MADISON SQUARE THEATRE

This little theatre saw some remarkable advancements in the American Theatre. Its precinct is saw the debut of many talents which would go on to have a major impact of the artistry and management of the theatre in America.

Located near Broadway on 24th St., behind the Fifth Avenue Hotel famous for the "Amen Corner" where the Republicans held their spirited strategy sessions, The Madison Square Theatre was managed for a time by the fine comedic actor John Brougham (who co-authored London Assurance with Dion Boucicault).

On his departure, the theatre, then known as the Fifth Avenue Theater, was taken over by Augustin Daly, where he remained for several years with his "company of stars." It was at this little "matchbox of a theatre" as she called it that Clara Morris, the great "emotional" actress, made her New York debut.

In 1879, after it was remodeled by Steele Mackaye with the backing of the Mallory brothers, it was renamed the Madison Square Theatre. It boasted the remarkable elevator stage pictured below, as well as a primitive but effective air conditioning system. Ice was brought in every day, and air was circulated over it and through the same ventilating system that carried heated air in the winter. This was a great innovation and created quite a stir. The orchestra was located above the proscenium, which saved a great deal of space on the floor below. The interior of the house and the "drop curtain" were made by Tiffany. This was apparently an elaborate embroidered tangle of trees and flowers. It was lost in a fire during the run of Hazel Kirke when a careless workman's torch caught it on fire. The smoke was cleared by the fairly sophisticated circulation system and the show went on with only a half-hour delay.

As impressive and efficient as the elevator stage was, it had its limitations and drawbacks, as illustrated by the following anecdote from Mrs. Whiffen's memoirs:

"...Steele Mackaye was playing the miller [in Hazel Kirke]. In the last act, when the old man is blind, Mackaye indulged in some very realistic acting and began to tremble as if struck with a severe case of ague. He trembled so violently that the wobbly, freak stage began to tremble with him. That affected the dishes in the cupboard and they commenced to shiver and shake, and then all the actors seated on the stage began to teeter too. It struck me as being so funny that we started laughing and almost spoiled the big scene of the play. Mr. Mackaye was furious, but when we pointed out to him that his fit of ague was so realistic that it almost brought down the house, he had to laugh with us."

Management then passed to Daniel Frohman who brought in William Gillette's The Professor, which enjoyed another long run. Later, Frohman hired David Belasco to "stage-manage" (today we would say direct) Bronson Howard's Young Mrs. Winthrop. He also produced Belasco's first play May Blossom.

George Blumenthal, a protege of Oscar Hammerstein I, and a producer in his own right gives this rare glimpse of front of house operations at the famous Madison Square Theater and the birth of American Touring companies which it spawned in his My Sixty Years in Show Business.

I wanted to get a steady job in theater. Mother was very much against this. She had set her heart on my becoming a physician. I persisted, however, and kept at her day and night until, at last, she let me have my own way. Mother had a friend who was acquainted with E. O. Cutter, chief usher of the Madison Square Theater, which was located on West 24th Street near Broadway, next to the old and famous Fifth Avenue Hotel, then well known for the famous Amen Corner where the Republican chiefs planned their political futures. She told her friend about my desire to get into the theatrical business, secured an introduction to Cutter, and spoke to him about getting something for me to do around the theater. A few days afterwards I received a post card to come down to the theater. When I arrived Cutter said that he could use me to give out programs. That was in May, 1881, during the last few weeks of "Hazel Kirke."

I know how fortunate I was in getting connected with the Madison Square Theater, the starting place for many of our famous actors, managers, and producers, -- and where the road company idea was developed. My experience there proved invaluable to me in later years. Yet I recall that when I was given my pay envelope at the end of the first week and it contained only two-fifty, I protested to Cutter that I would not hold the job for such a salary and immediately tendered my resignation. Cutter must have taken a great fancy to me, -- for he thereupon offered me a job as usher at three-fifty a week. That did not suit me either. Finally he said he would see Dan Frohman, the business manager, and find out if he could get me something to do in the office. As it worked out, Daniel Frohman engaged me for office work for five dollars, -- making eight-fifty a week all together. That satisfied me.

The theater was owned by the Reverend Dr. George Mallory and his brother, Marshall Mallory, the sponsors and editors of a publication called "The Churchman" which was released from their printing plant at 47 Lafayette Place. The had become interested in the views of the brilliant and erratic Steele Mackaye who was then acting, lecturing, writing plays, and teaching the art of acting. They regarded him as a man with a distinct mission and so that he might better express his views they built the Madison Square Theater, on 24th Street near Broadway, on the site where Augustin Daly's Fifth Avenue Theater had burned down.

The Madison Square Theater had opened February 4th, 1880. It had a seating capacity of five hundred and was known as the coziest and prettiest house in New York. Its greatest innovation was a double stage. As one act was going on, the lower stage was set for the next act, and during intermission was raised to its proper place by four men, two on each side, working pulley cables by hand. Nelson Waldron, the head carpenter and machinist of the theater, had charge of the manipulation of those cables.

The main purpose of this elaborate and expensive double stage was to save time between the acts (it has never been duplicated in any other theater). The intermissions were cut to fifty-five seconds and were so advertised. The Madison Square Theater was thus enabled to open at eight-thirty -- the other theaters opened at eight o'clock. People didn't want to leave their seats between acts in those days, -- ladies smoked no cigarettes, and gentlemen did not smoke cigars when they went to the theater.

Another feature was the elevated orchestra pit, which was built into the proscenium arch above the stage. This allowed more room on the lower floor.

The theater was kept open all summer and advertised as "Cooled By Iced Air." Cakes of ice were delivered each day and placed in a cooler. A blower blew air over the ice, out under the floor of the auditorium, and up into the auditorium through the same floor gratings that were used to convey heat in the winter.

Steele Mackaye directed and engaged the first companies. Gustave Frohman made a five-year contract with the Mallorys to handle companies on the road. The Mallorys, acting on Gustave's suggestion, engaged his younger brother, Daniel, (then in his late twenties) as business manager at twenty-five dollars a week, and also allowed him to do casting. Dan had been at the Fifth Avenue Theater.

The Madison Square Theater was to have opened with a play by Mackaye named "Hazel Kirke" but there was a long delay in finishing certain alterations in the theater. The play went on the road with Daniel Frohman as advance agent and opened in Providence in 1880 under the title of "The Iron Will." It was brought in to open the Madison Square, February 4th, 1880, and was given there for 486 consecutive performances which set a record at that time. G. F., Gustave Frohman, laid out the route for "Hazel Kirke" and sent out the first road company for it in November, 1880. (By 1883 it had been given over two thousand performances in the United States and Canada.) In 1881, G. F. organized the road business on a larger scale for the Mallorys and engaged "Al" Wilbur as Company Manager. Thereafter companies were sent out on the road each season. At times we had as many as three companies of each touring the country.

On June 1st, a few weeks after I got my job at the Madison Square Theater, "Hazel Kirke" gave way to "The Professor" with William Gillette. Steele Mackaye was replaced as director of the theater by William Gillette, who then collaborated with Mrs. Francis Hodgson Burnett in writing "Esmeralda" which ran 350 nights. Then came "Young Mrs. Winthrop," and "A Russian Honeymoon." Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Whiffen were members of the casts of most of those plays.

Also in May, 1881, Charles, the youngest of the Frohmans, was stranded in Salt Lake City during a tour to the coast as manager of the "Haverly Mastodon Minstrels." Fortunately Gustave Frohman, then in 'Frisco with the Number One "Hazel Kirke" Company, advanced him the money necessary to get to the coast. While in 'Frisco, Charles mentioned to G. F. that he thought it was time he quit the minstrels as he was only getting twenty-five dollars a week. Gustave then offered him the position of advance agent of the Number Two "Hazel Kirke" Company at the same salary and Charles accepted.

It was then in San Francisco that G. F. saw David Belasco stage "Uncle Tom's Cabin." When Belasco finally came east he went to the Madison Square Theater and said that he had to have something to do immediately. As nothing else was available just then it was arranged that he become a play reader for the theater at twenty-five dollars a week. A short time after that plans were made to produce two of his plays, "May Blossom" and "The Charity Ball."

Charles' coming in made three Frohmans at the theater. They were never addressed by their full names but were known only as G. F., D. F., and C. F. I remember wondering about the initials T. F. at the end of the ad copy I used to carry over every day to Brown and Pulverman's advertising agency at 31st Street and Broadway, where J. P. "Jake" Muller was then the office boy. I thought that a fourth Frohman was wandering around until I found out that T. F. meant "Till Forbid" (run the ad until further notice).

Franklin H. Sargent was then coaching individual actors at the Madison Square Theater, as "Dramatic Director." There came a day when he explained a plan for a school of acting at the Mallorys, who immediately referred him to G. F. G. F. took hold of the idea. He saw the opportunity to train and develop new talent by using enthusiastic young people, ambitious to play good parts and see the country. Students could study the New York performances and then play in G. F.'s Numbers Two, Three and Four road companies, for which he could not afford to use high salaried professionals and did not wish to substitute the available cheap actors already associated with "ten-twenty-thirty cent" performances, in towns where he wished to book first class plays at higher prices. Thus was laid the foundation for Sargent's school for acting.

G. F. arranged with A. L. Barney, a dramatic critic in Cleveland, to write to the owners of halls and local newspapers in over one thousand towns all over the country, to spread word of the standards set up at the Madison Square Theater by the devout Mallorys. This was to prevent any opposition from the churches. To all those sources were sent the Madison Square Theater's handsome programs, which consisted of a double folder card with a beautiful front cover in colors depicting the unique interior of the theater, -- elevated orchestra, etc. No advertising appears in the programs; the devout Mallorys felt that that would be "contamination." At the theater we would tie roses to the programs with ribbons and present then to our lady patrons. It was one of my duties before each performance to get the roses, fresh from Beban's Florist Shop at 23rd Street and Broadway.

G. F. played up these extraordinary features as well as many other absolutely new ideas in exploiting his road companies. He had celebrated circus agents travel weeks ahead of the regular advance agents , to let the towns know that the Madison Square productions were different, and fashionable, and approved by the churches, and that the authors of the plays were all Americans. He exploited Steele Mackaye's slogan, "A Wholesome Place for Wholesome Amusement," and put the idea across throughout the country that there could be spiritual uplift in fine, wholesome plays.

Each of the companies G. F. sent out carried its own scenery. This was a great novelty and was appreciated by the outside communities which before that had had to put up with settings made haphazardly on the premises. He then suggested, and the idea was finally carried out, that beautifully framed pictures of the interior of the Madison Square Theater be sent out to hotels, theaters, and offices all over the country. The advance men were also given this list so that they could send souvenir programs by mail in advance of their companies. G. F.'s unique handwriting, enlarged on huge posters, became a trademark for the Madison Square Theater throughout the country. No stars were boomed; the play was the thing. These famous road companies came as a special event in every town, and livened things up considerably. Sharing terms were not unusual at that time. G. F. had to set the price for the hall, engage the orchestra, stage hands, ushers, etc.

He was an enthusiastic bicyclist and used to ride his wheel from town to town when his companies were doing one-night-stands, riding as much as 120 miles a day over the rutted and muddy wagon roads. He undertook his bicycle riding, as he did everything else, with the utmost zest and enthusiasm. All over the country he and his wheel became inseparable associated. He would ride into the towns whether the thermometers were in the nineties, or it was zero weather and icicles were in his beard.

I always think of G. F.'s work in the theatrical profession as similar to that of the pioneers who went out to California during the Gold Rush. Road companies had been sent out here and there, but Gus was the first to organize the system. He laid out routes that no one ever believed would be successful. Those trails soon became well worn and have been used until very recently.

In speaking so fully of G. F. in those days, I do not mean in any way to belittle the great achievements of Daniel and Charles Frohman. It seems strange that notwithstanding my close contact with D. F. and C. F. I always found myself in closer contact with G. F. He made it a point to acquaint me in great detail with the trips he had been making and the laying out of routes for the various companies.

I remember well the afternoon of October 30th, 1882, when G. F. sent me over to "Abbey's New Park Theater," situated on the east side of Broadway between 21st and 22nd Streets, to get two seats for him for the American debut of Lily Langtry in "The Unequal Match" which was to open the regular season at the theater. At the box office I was referred backstage to see the manager. I started back with my letter of introduction. Suddenly I heard the cry, "Fire."

Some men working on the stage setting had been startled by flames in one of the upper boxes on the Broadway side where some upholsterers had been making repairs. In less time than it takes to tell, crowds of people were assembled outside and I found myself in the street in a terrific jam.

I will never forget the sight of Lily Langtry standing alone in the bay window of the Albemarle, diagonally opposite Abbey's, in a fit of hysterics, wringing her hands, watching the theater, where she was to make her first appearance in America,, burn to the ground. There was some consolation in that her wardrobe had not been sent to the theater. Several other members of the company were not so fortunate; all their belongings were destroyed.

The origin of the fire was never discovered. Henry E. Abbey's loss was said to be $100,000, and only a short time previous he had been offered a large sum of money for the theater, the lease of which still had two years to run. It was never rebuilt. Abbey later became a member of the producing firm of Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau.

Needless to say it was some time before I got out of the crowd and made my way back to the Madison Square Theater. There I found G. F. pacing up and down, -- awaiting my return. He was fearful for my safety.

Once G. F. booked "Calendar's Minstrels" at the Grand Opera House at 8th Avenue and 23rd Street. "Haverly's Minstrels," with whom he had been identified some years before, opened that very day at the Cosmopolitan Theater, at 41st Street and Broadway. G. F. was very bitter about their coming in to give him opposition, and competed with them in this manner. We took sheets of paper and by means of a hectograph machine that we had, turned them out like so many handwritten passes to the show, -- reading "Grand Opera House O.K. G. F.," and distributed them by the hundreds all around the town.

Tremendous lines formed in front of the box office of the Grand Opera House, which cut terrifically into the attendance of the "Haverly's Minstrels." Some time later G. F. said to me that he had made a great mistake; the O.K.'s should have been printed on paper resembling greenbacks so that no one on line would have known that the other fellow had a pass.

He once said, "Put 'O.K. G. F.' on my tombstone, -- an d maybe I'll get into heaven (for in his peculiar writing that is the way he always wrote passes)."

From office boy I was eventually put into the box office as assistant to Aaron Appleton, the treasurer. G. F. had finished organizing the Mallory's road work in 1882 but continued to supervise it until 1884, when he left. Charles went back to "Haverly's Minstrels," and in March, 1885, A. M. Palmer, formerly of Shook and Palmer of the Union Square Theater, was installed as manager of the Madison Square by the Mallorys. That let out Daniel Frohman, who then acquired the lease of the old Lyceum Theater and put in a stock company.

At the same time all those who had been in Dan's employ were dismissed. This included all the older employees as well as myself. New people were substituted. It was a new broom and a clean sweep.