Tag Archives: Broadway

What the Academy Took from Broadway

Posted on February 20, 2013 by | Leave a comment

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was born 86 years ago this June.  Its conception was announced at a banquet dinner, and all 36 attendees were named founding members. Though created to celebrate the burgeoning film industry, the Academy was unable to escape its ties to theater, specifically the Broadway stage. The first president of the Academy was Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who moved to films after a solid Broadway career. His wife took her stage name, Mary Pickford, before starring in the original Broadway run of The Warrens of Virginia.  She was the only female actress amongst the 36 founding members.

Unknown. [Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Mary Pickford.] Museum of the City of New York, 52.321.14

Unknown. [Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Mary Pickford.] Museum of the City of New York, 52.321.14

The connection between the early Academy and Broadway wasn’t limited to the people involved.  Often the early films celebrated by the Academy drew heavily on stories originally told on stage. The most nominated film in the first annual Academy Awards was based on the 1922 stage hit 7th Heaven.

Souvenir program for Seventh Heaven, 1923. Museum of the City of New York. 79.80.38

Souvenir program for 7th Heaven, 1923. Museum of the City of New York. 79.80.38

A romance between a street cleaner and a young prostitute that blooms under the shadow of World War I, the film garnered five nominations, winning in three categories: Best Writing – Adapted Story; Best Actress in a Leading Role; and Best Director, Dramatic Picture. The movie starred Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor.  The song “Diane” was written specifically for the film version.

"Diane" from Seventh Heaven by Museum of the City of New York. 42.406.67

“Diane” from 7th Heaven by Museum of the City of New York. 42.406.67

The Academy began hosting its awards show just as the silent film era was coming to an end.  The Jazz Singer, the first full-length feature film with synchronized sound, shared an Adapted Story nomination with 7th Heaven. (The Jazz Singer began its life on Broadway in 1925 play.) By the 2nd Academy Awards, only one out of the five nominees for Best Picture was a silent film. It was called The Patriot and was based on Ashley Dukes’s Broadway translation of Alfred Neumann’s  German play.

Souvenir program for The Patriot, 1928. Museum of the City of New York. 34.271.757A

Souvenir program for The Patriot, 1928. Museum of the City of New York. 34.271.757A

The Patriot depicts the life of Emperor Paul I of Russia. It won for Best Writing, but was recognized in several categories  (it tied for most nominations with In Old Arizona), including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.   The following year George Arliss won for Best Actor, reprising in film the title role he originated on Broadway in 1911′s Disraeli.   As the British Prime Minister seeking control of the Suez Canal, Arliss starred in a 1917 revival production and a 1920 film version before getting an award for his 1929 film.

Warner Bros.[George Arliss in Disraeli, 1929.] Museum of the City of New York. 37.298.544

Warner Bros.[George Arliss in Disraeli, 1929.] Museum of the City of New York. 37.298.544

The Academy continued a strong connection to Broadway  through the Best Actor category.  Lionel Barrymore won for his portrayal of an alcoholic lawyer defending his daughter’s former flame from a murder charge in A Free Soul. In the film’s final scene, Barrymore delivers an intense 14-minute courtroom monologue.  Below is the same scene from the 1928 play starring Lester Lonergan.

White Studios (New York, N.Y.). [Courtroom scene from A Free Soul, 1929.] Museum of the City of New York. Detail of 50.200.422

White Studios (New York, N.Y.). [Courtroom scene from A Free Soul, 1929.] Museum of the City of New York. Detail of 50.200.422

Two movie adaptations of Broadway plays took major awards at the 5th Academy Awards.  Frank Borzage won Best Director and Edwin J. Burke won Best Adapted Screenplay for Bad Girl, based on Vina Delmar’s 1930 play.  Here are Sylvia Sindey and Paul Kelly from the Broadway production, perhaps giving a clue to the source of the title.

White Studios (New York, N.Y.) [Scene from Bad Girl, 1930.] Museum of the City of New York. 68.80.96

White Studios (New York, N.Y.) [Scene from Bad Girl, 1930.] Museum of the City of New York. 68.80.96

The Best Picture honor for that year went to Grand Hotel, a movie about the residents, guests, and staff of a Berlin hotel.  Like Bad Girl, the film came from a 1930 Broadway production.

48_210_1765

Vandamm. [Scene from Grand Hotel at the National Theatre, 1930.] Museum of the City of New York. 48.210.1765

The early years of motion pictures were full of creative borrowing from the Broadway stage. Though the industry began to develop more and more original material over time, the connection has never entirely gone away. The past decade alone has seen wins for film versions of the Broadway musicals Chicago (2003) and Dreamgirls (2007), with adaptations of straight plays like Frost/Nixon (2009) and War Horse (2011) garnering Best Picture nominations.  This year the movie version of the Broadway smash hit  Les Miserables is nominated in 8 categories including Best Picture.  Oscar can’t seem to let go of the Great White Way.

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Theater timecapsule – Greatest hits of 1912-1913 season

Posted on January 15, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Talking about a Broadway blockbuster today requires a discourse on the song and dance numbers involved.  The musical reigns supreme at the Broadway box office, but this wasn’t always the case.   The book musical with its full integration of song, dance, and narrative was still in its infancy 100 years ago, and the  stand out hits  of the time were straight plays.

Flier for "Within the law". 1913. Museum of the City of New York. F2013.41.3

Flier for Within the Law. 1913. Museum of the City of New York. F2013.41.3

The biggest dramatic hit of the 1912-1913 season was the inaugural production at the  Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre.  Within the Law opened on September 11, 1912.    In the play, young shop girl Mary Turner is accused of theft. Though she did not commit the crime, Mary is convicted to a three year sentence.  Making the most of her incarceration, Mary studies law and discovers legal ways to exact her revenge.  Once on the outside, she assembles a team from both sides of the law and begins extorting money from wealthy men including her accuser’s son.  Tension heightens when Mary’s mark sincerely falls in love with her, and she begins to return his feelings.

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). Jane Cowl as Mary Turner. 1912. Museum of the City of New York. F2013.41.1

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). Jane Cowl as Mary Turner. 1912. Museum of the City of New York. F2013.41.1

The story is full of confidence tricks, double-crosses, police informers, triple-crosses, and a gun shot on stage (made all the more blood-tingling through the use of the fairly new Maxim Silencer).  The play ends in true melodramatic form.  The real criminals are punished and love triumphs.  Audiences were rewarded with a thrilling evening of entertainment that did not significantly challenge the status quo.  Rich people may afford better protection under the law, but the hard-work of a virtuous spirit will ultimately win.

Souvenir program for "Within the law". 1913. Museum of the City of New York. F2013.41.2

Souvenir program for “Within the law”. 1913. Museum of the City of New York. F2013.41.2

Within the Law ran 541 performances with consistently high box office receipts, but it was only the second biggest hit of the season.  That honor fell to the comedy Peg O’ My Heart with over 600 performances.  Also a girl from humble beginnings, the titular Peg (played by Laurette Taylor) travels to England to be reunited with long-lost relatives.

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). [Laurette Taylor as Peg with Michael the dog.] 1913. Museum of the City of New York. 34.79.521

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). [Laurette Taylor as Peg with Michael the dog.] 1913. Museum of the City of New York. 34.79.521

Peg’s father is poor and Irish, and her mother ran off with him to America, effectively abandoning her own wealthy English family.  Peg’s uncle has recently passed away and left her a small fortune. This same uncle also left a stipend to any respectable family members willing to take up Peg’s education and introduction into society.  Peg’s aunt, Mrs. Chichester, left desperate by a bad investment scheme, welcomes Peg into her home.

Soon the warmth of Peg’s Irish-American manners crashes against the hypocritical reserve of her English relations.  In a scene in Act II, Peg returns home from a dance with her sweetheart “Jerry” (later discovered to be Sir Gerald) and runs into her cousin Ethel sneaking out to elope with a married man.

White Studio (New York, N.Y.) Laurette Taylor as Peg and Christine Norman as Ethel.] 1913. Museum of the City of New York. 48.210.1430

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). [Laurette Taylor as Peg and Christine Norman as Ethel.] 1913. Museum of the City of New York. 48.210.1430

When the noise of their run-in wakes the house, Peg cheerily admits to coming from the dance in an effort to distract the family from the fact that her cousin is fully clothed at a nocturnal hour.  Peg’s sacrifice teaches the Chichesters the value of familial duty and care. The play ends as it must, with all parties reconciled, everyone once again financially comfortable, and Peg with her arms around her sweetheart Jerry.

The popular song “Peg O’ My Heart” by Alfred Bryan and Fred Fisher is said to be inspired by the play’s main character.  Though it did not appear in the  play, the song was performed on Broadway as part of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1913.  100 years later, the popularity of the song has outlasted that of the original play.

Sheet music for "Peg o' my heart", 1913. Museum of the City of New York. 70.49.148

Sheet music for “Peg o’ my heart”, 1913. Museum of the City of New York. 70.49.148

Peg O’ My Heart enjoyed another successful run in 1922 again starring Laurette Taylor, who also starred in a silent film version of the play that same year.  Despite the success of its first two runs, no Broadway production has been mounted since 1922. Within the Law was also only revived once on Broadway, just 16 years after its smash debut.  The play was considered too dated and closed within the month it opened.  Though record breaking hits, both productions were unable to endure the changing times.  With influence of European artistic movements in the wake of World War I, audiences were no longer satisfied with the clear cut heroes and villains of melodrama.

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Eugene O’Neill: the sailor, the sickness, the stage

Posted on November 27, 2012 by | Leave a comment

In December 1912, a young man experiencing the onset of tuberculosis committed himself to Gaylord Sanatorium in Connecticut. The third son of a well known Irish-American actor, the young man had up to that point led a somewhat dissolute life. Brought up in boarding schools, he was suspended from Princeton University after his first year . By the time he checked into Gaylord he’d been a miner in Honduras, married (and abandoned) his first wife, spent several years sailing the Atlantic , and survived at least one suicide attempt. A change came when at the sanatorium he began writing plays. He was 24 years old. His name was Eugene O’Neill.

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill,  son of actor James O’Neill, was born on October 16, 1888 at the Barrett House Hotel located in what was then known as Longacre Square.

Unknown. [Broadway north from 43rd Street.] 1896. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.943
The Barrett House Hotel is the distant building on the left side. It later became the Hotel Cadillac.

James O’Neill was a dramatic actor known best for his role as Edmond Dantes in a stage adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. His declamatory style was in step with the kind of theater popular at the time: full of bold gestures, spectacle, and clear lines of morality.

In May of 1913, after receiving a clean bill of health, the young Eugene took up play writing in earnest.  He attended George Pierce Baker’s play writing class at Harvard University.  Sailing up to Cape Cod in 1916, he spent his first summer in the company of the Provincetown Players, a newly formed group of theatrical artists committed to working against the grandiose melodrama that dominated the American stage.  It was at the Players’ Wharf Theatre that O’Neill performed in his own Bound East for Cardiff.  (Shown on the far left in the image below).

Unknown. [From left to right: Eugene O'Neill, Fred Burt, David Carb, and George Cram Cook in "Bound East for Cardiff" in Provincetown Wharf Theatre.] 1916. Museum of the City of New York. 54.380.39

Bound East for Cardiff was the first in what would become the Glencairn Plays, so named for the fictional ship on which the one-act plays were set.  The S. S. Glencairn, its characters, and its journeys were inspired by O’Neill’s time aboard the British steamship S. S. Ikala.  These four plays include Moon of the Carribees, The Long Voyage Home, and In the Zone.  They focus on a group of sailors and what they carry: secrets, a longing for a different life, and sometimes a bottle of rum.

Though written second, In the Zone is considered the last play in the series in terms of the characters’ chronology. The play debuted on Broadway at the Comedy Theatre as part of an evening of one-acts.

Theater program for “In the Zone”. 1917. Museum of the City of New York. 74.72.2

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). [Left to right: Eugene Lincoln, Robert Strange, Frederick Roland, Jay Strong, Arthur Hohl, and Rienzi De Cordova in The Washington Square Players production of "In The Zone".] 1917. Museum of the City of New York. 47.59.18

The play was successful enough to allow for a 34 week tour giving O’Neill his first steady income as a playwright.  It wasn’t until 1924 that the Provincetown Playhouse put up the first full-scale production of the complete cycle in New York City. By that time O’Neill was an established playwright with a Pulitzer Prize under his belt.

Unknown. [Scene from "Moon of the Caribbees" at Provincetown Playhouse, NYC.] 1924. Museum of the City of New York. 75.130.12

In 1920 O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon earned him his first in what would turn out to be four Pulizters for Drama.  His first full-length work, the play is set in a rural farm community not unlike the one dreamed of by the sailors aboard S.S. Glencairn.  The opening scene is a road.  Below is a sketch from a draft page of Beyond the Horizon and the realized scenery at the play’s debut at the Morosco Theatre.

Eugene O’Neill. First page of draft of “Beyond the Horizon”. 1918. Museum of the City of New York. 30.145.3A

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). [Setting for Act I, scene 1 of "Beyond the Horizon".] 1920. Museum of the City of New York. 34.157.24

The main character, Robert Mayo, is described in the opening stage directions as having “a touch of the poet” about him. He is a dreamer and longs to travel outside what he has known. (Robert was portrayed by Richard Bennett, below, seated at far right).

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). [Mary Jeffrey, Sidney Macy, Erville Alderson, Robert Kelly, and Richard Bennett.] 1920. Museum of the City of New York. 34.157.25

Robert’s older brother Andrew is content to work the land, but through the affections of a young woman, the brothers’ fates are reversed. Robert stays on the family farm while Andrew takes to the sea. Neither fares well. Robert ends up contracting tuberculosis. He dies in the final scene as the sun rises up from a disappearing road.

Eugene O’Neill’s own end came with a long illness, a neuromuscular disorder that rendered him unable to hold a pen. He died 59 years ago this week at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. He was 65 years old.

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Forbidden Broadway circa 1900: a look back at lampooning.

Posted on October 2, 2012 by | 2 Comments

Forbidden Broadway is back again this Fall with a new “Alive and Kicking” addition gleefully lampooning the current offerings of the Great White Way.  A revue show first conceived in the early 1980s, Forbidden Broadway harks back to an earlier tradition: American burlesque shows at the turn of the century.

Unknown. [Weber and Fields], ca. 1905. Museum of the City of New York, 36.440.1282

One of the most successful burlesquing teams was the duo of Joe Weber and Lew Fields who opened their Music Hall in 1896 to perform musical revues and burlesques of their own devising. (At the time the term “burlesque” described over-the-top parodies of popular theatrical productions and had less to do with the art of striptease.) One of Weber and Fields‘s most popular targets was the work of Clyde Fitch. Though his work hasn’t been performed on Broadway in decades, Fitch was one of the most prolific playwrights of early twentieth century.

Sarony. [Clyde Fitch], 1899. Museum of the City of New York, 43.430.533.

In 1909, the year he died, Fitch had four productions in Broadway theatres, three of which were new works.   He  saw over 60 productions of his work open on Broadway, often staged by him, and there have been over 30 feature film adaptations of his plays. (For more on Fitch’s life, check out the thoughtful bio at the The Clyde Fitch Report.)

Thanks to the efforts of the equitable photographers at Byron Company (and the Museum’s Digital Team), the Collections Portal contains images illustrating Fitch’s original intentions and the fun Weber and Fields had subverting them.

Fitch’s controversial play Sapho about a French seductress became the ridiculous Sapolio.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Olga Nethersole in "Sapho"], 1900. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.19676.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Plays, "Sapolio"], 1900. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.19684.

The very next year, in 1901, Weber and Fields took on Fitch’s The Girl and the Judge about the drama that ensues when a young woman faces her parents’ separation.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Annie Russell in "The Girl and the Judge"], 1901. Museum of the City of New York, 34.271.806D.

The Curl and the Judge was perhaps a more jovial look at parent/child relations.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Lew Fields and Fay Templeton in "The Curl and the Judge"], ca. 1901. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.18806.

The ship deck setting in Fitch’s 1902 dramatic work The Stubbornness of Geraldine morphed in to the S.S. Pneumonia set for The Stickiness of Gelatine which opened at Weber and Fields’s Broadway Music Hall less than 2 months after Fitch’s opening.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Marry Mannering as Geraldine Lang in "The Stubbornness of Geraldine"], 1902. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.19813.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Joe Weber and Lew Fields in "The Stickiness of Gelatine"], 1902. Museum of the City of New York, 48.210.1515.


One of Fitch’s most popular works (it launched the career of Ethel Barrymore) was Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, a title Weber and Fields felt no need adjust for their skit.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Ethel Barrymore in Act III of "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines"], 1901. Museum of the City of New York, 34.271.804Q.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [DeWolf Hopper, Fay Templeton and David Warfield in burlesque of "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines"], ca. 1900. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.18681.

Fitch’s plays weren’t the only ones parodied by Weber and Fields, and just as certainly, Weber and Fields weren’t the only company doing the lampooning. Both enjoyed popular acclaim in their day, the best influenced by the best.  Fitch received the compliment of caricature, and both may have benefited in box office receipts. After all, a parody is always funnier when you’re familiar with the original.

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The Beach Pneumatic Transit Company – just a bunch of hot air?

Posted on September 18, 2012 by | 5 Comments

My alarm didn’t go off this morning, meaning I overslept and I did not have enough time to ride my bicycle into work as I often do, and instead would have to take the subway.  While the weather has recently been quite pleasant, people often ask me how I can bear to ride my bike on those summer days when temperatures climb into the 90′s, and my response is always to ask how they can stand to wait on subway platforms as immense waves of hot air roll down the tracks in the wake of the trains.   As I was reading on the way in, I came across a review for Taras Grescoe’s Straphangers, a new book about public transportation.  The review mentions the inclusion of “a subway prototype, from 1870, constructed inside a huge pneumatic tube” in New York.  In other words, an underground train whose motion was controlled entirely by forcing air through the tunnel.

“General Plan, showing the arrangement of the machinery, air-flute, tunnel, and the mode of operating the pneumatic passenger-car,” illustration from The Broadway Pneumatic Underground Railway, 1871, in the Ephemera Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 42.314.142.

Secret, forgotten, and out of commission subway tunnels and stations have always been intriguing to me, and I assume, (though perhaps incorrectly), for most New Yorkers.  Therefore, many of you may already know this is a reference to the pneumatic underground railway conceived by Alfred Ely Beach, in 1869, in response to the ever growing traffic and congestion on New York City streets, especially Broadway.  Beach’s underground railway ran just the length of one block under Broadway, between Warren to Murray Streets.

The rail line was built primarily as a demonstration of how such a system could work, and employed a 48-ton fan to “blow” the train down the tracks.  When the train reached the end of the line at Murray Street, the baffles on the fan were reversed, drawing the train car back toward Warren Street.

“Under Broadway – Interior of Passenger-Car,” illustration from The Broadway Pneumatic Underground Railway, 1871, in the Ephemera Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 42.314.142.

The entrance to the station was through the Devlin Stores, in what was later known as the Rogers, Peet & Co building.   The station and passenger car were both very elegant, with mirrors, fountains, and saloons for ladies and gentlemen in the station; and the car featured comfortable, upholstered seats for 22 people.  When the number of riders exceeded 22 people, a large platform car with a wooden sail at one end was used instead, where passengers sat upon comfortable settees, which accommodated up to 30 passengers.

Alfred C. Loonam. Beach Pneumatic Tunnel Under Broadway, ca. 1870. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.26.126.

Despite the popularity of Beach’s railway, selling 25-cent rides to over 400,000 people during its first year of operation, it remained little more than a novelty.  Beach fought Tammany Hall for over two years as he tried to pass a bill introduced to the New York State Legislature to extend the line all the way to Central Park.  The bill finally passed in 1873, only to face funding problems both from waning public interest, and the stock market crash that led to the Panic of 1873.  Eventually, Beach abandoned the project.  This blank stock certificate below is probably one of many that sat unused as financiers drifted away.

Stock Certificate for the Beach Pneumatic Transit Co, ca. 1873, in the Ephemera Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 42.314.114.

The tunnel was sealed, and after the Rogers, Peet, and Co. building was lost to fire in 1898, the Beach Pneumatic Railway was all but forgotten.  In 1912, workers excavating for a line of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Subway encountered the sealed tunnel; inside, Beach’s rail car sat on the tracks, nearly intact.

Unknown photographer. Excavation at Duane and Reade Streets off Broadway, 1978. Museum of the City of New York. 84.227.

This photo in the Museum’s collection showing an excavation site off Broadway between Duane and Reade streets claims to reveal a portion of the Beach Pneumatic tunnel.  Based on the location of the tunnel a full two blocks south of this site, and the upright walls, rather than the round walls necessary for constructing a tube shaped tunnel, I’m not convinced that this is part of the Beach tunnel.  This leads us to the question, of course – what is it then?  Just another piece of the secret, lost, or forgotten infrastructure of New York City.

Click on this links to view more images of subway scenes and tunnels from the Museum’s collections. These images are all available in various sizes as museum quality archival prints. If you see something you want to hang on your wall, email us at reproductions@mcny.org

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Peter Pan: over 100 years of the boy who wouldn’t grow up

Posted on August 21, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Wendy Darling:
Boy, why are you crying?

Boy:
What’s your name?

Wendy:
Wendy Moira Angela Darling. What is your name?

Boy:
Peter Pan.

Wendy:
Is that all?

Peter Pan:
Yes.

-Act I, Peter Pan; or, the boy who wouldn’t grow up by J. M. Barrie.

Otto Sarony Co. [Maude Adams as Peter Pan], 1905. Museum of the City of New York. 32.290.9.

This is how we are introduced to Peter Pan, in the Darling children’s bedroom, crying with frustration over his separated shadow.  The boy who wouldn’t grow up turns 108 this year and with his latest incarnation, Peter and the Starcatcher, showing at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway, he still can still draw our attention.

 Peter Pan made his Broadway debut on November 6, 1905, just under a year after appearing for the first time on the London stage.  Written by J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan; or, the boy who wouldn’t grow up was produced in London by Charles Frohman and remounted at his Empire Theatre on Broadway and 40th Street. The production starred Maude Adams as the  eponymous boy.

Theater program for “Peter Pan” at the Empire Theatre, November 1905. Museum of the City of New York. X2012.42.2.

The Empire Theatre revived the play three times in the early part of the 20th century, all starring Ms. Adams who by the 1915 production was 43 years old.

Unknown. [Eva Le Gallienne as Peter Pan]. 1928. Museum of the City of New York. 37248.9

Barrie’s boy got two revivals in the 1920s, the second of which was directed by and starred Eva Le Gallienne.  Though only 29, Ms. Le Gallienne was already a seasoned Broadway director.  Her production was seen as a  break away from Frohman’s productions. However, the New York Times review noted that the play “had lost nothing essential of its magic”.  The reviewer described Ms. Gallienne’s Peter as a “gallant, buoyant  clean-cut figure”, but also noticed that she “wears the limit of bare legs”.  Though her pose at left is decidedly less boyish than her predecessor, the choice of city rooftop is perhaps the most striking contrast to Ms. Adams’s idyllic woodland backdrop.

Lucas-Monroe. [Boris Karloff as Captain Hook], 1950. Museum of the City of New York. 80.104.1.2163.

The final Broadway production of Peter Pan the play was mounted in 1950 at the Imperial Theatre.  Continuing the tradition of a grown woman playing Peter, Jean Arthur took up the title role, and none other than the original Frankenstein, Boris Karloff, played Captain Hook.  In the premiere London production, the actor who played Captain Hook also portrayed Mr. Darling, the children’s father.  Peter’s archenemy is a father figure in disguise, an image as psychologically subtle as the make-up on Mr. Karloff’s face.

Peter Lawrence, a producer on Mr. Karloff’s production, arranged a national tour in the fall of 1951.  This time Peter was played by the improbable Veronica Lake.  The Digital Team at the Museum uncovered the images below in the archives of the Lucas-Pritchard / Lucas-Monroe Studios.

Lucas-Monroe. [Veronica Lake as Peter Pan], 1951. Museum of the City of New York. 80.104.1.2115.

Lucas-Monroe. [Veronica Lake as Peter Pan and Lawrence Tibbett as Captain Hook], 1951. Museum of the City of New York. 80.104.1.2119.

Though Peter Lawrence’s production was the last time the play was produced on Broadway, Barrie’s work was turned into a popular musical that opened just four years later. With a score by Mark Charlap and music by Carolyn Leigh, the production was directed by Jerome Robbins and starred the very popular Mary Martin.  Ms. Martin’s boy became the definitive Peter Pan. (She donated her Pan costume to the Museum in 1968 including the piece for Peter’s shadow.)

Sheet music for “Captain Hook’s Waltz” from “Peter Pan”, 1954. Museum of the City of New York. 70.22.123D.

Though the musical’s original run was only 152 performances, Ms. Martin starred in three live televised productions that gave the show a wider audience. The musical was revived five times, the last opening in 1999.  Now on Broadway, Peter Pan has been re-made for the 21st century in Peter and the Starcatcher, a precursor to the boy’s adventures with the Darlings. The play garnered an impressive nine Tony nominations this year, winning awards for its feature actor and sweeping the design categories.  The boy who wouldn’t grow up still won’t, and we can’t stop clapping our hands.

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“The God of Vengeance”: Is the Play Immoral?

Posted on June 19, 2012 by | 2 Comments

A father lives with his wife and teenage daughter above the brothel that he owns.  It’s a simple story. A young girl is drawn to a world forbidden her. A father is determined to keep his daughter innocent and pure.  Of course, by the end of the play the young girl is not only the newest member of the oldest profession but in love with a fellow prostitute to boot.

White Studio (New York, N.Y.). [David Kessler in "Got fun nekome"]. ca. 1912. Collection on Yiddish Theater, Museum of the City of New York. 66.22.16

The play is Sholom Asch’s Got fun nekome or, in English, God of Vengeance. Written in Yiddish in 1906, a New York production premiered the following year starring David Kessler as the father, Yankl Tshaptshovitsh. From the beginning there was  controversy.  The play’s depiction of the lesbian relationship between Yankl’s daughter and one of the prostitutes in his brothel caused a flurry of activity in the Yiddish press. There was concern that the play’s content would trigger anti-Semitic backlash if it became known to the wider English-speaking world. When the play finally did make its  Broadway debut at the Apollo Theatre  in 1923, it was precisely the content that led to the trial of the show’s 12 actors and producer.

Maurice Goldberg. [Rudolph Schildkraut in "God of Vengeance"]. 1923. Collection on Yiddish Theater, Museum of the City of New York. 30.170.4B

On March 6, 1923, just after the actors finished performing the second act (in which Yankl’s daughter runs away with one of the prostitutes), a detective appeared backstage at the Apollo Theatre to inform the theatre’s manager and producer that they and the entire cast had been indicted before a Grand Jury earlier in the day. The English-language version of Asch’s play had premiered just a few months earlier in late 1922 at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York’s Greenwich Village and was directed by and starred Rudolph Schildkraut, who had also performed in Max Reinhardt’s German production. The transfer uptown occurred in February. The play was open on Broadway for a just under a month when the indictment came down.

The show’s producer, Harry Weinberger, served as the defense lawyer for himself and the actors.  When the verdict of guilty came down on May 23, 1923, he rallied the theatrical community against the obscenity charges, producing the pamphlet pictured below.

“‘The God of Vengeance’ Is the play immoral? Is it great drama?”. 1923. Collection on Yiddish Theater, Museum of the City of New York. 30.170.12

Sholom Asch defended his work for the first time in an open letter printed in the pamphlet. He criticized American audiences for not being “either sufficiently interested or adequately instructed to accept The God of Vengeance.”  He goes on to defend himself against the Jewish community’s earlier fears about the play: “Jews do not need to clear themselves before anyone. They are as good and as bad as any race. I see no need why a Jewish writer should not bring out the bad or good traits.”

Interestingly, the New York Times article reporting the verdict does not mention the lesbian relationship as the source of the obscenity. Rather, the judge is said to have resented what he perceived as the “desecration of the sacred scrolls of the Torah.”

Though the play’s actors and producer had been found guilty of giving an immoral performance, the sentences were very light. Only Weinberger and        Schildkraut were fined, $200 each.  The rest were released on suspended sentence. Weinberger donated materials related to the play and trial to the Museum, including two appellants’ briefs. They are being processed as part of the Collection on Yiddish Theatre thanks to the generous funding and support of the David Berg Foundation and the Lemberg Foundation.

Though the indictment put an end to the Broadway run of “God of Vengeance,” the production was able to find other venues. Before the verdict was even decided, the show had moved to the Prospect Theatre in the Bronx.  It seems that despite potential imprisonment, the show must go on.

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The Evolution of Madison Square: From Potter’s Field to Eataly

Posted on December 13, 2011 by | 8 Comments

In the early-1800′s, Madison Square was a swampy area far outside of the city. The park did not have an auspicious beginning, as its first uses were a potter’s  field and then as an orphanage, the rather optimistically named House of Refuge.

Mesier's Lith. House of Refuge. ca. 1830. Museum of the City of New York. 29.100.519.

By the 1840′s a popular road-house, “Madison Cottage” was on the area of land that eventually  would be bordered by Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and 23rd Street. This converted yellow farmhouse was for many the first stop leaving the city or the last stop before entering the city proper. It served as a post-tavern, stage coach stop, a cattle exhibition hall, and the de facto congregating point for horse-racing enthusiasts among young men of the upper class.

Madison Cottage. ca. 1850. Museum of the City of New York. 57.300.509.

Madison Cottage remained popular until 1853 when it was razed to make way for a replica of a Roman arena, called Franconi’s Hippodrome, which featured chariot races.  Chariot races! In the Flatiron District!  The wonders didn’t stop there, according to an 1854 guidebook; beyond the horse and chariot races, one could see “surprising gymnastic exercises, ostrich races and performing monkeys, deer, camels and elephants.” With seating for up to 10,000 in a  two-story amphitheater with a 700 foot circumference, the spectacle must have been amazing.

Franconi's Hippodrome. 1853. Museum of the City of New York. 29.100.1463

Unfortunately, the novelty could not last forever and after a mere two years Franconi’s Hippodrome went bankrupt and the building was razed for the  creation of the Fifth Avenue Hotel.

Exterior of the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Madison Square New York. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.266.

The Fifth Avenue Hotel also did not have an auspicious beginning. Owned by Amos Eno, it was nicknamed “Eno’s Folly” because the idea of a year-round hotel so far uptown was considered ludicrous.  Yet Eno proved his detractors wrong and created one of the most incredible  hotels New York had ever seen.

The building, designed by Griffith Thomas and William Washburn, had all sorts of modern amenities that were so new that people didn’t quite know how to handle them, namely the elevator. Called the “vertical railway” by many guidebooks  they were the first passenger elevators ever. (For a fun side note read  this lovely New York Times about the practicability of elevators.)  Add luxurious decorations and the right clientele, and as it opened on August 23, 1859, the Fifth Avenue Hotel had arrived.

Fifth Avenue Hotel interior. ca. 1895. Museum of the City of New York. 33.278.31.

For the next four decades, the rich, powerful, and those who follow them made the Fifth Avenue Hotel their home away from home.

Byron Company. Street Scenes, Broadway & 23rd Street.1898. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.15225.

Politics was also a constant theme in the hotel. Beyond merely having foreign heads of states, presidents, and military leaders stay in their sumptuous rooms and give lectures in the public spaces, a more localized political group had its beginning inside the hotel lobby.

The “Amen Corner” consisted of two sofas at the end of a wide hallway in the lobby where, as legend has it, every Sunday,  senator and “political boss” Thomas C. Platt and his associates would have their weekly chats with reporters, which Platt began calling his “Sunday school class.” Apparently Platt’s talks were so well-received that people would say “Amen” whenever he touched on a point they agreed with and with that a tradition was born. The Amen Corner lasted long after Platt’s quite luminous political career and eventually became a popular apolitical dining club.

Brown Brothers. Group of men at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. ca. 1900. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.4321.

For almost fifty years The Fifth Avenue hotel had been the epicenter of the gilded age of New York, yet at midnight April 4, 1908,the hotel closed its doors. The furniture, artwork and even the building were auctioned soon after.

Fifth Avenue Hotel with sign announcing auction sale. 1908. Museum of the City of New York. 33.278.17

The building was razed for a skyscraper called the Toy Center which still stands today and is an epicenter of a different kind of New Yorker with the opening of Mario Batali’s Eataly on its lower levels.

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A Trip Up Broadway

Posted on August 24, 2011 by | 4 Comments

From 1916 to 1921, Arthur Hosking photographed Broadway, from its southernmost leg at Bowling Green all the way north to Yonkers. Here are some highlights, all taken in 1920 unless otherwise noted.

Arthur Hosking. Broadway Series. Bowling Green looking north from Custom House steps. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.4

At the far right of this photo is the Produce Exchange, which was demolished in 1957. This photo was taken in 1921, when both street trolleys and horse-drawn carriages competed as viable means of transportation.

Arthur Hosking. Broadway Series. Broadway looking north from Rector Street. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.18

A photo taken a few blocks north at Broadway and Rector Street shows pedestrians, automobiles, and street trolleys competing with each other for space. Trinity Church is on the left.

Arthur Hosking. Broadway Series. Looking north from 2nd floor window at corner of Fulton Street. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.30

Broadway is bustling at the intersection of Fulton Street. St. Paul’s Chapel, seen on the left, was built from 1764 to 1766 and is Manhattan’s oldest continuously-used public building. In 1966, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The City Hall Post Office on the right did not fare so well. Built in 1878, it was immediately despised by city officials and the public alike. It was razed in 1938 in anticipation of the 1939 World Fair. (See http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON022.htmfor more details.)

Arthur Hosking. Broadway Series. View of east side of Bway, looking north from Lispenard and Canal Street, where the two streets converge. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.58

Taken in TriBeCa, this photo shows an advertisement for Nehemiah Gitelson & Sons. Nehemiah Gitelson immigrated to the United States from Poland in 1880. In addition to running the family company, he supported Jewish scholarship. In honor of his patronage, the Jewish Theological Seminary named his donation of over 1,100 volumes the Nehemiah Gitelson Talmudic Library.

Arthur Hosking. Broadway Series. View looking south from 18th Street taken from 3rd floor fire escape. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.85

In 1815, the intersection of Broadway and the Bowery (now 4thAvenue) was designated a public meeting space and named Union Place for the convergence of the city’s main thoroughfares. The city gradually began to acquire surrounding land, and in 1832 Union Place was renamed Union Square.

Arthur Hosking. Broadway Series. View looking north from "El" station at 33rd Street and 6th Ave, showing Herald Square. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.108

This photo shows Saks & Co. on the left, then Macy’s. To the right is the New York Herald building. Only the Macy’s building survives today. Saks & Co. merged with Gimbels  to form Saks 5th Avenue in 1932. However, the original Saks building in this photo operated under the name Saks 34thStreet until its closure in 1965. The New York Herald building was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White in 1894 and demolished in 1921.

Arthur Hosking. Broadway Series. View looking north from 44th Street (Times Square), where Broadway crosses 7th Avenue. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.117

This photo shows the heart of Times Square. To the left is Hotel Astor, built in 1904. Before 1904, the area was known as Longacre Square, but Adolph Ochs, owner and publisher of the New York Times, convinced the city to officially rename the space Times Square. Hotel Astor remained until its demolition in 1967.

Arthur Hosking. View of the southeast corner of Broadway and 155th Street. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.158

Here is the Church of the Intercession in Hamilton Heights. It was only 8 years old when this photo was taken.

The photo below shows Broadway at a much slower pace in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Broadway Inn is to the left.

Arthur Hosking. Broadway Series. View looking north from Mosholu Ave with Broadway Inn at left. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.190

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