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).
*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)
December 5-10:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) My Sweetheart (Cecil Spooner)
Broadway: The Harvester* (Otis Skinner)
Columbia: (Columbia Stock Company) Dora Thorne
Folly: The Errand Boy (Billy B. Van)
Gotham: The Wayward Son
Grand Opera House: A Race for Life*
Majestic: Iris (Eugenie Blair)
Montauk: The Serio-Comic Governess* (Cecilia Loftus)
Novelty: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Al W. Martin’s Company)
Park: Escaped from Sing-Sing
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Holy City
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Home Sweet Home
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Star, Gayety,
Keeney’s, Orpheum, Watson’s
December 12-17:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Bride of Jennico (Edna May Spooner)
Broadway: The Rogers Brothers in Paris (the Rogers Brothers, Josephine
Cohan)
Folly: Superba (the Hanlons)
Gotham: A Working Girl’s Wrongs
Grand Opera House: Me, Him and I* (Bickel, Watson, Wrothe)
Majestic: Running for Office*
Montauk: The Other Girl* (Lionel Barrymore, Richard Bennett)
Novelty: His Wife’s Secret*
Park: From Rags to Riches (Joseph Santley)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Brown’s in Town
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Master and Man
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Star, Gayety, Keeney’s,
Orpheum, Columbia Music Hall, Watson’s
December 19-24:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Bob (Cecil Spooner)
Broadway: An American Princess*
Folly: Me, Him and I (Bickel, Watson, Wrothe)
Gotham: Escaped from Sing-Sing
Majestic: A Chinese Honeymoon
Montauk: Love’s Lottery* (Ernestine Schumann-Heink)
Novelty: A Wayward Son
Park: The Factory Girl
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Pace That Kills
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Tide of Life
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Star, Gayety,
Keeney’s, Orpheum, Columbia Music Hall, Watson’s
December 26-31:
Amphion: Mr. Wix of Wickham; The Merry Shop Girls*
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Our Cinderella (Cecil and Edna Spooner)
Broadway: The Shepherd King* (Wright Lorimer)
Folly: Down the Pike (Johnny and Emma Ray)
Gotham: The Midnight Marriage
Grand Opera House: The Way to Kenmare (Andrew Mack)
Majestic: The Eternal City
Montauk: A Madcap Princess* (Lulu Glaser)
Novelty: A Working Girl’s Wrongs
Park: The Great Automobile Mystery*
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Glittering Gloria
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Midnight in Chinatown
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Star, Gayety,
Keeney’s, Orpheum, Watson’s
1. December 5-10, 1904
2. December 12-17, 1904
3. December 19-24, 1904
4. December 26-31, 1904
5.
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