JANUARY 1907

 

Maude Adamas as Peter Pan.

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).

JANUARY 1907

 

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

December 31-January 5:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) For Her Children’s Sake
Blaney’s Amphion: The Girl Raffles (Cecil Spooner)
Broadway: Man and Superman (Robert Loraine, Drina De Wolfe)
Columbia: The Cowboy Girl*
Folly: Down the Pike (Johnny and Emma Ray)
Grand Opera House: Ruled Off the Turf*
Majestic: Bedford’s Hope*
New Montauk: The Free Lance* (Joseph Cawthorn)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) When Knighthood Was in Flower
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Shadow Behind the Throne
Shubert: The Belle of London Town* (Camille D’Arville)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

January 7-12:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) A Traitor to the Czar
Blaney’s Amphion: Happy Hooligan’s Trip Around the World*
Broadway: Marrying Mary* (Marie Cahill)
Columbia: A Wife’s Secret* (Grace Hopkins)
Folly: Nelly, the Beautiful Cloak Model*
Grand Opera House: Tom, Dick and Harry (Bickel, Watson, and Wrothe)
Majestic: A Message from Mars (Herbert Barrington)
New Montauk: Mrs. Wilson-Andrews* (Marie Cahill)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Charity Ball
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Cherry Pickers
Shubert: The Prince Chap (Cyril Scott)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

January 14-19:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Home, Sweet Home
Blaney’s Amphion: The Cow Puncher
Broadway: Mrs. Hopkinson* (Dallas Welford)
Columbia: How Baxter Butted In (Sidney Toler)
Folly: The Confessions of a Wife (Evelyn Faber)
Grand Opera House: Old Isaacs from the Bowery
Majestic: The Wizard of Oz (George Stone, Fred Nice)
New Montauk: The Squaw Man (William Faversham, Julie Opp, W. S. Hart)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) For Old Times’ Sake
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) His Sister’s Shame
Shubert: The Sunken Bell; Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet; The Merchant of Venice (E. H. Sothern, Julia Marlowe)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

January 21-26:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Charity Nurse
Blaney’s Amphion: How Baxter Butted In (Sidney Toler)
Broadway: Way Down East (Phoebe Davis)
Columbia: Kidnapped for Revenge*
Folly: Bedford’s Hope
Grand Opera House: Young Buffalo, King of the Wild West
Majestic: The Mayor of Tokio
New Montauk: Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway* (George M. Cohan, Fay Templeton)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Christian
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Southern Vendetta
Shubert: The Music Master* (David Warfield)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial, Novelty

January 28-February 2:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Myles Aroon
Blaney’s Amphion: A Desperate Chance
Broadway: The Little Cherub* (Hattie Williams)
Columbia: The Four Corners of the Earth*
Folly: Tom, Dick and Harry (Bickel, Watson, and Wrothe)
Grand Opera House: No Mother to Guide Her
Majestic: The County Chairman (Maclyn Arbuckle)
New Montauk: Peter Pan* (Maude Adams)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Driven from Home
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Fast Life in New York
Shubert: About Town* (Lew Fields and company, including Blanche Ring, Louise Dressler)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Imperial

December 31-January 5, 1907

January 7-12, 1907

January 14-19, 1907

January 21-26, 1907

January 28- February 2, 1907