AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1907

This blog is dedicated to preserving a record of Brooklyn theatre history and theatre-related images based largely on coverage in the nearly half-dozen daily Brooklyn newspapers and one weekly magazine (Brooklyn Life) of 1898-1908. It is a vastly expanded, upgraded, and corrected version of my blog, BROOKLYN THEATRE FROM 1898: AN ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGY, which is gradually being dismantled as this one is being constructed. It covers everything related to Brooklyn theatre, including plays, playhouses, productions, people, producing policies, scandals, law suits, 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. 

The main newspaper sources, using the names by which they were known during these years, were the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn Citizen, Brooklyn Standard Union, and Brooklyn Daily Times; occasionally, other local sources were called on. At first, only Brooklyn Life provided photos, but as time passed the newspapers, beginning with the Citizen, abandoned their photo-based engravings 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 both leading players and 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 of the same title I’m preparing for publication. 

To find a specific item, please use the search box in the upper left corner. You ca also go to a particular month by searching for it, i.e., February 1905. The project hopes to be complete sometime in 2026 when it reaches 1908. 

Samuel L. Leiter

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

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1907

*=novelties (recent plays not yet seen in Brooklyn)

July 22-27:
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) A Royal Family (opened Saturday, July 27)

July 29-August 3:
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) A Royal Family

August 5-10:
Blaney’s Amphion: From Sing Sing to Liberty (Cunning)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) At Piney Ridge

August 12-17:
Blaney’s Amphion: The Boy Detective (Harry Clay Blaney)
Columbia: Kidnapped for Revenge (Will H. Vedder)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Brother Officers

August 19-24:
Blaney’s Amphion: Lottie, the Poor Saleslady, or, Death Before Dishonor* (Lyda Powell)
Columbia: From Sing Sing to Liberty (Cunning)
Folly: Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl (opened Saturday, August 24)
Majestic: Wine, Woman and Song* (Bonita)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) At the Old Cross Roads
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) When London Sleeps

August 26-31:
Bijou: A Chorus Girl’s Luck in New York*
Blaney’s Amphion: Josie, the Little Madcap (Lottie Williams)
Broadway: Marrying Mary (Marie Cahill; opened Saturday, August 31)
Columbia: Her Fatal Love*
Folly: Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl
Majestic: Wine, Woman and Song (Bonita)
Montauk: The Spring Chicken* (Richard Carle)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Audrey
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Marked Woman
Vaudeville/burlesque: Shubert Theatre of Varieties (opened Saturday, August 31), Olympic, Gayety, Star

September 2-7:
Bijou: Edna, the Pretty Typewriter*
Blaney’s Amphion: Dion O’Dare* (Fiske O’Hara)
Broadway: Marrying Mary (Marie Cahill)
Columbia: The Blackmailers of New York*
Folly: Convict 999
Majestic: Red Feather (Cheridah Simpson)
Montauk: The Spring Chicken (Richard Carle)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Jim Bludsoe of the Prairie Belle
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Up-York State

Royal Theatre: (Royal Dramatic Stock Company: Italian) The Ironmaster (opened Saturday, September 7)

Vaudeville/burlesque: Shubert Theatre of Varieties, Olympic, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Star

September 9-14:
Bijou: The Street Singer (Florence Bindley)
Blaney’s Amphion: A Millionaire’s Revenge
Broadway: The Virginian (W. S. Hart)
Columbia: Custer’s Last Fight
Folly: The Shoo-Fly Regiment* (Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson)
Majestic: Patsy in Politics* (Billy B. Van)
Montauk: The Lion and the Mouse (Gertrude Coghlan, Edmund Breese)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Cleopatra
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) When Women Love
Royal Theatre: (Royal Dramatic Stock Company: Italian) The Iron Master
Vaudeville/burlesque: Shubert Theatre of Varieties, Olympic, Gayety, Gotham, Grand Opera House, Star

September 16-21:
Bijou: The Great Express Robbery*
Blaney’s Amphion: The Way of the Transgressor
Broadway: The Ham Tree (McIntyre and Heath)
Columbia: Fighting Bill, the Sheriff of Silver Creek*
Folly: The Street Singer (Florence Bindley)
Majestic: Me, Him and I (Wrothe, Arlington, and Watson)
Montauk: The Belle of Mayfair* (Margaret Rutledge)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Shadows on the Hearth
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) An Actor’s Romance
Royal Theatre: (Roy al Dramatic Stock Company: Italian) Martire
Vaudeville/burlesque: Shubert Theatre of Varieties, Olympic, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Star, Novelty

September 23-28:
Bijou: The Cowboy and the Squaw*
Blaney’s Amphion: Wild Nell, A Child of the Regiment (Vivian Prescott, Walter Wilson)
Broadway: The Three of Us (Carlotta Nillson)
Columbia: Josie, the Little Madcap (Lottie Williams)
Folly: The Great Express Robbery
Majestic: Mazuma Man (George Sidney)

Montauk: Macbeth; King Lear; The Merchant of Venice; Hamlet; Julius Caesar (Brutus); Othello (Iago) (Robert Mantell)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Sign of the Cross
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Great White Diamond
Royal Theatre: (Royal Dramatic Stock Company: Italian) The Two Orphans; The Suicide
Vaudeville/burlesque: Shubert Theatre of Varieties, Olympic, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Star, Novelty, Keeney’s

September 9-14, 1907

September 16-21, 1907

September 23-28, 1907