ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908): SEPTEMBER 1901

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. 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.\

SEPTEMBER 1901

August 25-31: Bijou: The Cherry Pickers; Columbia: (opened Saturday matinee, August 31; Greenwall Stock Company) The Great Ruby; Gayety: (opened Saturday night, August 31) Sporting Life; Park: (Spooner Stock Company): The Thoroughbred; Vaudeville/burlesque: Star; September 2 -7: Bijou: The White Slave; Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) The Great Ruby; Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) On and Off; Gayety: Sporting Life; Gotham: (Gotham Elite Stock Company) The Planter’s Wife; Grand Opera House: One of the Bravest, with Charles McCarthy; Montauk: On the Quiet, with Willie Collier; Park: (Spooner Stock Company) Blue Jeans; Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Secret Service; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Orpheum, Star; September 9-14: Bijou: The Fatal Wedding; Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Under Two Flags; Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) Pudd’nhead Wilson; Gayety: Peg Woffington (a.k.a. Masks and Faces), with Rose Coghlan; Grand Opera House: The Telephone Girl; Montauk: The Strollers, with Francis Wilson; Park: (Spooner Stock Company) One of Our Girls; Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Sowing the Wind; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Orpheum, Novelty, Star; September 16-21: Bijou: The Dairy Farm; Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) Shenandoah; Criterion: (Baker Stock Company) Caprice; Gayety: The Telephone Girl; Gotham: (Gotham Elite Stock Company) The Planter’s Wife; Grand Opera House: Lost River; Montauk: Florodora; Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Only Way; Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Miss Hobbs; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Orpheum, Star, Novelty (shifts from vaudeville to burlesque); September 23-28: Bijou: The Sorrows of Satan; Brooklyn Academy of Music: Humpty Dumpty and the Black Dwarf; Columbia: (Greenwall Stock Company) An Enemy to the King; Criterion (Baker Stock Company) Why Smith Left Home; Gayety: The White Slave; Gotham: (Gotham Elite Stock Company) Queena; Grand Opera House: Peg Woffington (a.k.a. Masks and Faces), with Rose Coghlan; Montauk: Lover’s Lane; Park: (Spooner Stock Company) The Continental Dragoon, Between Two Forts; Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Under the Red Robe; Phillips’s Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Ward of France; Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Orpheum, Star, Novelty, Theatre Unique