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

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).

FEBRUARY 1908

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

February 3-8:
Bijou: The Volunteer Organist
Blaney’s Amphion: The Cowboy Girl
Broadway: When Knights Were Bold (Francis Wilson)
Columbia: The Card King of the Heart*
Folly: Playing the Ponies* (Yorke and Adams)
Grand Opera House: Hoffman’s Love Tales (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Montauk: The Man of the Hour*
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Sweet Kitty Bellairs
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) An Heiress to Millions?
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Gotham, Park, Royal

February 10-15:
Bijou: The County Fair (Neil Burgess)
Blaney’s Amphion: Parted on Her Bridal Tour (Kathryn Roth)
Broadway: The Little Cherub (Hattie Williams)
Columbia: Lottie, the Poor Saleslady; or, Death Before Dishonor (Lydia Powell)
Folly: Tony, the Bootblack*
Grand Opera House: Faust (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: Lew Dockstader’s Minstrels
Montauk: Caught in the Rain* (William Collier)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Sapho
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Banker, the Thief, and the Girl
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Gotham, Park, Royal

February 17-22:
Bijou: A Soldier of the Cross*; “The Bells”; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Thomas E. Shea)
Blaney’s Amphion: Young Buffalo, King of the Wild West
Broadway: The Orchid (Eddie Foy)
Columbia: Girl of Eagle Ranch* (Mina Mamie Fleming)
Folly: Deadwood Dick’s Last Shot
Grand Opera House: The Wizard of the Nile (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: In Old Kentucky
Montauk: The Dairymaids* (Huntley Wright)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) David Harum
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Carolina
Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Gotham, Park, Royal

February 24-29:
Bijou: A Race Across the Continent*
Blaney’s Amphion: Shadowed by Three
Broadway: The Red Mill (Montgomery and Stone)
Columbia: The Cowboy Girl (Marie Flynn)
Folly: A Soldier of the Cross; “The Bells”; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Thomas E. Shea)
Grand Opera House: Martha (Aborn Opera Company)
Majestic: The Flower of the Ranch* (Joseph E. Howard, Mabel Barrison)
Montauk: The Chorus Lady* (Rose Stahl)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Madame Sans-Gêne
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Wife’s Secret

Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Grand Opera House, Gotham, Park, Royal

February 3-8, 1908

A rendering of the facade of what was then being called the Sagamore Theatre. It was the old Montauk, which would open in the fall as the Crescent after its move across Flatbush Avenue Extension was completed.