A HISTORY OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE: ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY (1898-1908): OCTOBER 1905

This blog is dedicated to preserving a record of Brooklyn theatre theatre-related images based largely on publication in nearly a half-dozen contemporary Brooklyn newspapers and one weekly magazine (Brooklyn Life) of 1898-1908. It also lists the week-by-week productions at each legitimate theatre from January 1898 through December 1908. It is adapted from my earlier blog, BROOKLYN THEATRE FROM 1898: AN ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGY and is intended as a supplement to a forthcoming two-volume book also called ACROSS THE RIVER FROM BROADWAY: ANNALS OF THE BROOKLYN STAGE (1898-1908).

The book covers everything related to Brooklyn theatre during the first decade of the former city's first decade as a borough of Greater New York, including plays, playhouses, productions, people, producing policies, scandals, lawsuits, fires, accidents, brawls, ethnic theatres, crimes, religious attacks, rivalry with Manhattan, and so on. The focus is on legitimate theatre, but considerable attention is paid to developments in vaudeville and burlesque as well.

To find a specific month, please use the search box in the upper left corner. May-June and August-September are always joined, so searches for one of those months should be, for example, May-June 1906.

Samuel L. Leiter

Author: BROOKLYN TAKES THE STAGE: NINETEENTH-CENTURY THEATER IN THE CITY OF CHURCHES (McFarland: 2024).

OCTOBER 1905

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

October 2-7:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Zaza
Broadway: Strongheart* (Robert Edeson)
Folly: Simple Simon Simple*
Grand Opera House: Nancy Brown (Mary Marble)
Majestic: Primrose Big Minstrels
New Montauk: Tannhäuser; Lohengrin; Aida; La Bohème; Rigoletto; Faust (Henry W. Savage English Grand Opera Company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Why He Divorced Her
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The White Tigress of Japan
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Amphion, Unique, Nassau, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Gotham, Alcazar, Keeney’s

October 9-14:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) A Midnight Bell
Broadway: The Duchess of Dantzic (Evie Greene, Holbrook Blinn)
Folly: The Great Jewel Mystery (Russell Brothers)
Grand Opera House: More to Be Pitied Than Scorned
Majestic: Breaking into Society* (Four Mortons)

New Montauk: Higgledy Piggledy (Joe Weber’s All-Star Company, Joe Weber, Trixie Friganza, Marie Dressler)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Lovers’ Lane

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) For His Sister’s Honor

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

October 16-21:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Charity Ball
Broadway: Checkers (Hana Robert)
Folly: The Errand Boy (Billy B. Van)
Grand Opera House: The Ninety and Nine
Majestic: Girls Will Be Girls*

New Montauk: The Prodigal Son* (Ben Webster, Marie Wainwright, Edward Morgan, Edward Mackay)

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

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Hearts Adrift

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

October 23-28:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Mam’zelle
Broadway: His Grace de Grammont (Otis Skinner, Laura Hope Crews)
Folly: Breaking into Society (Four Mortons)
Grand Opera House: Tom, Dick and Harry*
Majestic: The Duke of Duluth* (Nat M. Wills)
New Montauk: The Rollicking Girl* (Sam Bernard, Hattie Williams)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Why Women Sin
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The White Caps
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Amphion, Unique, Nassau, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Gotham, Alcazar, Keeney’s

October 30-November 4:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Bells of Haslemere*
Broadway: Easy Dawson* (Raymond Hitchcock)
Folly: Primrose Minstrels
Grand Opera House: Edmund Burke*
Majestic: John Henry* (Charles E. Grapewin)
New Montauk: Rogers Brothers in Ireland* (Rogers Brothers)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Through the Breakers
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) My Partner
Shubert-Park: Sweet Kitty Bellairs (Bertha Galland; from Saturday, November 4)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Amphion, Unique, Nassau, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Gotham, Alcazar, Keeney’s