Broadway: The Rogers Brothers in Ireland, with the Rogers Brothers

Columbia: Across the Pacific, with Johnny Hoey

Folly: In Old Kentucky

Grand Opera House: Parted on Her Bridal Tour, with Victory Bateman

Majestic: Little Johnny Jones

New Montauk: The Hypocrites, with Doris Keane, Richard Bennett

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Home Folks

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) More to Be Pitied than Scorned

Shubert: On Parole, with Charlotte Walker, Vincent Serrano

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

April 8-13, 1907

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Thelma (premiere)

Blaney’s Amphion: Eight Bells, with the Brothers Byrne

Broadway: The Vanderbilt Cup, with Elsie Janis

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

Folly: Mr. Blarney from Ireland, with Fiske O’Hara

Grand Opera House: Custer’s Last Fight

Majestic: ‘Way Down East

New Montauk: Clothes, with Grace George

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Deliver Me from My Friends

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) No Mother to Guide Her (premiere)

Shubert: The Road to Yesterday, with Minnie Dupree

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

April 15-20, 1907

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) General Faulkner’s Daughter (premiere)

Blaney’s Amphion: The Black Politician, with S.H. Dudley

Broadway: George Washington, Jr., with George M. Cohan, Jerry J. Cohan

Columbia: $10,000 Reward

Folly: The Volunteer Organist

Grand Opera House: In New York Town

Majestic: ‘Way Down East, with Phoebe Davis

New Montauk: The Lion and the Mouse, with Edmund Breese, Grace Elliston

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) Pretty Peggy

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Why Girls Leave Home

Shubert: Widowers' Houses, with Herbert Kelcey, Effie Shannon, Ferdinand Gottschalk

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

April 22-27, 1907

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Chimmie Fadden

Blaney’s Amphion: The Hired Girl’s Millions

Broadway: In the Bishop’s Carriage, with Jessie Busley

Columbia: Queen of the Highbinders, with the Russell Brothers

Folly: Custer’s Last Fight

Grand Opera House: The Burglar and the Lady, with James J. Corbett

Majestic: Sunday, with Jessie Bonstelle

New Montauk: Madam Butterfly

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) The Conqueror

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Avenger

Shubert: Dream City, with Joe Weber’s company, including Cecilia Loftus, Harlan Otis, Lillian Blauvelt

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

April 29-May 4, 1907

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Blaney’s Amphion: Young Buffalo, King of the Wild West

Broadway: The Lion and the Mouse, with Edmund Breese, Grace Elliston

Columbia: The Millionaire Detective

Folly: Me, Him and I

Gotham: (Hal Clarendon's Stock Company) Northern Lights

Grand Opera House: The Outlaw’s Christmas

Majestic: Monte Cristo, with James O’Neill

New Montauk: The Grand Mogul, with Frank Moulan 

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Lee Avenue Stock Company) The Merchant of Venice

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Down Mobile

Shubert: The Primrose Path, with Margaret Wycherly

Vaudeville and burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty