ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): APRIL 1898

This site is currently under construction.

This blog is dedicated to preserving a curated record of theatre-related clippings drawn from the digitized pages of the four chief Brooklyn newspapers and one weekly magazine of 1898-1908. Those sources, as they were called during these years, are: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn Citizen, Brooklyn Standard Union, and Brooklyn Daily Times. At first, only Brooklyn Life printed photos; as time passed, the newspapers, beginning with the Citizen, abandoned photo-based etchings and line drawings for photos.

Each entry is devoted to one or two months during the decade. A list of the month’s offerings precedes the illustrations, most of which are identified within the original image. The performers include not only leading players but lesser ones, most of whose names are entirely forgotten today. Many depict burlesque and vaudeville acts that are often listed on the heading each weekly group of images.

The production lists designate titles of shows at the legitimate theatres only; burlesque and vaudeville theatres are listed only by name to show that they were active. If a theatre is missing it was either permanently or temporarily closed.

It is hoped that this blog will be a useful adjunct to a two-volume book I’m preparing for publication, ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908); Vol. I (1898-1903), Vol. II (1903-1908).

Samuel L. Leiter

Author: BROOKLYN TAKES THE STAGE: NINETEENTH-CENTURY THEATER IN THE CITY OF CHURCHES.

April 4-April 9: Bijou: Northern Lights; Columbia: The Ballet Girl; Gayety: The Sunshine of Paradise Alley; Grand Opera House: Lucia di Lammermoor and Cavalleria Rusticana, Jaxon Opera Company; Montauk: The Princess and the Butterfly, with Mary Mannering and James K. Hackett; Park: Waifs of New York, with Merry Katie Emmett; Vaudeville/ burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star; April 11-16: Bijou: McFadden’s Row of Flats; Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Country Girl, The School for Scandal, The Taming of the Shrew, with Ada Rehan; Columbia: The Ballet Girl; Gayety: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Mabel Taliaferro; Montauk: The Wedding Day, with Lillian Russell, Della Fox, and Jeff De Angelis; Park: Out in the Streets, with N.S. Wood; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star; April 18-23: Bijou: Hamlet, Othello, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Spartacus, with Louis James; Columbia: The Fair at Midgettown; Gayety: East Lynne, with Wilton Lackaye, Nance O’Neil; Grand Opera House: Il Trovatore (in English), with Jaxon Opera Company; Montauk: A Virginia Courtship, with William H. Crane; Park: A Romance of Coon Hollow; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star; April 25-April 30: Bijou: The Two Orphans, with Kate Claxton; Columbia: Oh! Susanna! , Dangerfield ’95, with Annie Russell; Grand Opera House: Il Trovatore, with Jaxon Opera Company; Montauk: El Capitan, with De Wolf Hopper; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Brooklyn Music Hall, Empire, Star, Gayety