JANUARY 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). 

 

JANUARY 1908 

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

January 6-11:

Bijou: Deadwood Dick’s Last Shot*

Blaney’s Amphion: Chinatown Charlie

Broadway: Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (Blanche Chapman)

Columbia: The Phantom Detective

Folly: The Wizard of Oz

Grand Opera House: Il Trovatore (Aborn Opera Company)

Majestic: O’Neill of Derry* (Chauncey Olcott)

Montauk: The Red Mill* (David C. Montgomery and Fred Stone)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Three of Us

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Thorns and Orange Blossoms

Vaudeville/burlesque: Keeney’s, Olympic, Novelty, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Gotham, Royal

January 13-18:

Bijou: And a Child Shall Lead Them* (Belle Jeanette)

Blaney’s Amphion: The Candy Kid (Ray Raymond)

Broadway: In Mizzoura; A Gilded Fool; An American Citizen; The Master Hand (Nat C. Goodwin

Columbia: The Boy with the Boodle* (Louisa Horner)

Folly: The Shoemaker (Lew Welch)

Grand Opera House: The Fortune Teller (Aborn Opera Company)

Majestic: Strongheart (Edgar Selwyn)

Montauk: My Wife* (John Drew, Billie Burke)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) A Lady of Quality

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Dangerous Women

Royal Italian: (Maiori Stock Company) ?

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

January 20-25:

Bijou: The Lost Trail* (Frederick Smith)

Blaney’s Amphion: The Dancer and the King; The Girl Raffles (Cecil Spooner)

Broadway: The Bondman* (Wilton Lackaye)

Columbia: A Fighting Chance*

Folly: Kellar, the Magician (Howard Thurston)

Grand Opera House: The Mikado (Aborn Opera Company)

Majestic: The Ham Tree (McIntyre and Heath)

Montauk: Salomy Jane* (Eleanor Robson)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Heart of Maryland

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) At Piney Ridge

Royal Italian: (Maiori Stock Company) ?

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

January 27-February 1:

Bijou: Sapho

Blaney’s Amphion: The Card King of the Coast*

Broadway: Brewster’s Millions (Edward Abeles)

Columbia: The Curse of Drink

Folly: Since Nellie Went Away*

Grand Opera House: H.M.S. Pinafore (Aborn Opera Company)

Majestic: Kellar, the Magician (Howard Thurston)

Montauk: The Gay White Way* (Jefferson De Angelis, Blanche Ring, Alexander Carr)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Taken from Life

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Smugglers

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

December 30-January 5, 1908

January 6-11, 1908

January 13-18, 1908

January 20-25, 1908

January 27-February 1, 1908