MAY-JUNE 1906

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Nance O'Neill in the title role of Magda.

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).

MAY-JUNE 1906

 

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) At Old Fort Lookout
Broadway: The Marriage of William Ashe (Grace George)
Folly: Why Girls Leave Home
Grand Opera House: Across the Pacific (Johnny Hoey)
Majestic: Under Southern Skies
New Montauk: Magda; Fires of St. John; Hedda Gabler; Rosmersholm (Nance O’Neil)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) We-Uns of Tennessee (Etta Reed Payton)
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Toilers
Shubert: Money Talks (W. H. Thompson)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Alcazar, Novelty

May 7-12:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Passing Regiment
Broadway: The Squaw Man (William Faversham, W. S. Hart)
Folly: Abyssinia (Bert Williams and George Walker)
Grand Opera House: Old Isaacs from the Bowery
Majestic: Buster Brown (Master Gabriel)
New Montauk: The Virginian (Dustin Farnum)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Because She Loved Him
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Girl of the Streets
Vaudeville/burlesque: Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Alcazar, Novelty

May 14-19:
Broadway: His Honor the Mayor
Folly: Queen of the Convicts (Selma Herman)
Grand Opera House: Fighting Fate
Majestic: The Triumph of an Empress (Mildred Holland)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Graustark
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Showman’s Daughter
Shubert: Moving pictures of the San Francisco earthquake
Vaudeville/burlesque: Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Star, Alcazar, Novelty

May 21-26:

Broadway: Romeo and Juliet; Twelfth Night; The Merchant of Venice; The Taming of the Shrew (E. H. Sothern, Julia Marlowe

Folly: Edmund Burke (Chauncey Olcott)

Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Lost Paradise

Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) East Lynn

Vaudeville/burlesque: Unique, Orpheum, Star, Gayety, Alcazar

May 28-June 2:
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Over the Hills to the Poorhouse
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Bowery After Dark
Shubert: Adrea (Mrs. Leslie Carter)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Gayety, Star, Orpheum, Alcazar

June 4-9:
Orpheum: Robin Hood
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Pearl of Savoy
Burlesque: Star

June 11-16:
Orpheum: Fra Diavolo
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Little Minister

June 18-23:
Orpheum: Cavalleria Rusticana; H.M.S. Pinafore

June 25-30:
Orpheum: Dolly Varden

July 30-4:
Blaney’s Amphion: Across the Pacific

Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Masqueraders

April 30-May 5, 1906

May 7-12, 1906

May 14-19, 1906

May 21-26, 1906

May 28-June 2, 1906

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