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

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

JANUARY 1906

E.H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe in Romeo and Juliet.

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 1906

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

January 1-6:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) True Irish Hearts
Broadway: The Woman in the Case* (Blanche Walsh)
Folly: Down the Pike (Johnny and Emma Ray)
Grand Opera House: Confessions of a Wife
Imperial: (Imperial Theatre Company) Secret Service; vaudeville
Majestic: His Last Dollar (David Higgins)
New Montauk: The Catch of the Season* (Edna May)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Mrs. Dane’s Defense
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Shop Girl
Shubert: Leah Kleschna* (Mrs. Fiske)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion

January 8-13:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Woman Against Woman
Broadway: Mrs. Leffingwell’s Boots*
Folly: His Last Dollar (David Higgins)
Grand Opera House: Secret Service Sam
Imperial: (Imperial Theatre Company) Blue Jeans; vaudeville
Majestic: The County Chairman (Maclyn Arbuckle)
New Montauk: The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice (Julia Marlowe, E. H. Sothern)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Toll Gate Inn
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) New York By Night
Shubert: Lady Teazle (Elizabeth Brice)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion

January 15-20:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) A Temperance Town
Broadway: The Heir to the Hoorah* (Guy Bates Post)
Folly: The Belle of Avenue A (Effie Fay)
Grand Opera House: Young Buffalo, King of the Wild West*
Majestic: The German Gypsy* (Al H. Wilson)
New Montauk: Sergeant Brue* (Frank Daniels)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Heir of the Wallabout*
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) No Wedding Bells for Her
Shubert: Fantana* (Jefferson De Angelis)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Alcazar, Amphion, Imperial

January 22-27:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Last Word
Broadway: Way Down East
Folly: Tom, Dick and Harry (Watson, Bickel, and Wrothe)
Grand Opera House: Mr. Blarney from Ireland* (Fiske O’Hara)
Majestic: Rufus Rastus* (Ernest Hogan)
New Montauk: Her Great Match* (Maxine Elliott)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) The Climbers
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Sergeant James
Shubert: Zira* (Margaret Anglin)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Alcazar, Amphion, Imperial

January 29-February 3:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Pretty Sister of San José
Broadway: Dockstader’s Minstrels
Folly: Mr. Blarney from Ireland (Fiske O’Hara)
Grand Opera House: Queen of the White Slaves
Majestic: Kellar, the magician
New Montauk: On the Quiet* (William Collier)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Down By the Sea
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) The Bowery Newsgirl
Shubert-Park: The Press Agent (Peter F. Dailey)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion

January 1-6, 1906

January 8-13, 1905

January 15-20, 1906

January 22-27, 1906

January 29-February 3, 1906

DECEMBER 1905

Digby Bell, center, in Act II of The Education of Mr. Pipp, Seattle's Grand Opera House, October 1906.

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).

DECEMBER 1905

*=novelties (recent plays new to Brooklyn)

December 4-9:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Mary of Magdala*
Broadway: Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (Kyrle Bellew)
Folly: Fantasma
Grand Opera House: The Queen of the Highbinders
Imperial: (Imperial Stock Company) The Dancing Girl (vaudeville)
Majestic: The Isle of Spice
New Montauk: Fritz in Tammany Hall* (Joseph Cawthorne)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Little Church Around the Corner
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) A Doctor’s Crime
Shubert-Park: That’s John’s Way (Melbourne MacDowell)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden

December 11-16:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Night Before Christmas
Broadway: Moonshine* (Marie Cahill)
Folly: Confessions of a Wife*
Grand Opera House: The Curse of Drink
Imperial: (Imperial Stock Company) The Butterflies (with vaudeville)
Majestic: Monte Cristo (James O’Neill)
New Montauk: The Education of Mr. Pipp (Digby Bell)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Searchlights of a Great City (Etta Reed Payton)
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Runaway Wife
Shubert-Park: Happyland* (De Wolf Hopper)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden, Imperial

December 18-23:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) Fanchon, the Cricket
Broadway: Miss Dolly Dollar (Lulu Glaser)
Folly: Secret Service Sam*
Grand Opera House: Queen of the Convicts*
Imperial: (Imperial Theatre Company) Miss Hobbs (with vaudeville)
Majestic: Oliver Twist; East Lynne (Saturday matinee only) (Eugenie Blair)
New Montauk: It Happened in Nordland (Lew Fields and company)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Her Mad Marriage (Etta Reed Payton)
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Leah, the Forsaken
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden

December 25-30:
Bijou: (Spooner Stock Company) The Belle of New York
Broadway: The Education of Mr. Pipp (Digby Bell)
Folly: The Duke of Duluth* (Nat M. Wills)
Grand Opera House: How Baxter Butted In* (Sidney Toler)
Imperial: (Imperial Theatre Company) The Christian (with vaudeville)
Majestic: The Belle of Avenue A* (Effie Fay)
New Montauk: De Lancey* (John Drew)
Payton’s Lee Avenue: (Payton Stock Company) Up York State (Corse Payton)
Phillips’ Lyceum: (Lyceum Stock Company) Lost in the World
Shubert-Park: The Heart of Maryland (Odette Tyler)
Vaudeville/burlesque: Hyde & Behman’s, Unique, Gotham, Gayety, Keeney’s, Star, Nassau, Alcazar, Amphion, Garden