Brooklyn Playbills and Programs Collection
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Abstract
This collection consists of hundreds of playbills and programs for events that either took place in Brooklyn or, in some cases, are thematically related to Brooklyn.
Historical Note
In the days before television, theaters were an important place for entertainment, news, and social life, and hosted a range of performance genres. At one point, there were over 200 theaters in Brooklyn. Frequented by every class of Brooklynite, they enjoyed mass popularity. From the late 1880s until the 1940s, the period covered by the bulk of these materials, the performing arts thrived in Brooklyn and were available to Brooklyn residents right at their doorsteps.
Some theaters would provide more than one kind of entertainment; for instance, a theater might present a dramatic play and then at other times host vaudeville acts and variety shows. Movie theaters, particularly near the birth of the film medium, would often double as both movie and stage theaters, with film screenings often including vaudeville acts and news reels shown before, during, and after the feature presentation.
The playbills in this collection paint a vivid picture of the varieties of entertainment and cultural life available to Brooklyn residents across several decades. At the same time, they offer insights into prevailing attitudes and social preoccupations along with documenting changing tastes. At the Amphion Theatre, for example, a March 1900 playbill announces its current offering as The Carpet-Bagger, a "political romantic comedy in four acts" set in Mississippi. Adapted from the 1893 novel by Opie Read, a Tennessee-born writer and humorist, the piece draws heavily on broadly sketched, homespun characters that came to embody the Reconstruction-era South around the turn of the century. In contrast, a New Montauk Theatre playbill from just seven years later features considerably more sophisticated fare: a dramatic adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and The Road to Yesterday, a lighthearted fantasy in which two unhappily married couples travel back to their previous lives in Elizabethan England. Both plays were presented by the Shubert Brothers, theater owners and managers who helped define the business of American theater in the 20th century.
The playbills also often include extensive advertising, sometimes accompanied by columns about current fashions, beauty hints, and automobiles. This illustrates the central role played by theaters in Brooklyn's daily life and commerce.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in series alphabetically by venue name. Items are listed chronologically within each series.
Collection Highlights
•A 1913 program for "The Heart and the Hand," a joint address by Helen Keller and her teacher, Mrs. John Macy (also known as Anne Sullivan) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
•The earliest film program in the collection is dated July 24, 1915, for D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation at the Brighton Beach Music Hall.
•Well-known and critically regarded stage actors, such as Sarah Bernhardt in "Fedora" at the Brooklyn Theatre on Fulton Street. There are also programs from multiple theaters for both plays and films starring the famous Barrymores: John, Ethel, and Lionel.
•There are numerous playbills featuring entertainment that includes famous Vaudevillians such as W.C. Fields, Pat Rooney, Stan Laurel, Ethel Merman, Marie Dressler, Jack Norworth and Nora Bayes (later to be known as Nora Bayes Norworth), Eddie Foy, Marie Cahill, Lillian Russell, Will Rogers, Stuart Robson and William Crane, and others. Vaudeville began to decline in popularity after the rise of radio and sound films, but many of these stage stars later went on to achieve success in motion pictures and their names can also be found in movie programs within the collection.
•Two playbills for Minsky's Burlesque, featuring a raucous and bawdy style of entertainment considered obscene at the time. The Minsky Brothers were the leading entrepreneurs of burlesque; at the height of their success they had six theaters in New York City.
•Playbill for "The Two Orphans" performed at the Brooklyn Theatre on Washington and Johnson Streets on December 5, 1876 – the night of the disastrous fire that killed nearly 300 people. The play and the fire were both covered extensively in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
•At least one program in Yiddish and English ( The Red Soldier at the Brighton Theatre), and four in German and English (Lessing Quartett at Saengerbund Hall, Duty is Duty [2 copies] and Heart's Blood at the Hansa Theatre).
Scope and Contents
This collection contains materials representing over a century of events from over 100 different venues. The highest concentration is in the years 1890 to 1909, with over 400 items from that time period. Many of the items in the collection are in delicate condition and must be handled with care.
The types of events represented in this collection include motion pictures, musical concerts, high school commencement exercises, lectures, photoplays, vaudeville (which often included magic segments, song-and-dance acts, acrobatics, comic routines, short films, news reports, and animal acts), and burlesque, as well as the more traditional offerings such as plays and operas. There are also a few rare instances of postcards and stock photography. Theatrical genres represented include morality plays, musical comedies, drama, comedy, farce, satire, tragedy, romantic comedy, operas, and pantomime.
Numerous playbills confirm the range of programming that took place within a single venue. A Brighton Beach Music Hall playbill from the World War I period is typical of many in the collection. The theater's offerings include a screening of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation; musical selections from Victor Herbert's The Tattooed Man; a performance of George M. Cohan's one-act musical farce The Governor's Son; and variety acts by magicians, street musicians, comedians, and acrobats. Elsewhere in the collection are unique items from a theater specializing in German cinema and printed programs with diagrams of theaters that no longer exist.
Advertisements occupy considerable space in many of the playbills. Most are from local businesses, especially ones located near the theaters. Fulton Street establishments, including ones promoted in our Fulton Street Trade Card Collection, are publicized as well.
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Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Use
While many items at the Center for Brooklyn History are unrestricted, we do not own reproduction rights to all materials. Be aware of the several kinds of rights that might apply: copyright, licensing and trademarks. The researcher assumes all responsibility for copyright questions.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item/descriptive title, date (if known); Brooklyn Playbills and Programs Collection, BCMS_0041; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Provenance
This is a composite collection compiled from multiple sources, primarily purchases. More items will continue to be added.
