Herald Square Theatre

Last updated
Herald Square Theatre
Herald Square Theatre at night.jpg
Herald Square Theatre in 1907
Herald Square Theatre
Former names(New) Park Theatre (1883–1894)
Address1331 Broadway
New York City
United States
TypeBroadway
Capacity 1150
Construction
Opened1883
Closed1914 (1914)
Demolished1915
Years active1883–1914
ArchitectRose & Stone

The Herald Square Theatre was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York City, built in 1883 and closed in 1914. The site is now a highrise designed by H. Craig Severance. [1]

Contents

History

The Park Theatre opened in 1883 (also known as the New Park Theatre ) on the partly demolished site of the Great New York Aquarium (1876–1881), [1] which is unrelated to the later New York Aquarium. Actor Charles E. Evans, retiring from the stage with cash in hand from the long-running success of A Parlor Match , refurbished the prior Harrigan's Park Theatre as the Herald Square Theatre in 1894. [2] It stood at 1331 Broadway, designed by architects Rose & Stone, with about 1150 seats and with its interior furnished by the interior of the nearby Booth's Theatre, which was being demolished. Lee Shubert took over the lease of the theatre in 1900, making it the first Broadway theatre owned by The Shubert Organization.

Partially destroyed by fire and rebuilt, in 1911 it became "the first New York theatre to be converted into a silent movie house", but it was demolished only three years later, as the Garment District expanded, and the Broadway theater district migrated north of 40th Street. [3] [4]

The theatre offered a variety of entertainment, from plays, like Shaw's Arms and the Man (1894), to Edwardian musical comedies, like The Girl from Kay's (1903–1904) and The Girl Behind the Counter (1907–1908), to operetta, like Reginald De Koven and Harry B. Smith's Rob Roy . [5] It saw the first performance of the George M. Cohan song "You're a Grand Old Flag" in 1906, and it was also where William Randolph Hearst first saw and met his wife Millicent Willson during her appearance as a "bicycle girl" in 1897.

Selected performances

The Park Theatre, on a map published in 1890 Sanborn Manhattan V. 5 Plate 91 publ. 1890.jpg
The Park Theatre, on a map published in 1890

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian Ross</span>

Arthur Reed Ropes, better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the most important lyricist of the British stage during a career that spanned five decades. At a time when few shows had long runs, nineteen of his West End shows ran for over 400 performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fay Templeton</span> American actress

Fay Templeton was an American actress, singer, songwriter, and comedian.

John Walter Bratton was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and theatrical producer who became popular during the era known as the Gay Nineties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knickerbocker Theatre (Broadway)</span> Former theatre in Manhattan, New York

The Knickerbocker Theatre, previously known as Abbey's Theatre and Henry Abbey's Theatre, was a Broadway theatre located at 1396 Broadway in New York City. It operated from 1893 to 1930. In 1906, the theatre introduced the first moving electrical sign on Broadway to advertise its productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyric Theatre (New York City, 1903)</span> Former theatre in Manhattan, New York

The Lyric Theatre was a Broadway theatre built in 1903 in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City. It had two formal entrances: at 213 West 42nd Street and 214-26 West 43rd Street. In 1934, it was converted into a movie theatre which it remained until closing in 1992. In 1996, its interior was demolished and the space was combined with that of the former Apollo Theatre to create the Ford Center, now the new Lyric Theatre. Both the 42nd and 43rd Street facades of the original Lyric were preserved and today form the front and back entrances of the modern Lyric Theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustave Kerker</span>

Gustave Adolph Kerker, sometimes given as Gustav or Gustavus Kerker, was a Kingdom of Prussia-born composer and conductor who spent most of his life in the United States. He became a musical director for Broadway theatre productions and wrote the music for a series of operettas and musicals produced on Broadway and in the West End. His most famous musical was The Belle of New York (1897).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Earle</span> American actress

Virginia Earle was an American stage actress remembered for her work in light operas, Edwardian musical comedies and vaudeville over the decades surrounding the turn of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casino Theatre (New York City)</span> Former theatre in Manhattan, New York

The Casino Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 1404 Broadway and West 39th Street in New York City. Built in 1882, it was a leading presenter of mostly musicals and operettas until it closed in 1930.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Studholme</span> English actress and singer

Caroline Maria Lupton, known professionally as Marie Studholme, was an English actress and singer of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, known for her supporting and sometimes starring roles in Edwardian musical comedy. Her attractive features made her one of the most popular postcard beauties of her day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Engländer</span> American composer

Ludwig Engländer was an Austrian-born American composer of more than 30 musicals.

Alfred Baldwin Sloane was an American composer, considered the most prolific songwriter for Broadway musical comedies at the beginning of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Gunning</span> American actress

Louise Gunning was an American soprano popular on Broadway in Edwardian musical comedy and comic opera from the late 1890s to the eve of the First World War. She was perhaps best remembered as Princess Stephanie of Balaria in the 1911 Broadway production of The Balkan Princess. During the war years Gunning began to close out her career singing on the vaudeville circuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Fred Zimmerman Sr.</span> American theater owner and leader of the Theatrical Syndicate.

John Frederick Zimmerman Sr. (1843–1925) was an American theatre magnate. He was one of the members of the Theatrical Syndicate, which monopolized theatrical bookings in the United States for several years.

Jesse C. Huffman (1869–1935) was an American theatrical director. Between 1906 and 1932 he directed or staged over 200 shows, mostly for the Shubert Brothers. Many of them were musical revues, musicals or operettas. He is known for The Passing Show series of revues that he staged from 1914 to 1924 at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway, daring alternatives to the Ziegfeld Follies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadway Theatre (41st Street)</span> Former theatre in Manhattan, New York

The Broadway Theatre near 41st Street was a Manhattan theatre in operation from 1888 to 1929. It was located at 1445 Broadway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anco Cinema</span> Former Broadway theater and cinema

The Anco Cinema was a former Broadway theatre turned cinema at 254 West 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1904 and was originally named the Lew Fields Theatre. It continued to operate as a playhouse under various names until it was converted into a movie theatre in 1930. Its block was famous for its concentration of Broadway theatres turned cinemas. After World War II, the street declined and the Anco Cinema eventually became a pornography venue. It closed as a cinema in 1988 and was gutted for retail use. The building was demolished in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgar Smith (librettist)</span> American librettist and lyricist (1857–1938)

Edgar McPhail Smith was an American writer and lyricist for musicals in the early decades of the 20th century. He contributed to some 150 Broadway musicals. Weber and Fields starred in many of his works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph W. Herbert</span> American dramatist

Joseph William Herbert was a British-born American director, silent-film actor, singer and dramatist notable for being the first person to play Ko-Ko in America in a pirate production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado (1885) before joining D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring companies across America (1885–1890).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savoy Theatre (New York City)</span>

The Savoy Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 112 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1900. It converted to a cinema around 1910, until it was closed in early 1952 and then demolished.

Ernest Albert, born Ernest Albert Brown, was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, and scenic designer. He was a prolific scenic designer, first in Saint Louis and Chicago and then on Broadway. He is considered a major American landscape painter and was elected the first president of the Allied Artists of America in 1919.

References

  1. 1 2 Miller, Tom (2016-12-19). "The Lost Great New York Aquarium - Herald Square". Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  2. Who's who on the stage, p. 90 (1906)
  3. Herald Square Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database
  4. (10 July 1914). The Real Estate Field, The New York Times ("The property, on which is the Herald Square Theatre, has a Broadway frontage of 211.5 feet, 207 feet on Thirty-fifth Street and eight-one feet on Thirty-sixth Street.")
  5. Traubner, Richard (2003). Operetta: A Theatrical History, rev. ed. New York: Routledge. p. 342. ISBN   9780203509029.
  6. "An Arabian Girl and 40 Thieves – Broadway Musical – Original | IBDB". www.ibdb.com. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  7. Brown, Thomas Allston. A History of the New York Stage, Vol. III (1903)
  8. "Internet Broadway Database" . Retrieved 2 January 2020.

40°45′4″N73°59′17.5″W / 40.75111°N 73.988194°W / 40.75111; -73.988194