ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): MARCH 1903

Brooklyn Eagle, March 15, 1903, announcing widespread theatre building activity across the nation, including Brooklyn.

This blog is dedicated to preserving a curated record of theatre-related images drawn from the digitized pages of the four chief Brooklyn newspapers and one weekly magazine of 1898-1908. The sources, as they were called during these years: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn Citizen, Brooklyn Standard Union, and Brooklyn Daily Times. At first, only Brooklyn Life provided photos, but as time passed the newspapers, beginning with the Citizen, abandoned their 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 who are often listed on the ads that begin 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 (McFarland: 2024).

MARCH 1903

March 2-7: 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: (Elite Stock Company) Northern Lights; 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 Stock Company) Man’s Enemy; Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company) Lady Windermere’s Fan; Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Resurrection; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique; March 9-14: 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: (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 Stock Company) Carmen; Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company) Resurrection; Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) East Lynne; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique; March 16-21: 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: (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 Joseph Santley; Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton 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/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique; March 22-28: Amphion: Alt Heidelberg, Sodom’s Ende, Hopla! Vater Siehte’s Ja Nichte, 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: (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 Stock Company) The Sunshine of Paradise Alley; Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company) Thelma; Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Romeo and Juliet; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique; March 30-April 4: 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; Montauk: The Country Girl; Novelty: Only a Shop Girl, with Lottie Williams; Park: Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Stowaway; Payton’s Fulton Street: (Payton Fulton Street Stock Company) The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown; Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Nevada; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Unique, Grand Opera Hous