The Madison Square Theatre was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan , on the south side of 24th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway (which intersects Fifth Avenue near that point). It was built in 1863, operated as a theater from 1865 to 1909, and demolished in 1909 to make way for an office building. The Madison Square Theatre was the scene of important developments in stage technology , theatre design, and theatrical tour management. For about half its history it had other names including the Fifth Avenue Theatre, Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre, Hoyt's Madison Square Theatre, and Hoyt's Theatre.
18-545: Merchant and real estate magnate Amos R. Eno leased land next to his Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1862 to James Fisk Jr., who built an after-hours gold trading exchange during the U.S. Civil War . The “ regular stock exchange ” found the competition disruptive and soon shut down the operation. The building became a performance space, the Fifth Avenue Opera House , used by George Christy and other minstrel shows from 1865 to 1867 when C.H. Garland took it over as
36-420: A more conventionally international mix of plays. Palmer was followed by playwright/director Charles H. Hoyt , along with Charles Thompson who died in 1893 and Frank McKee, who ran the theatre after Hoyt became incapacitated in 1898. During this time the theatre was variously known as Hoyt's Madison Square Theatre , or simply Hoyt's Theatre . The Madison Square Theatre name returned in 1898, and remained through
54-598: The Fifth Avenue Theatre for burlesque shows. The theatre closed at the beginning of 1868 after one minstrel show manager murdered another after attending a performance. John Brougham briefly managed it as Brougham's Theatre in 1869, followed by building owner Fisk, who restored the Fifth Avenue name and presented French opéra bouffe . Augustin Daly became manager later in 1869, sometimes calling it
72-703: The Upper West Side . After settling his son's debts, Amos retreated to the family summer residence in Simsbury, the Amos Eno House (1820, on the National Register of Historic Places ) which had been erected by Eno's father-in-law, Elisha Phelps . Every summer the Eno family would visit the house, which was enlarged by Eno and by his daughter Antoinette Eno Wood. He was a founding benefactor of
90-911: The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City and much valuable real estate in New York City where he established a prominent family fortune. Having clerked in a small general store in Hartford, Connecticut , he married Lucy Phelps, also of Simsbury, and moved to New York, where he and his cousin John Jay Phelps opened a profitable dry goods business. While making a fortune in the dry goods business, Amos Eno parlayed his profits into real estate investment in Manhattan, New York, buying corner lots and occasionally full undeveloped city blocks. His brownstone -fronted store at 74 Broadway had
108-477: The Fifth Avenue Theatre, sometimes Daly's Fifth Avenue or simply Daly's Theatre . The house (seating area) during this period was described as being “plated with mirrors for the illusion of immensity,” with a palette of “blush rose, neatly framed in white, with delicate boundaries of gold.” Capacity was 900, or 1,000 with standees, and gas jets provided interior lighting. When the theatre burned to
126-692: The Simsbury Free Library, among other local philanthropic gestures. Eno's portrait by Eastman Johnson , commissioned by his family in 1899, was a posthumous one, based on photographs; it is conserved in the New York State Museum . Amos Richards Eno – on January 14, 1835, in Simsbury, Connecticut – married Lucy Jane Phelps (maiden; 1818–1882), daughter of Elisha Phelps (1779–1847). Their children included: Amos R. Eno died February 21, 1898. At time of his death his wealth
144-474: The bank, embezzled millions of dollars and then fled to Canada to avoid prosecution. Eno never closed the bank, though three to four million dollars were withdrawn in panic, and made good his son's embezzlement, "though he never recovered from the shock". He held the greater part of a full block facing Broadway in Longacre Square (now Times Square) . His last real estate speculations were in open lots in
162-401: The builders to excavate an extra-deep foundation. Ventilation featured a primitive form of air conditioning, with cool air drawn in from the roof and circulated to perforations under the seats. To increase stage-room for action and house-room for seats, the orchestra was in a balcony above the stage, and the conductor received "cues by means of electric signals and reflectors." Interior decoration
180-546: The ground after a matinee on New Year's Day 1873, Daly moved his company and the Fifth Avenue Theatre name to an existing theatre on 28th and Broadway. The name similarities continue to cause confusion today. It was four years until a new building appeared, first called the Fifth Avenue Hall , where a magician named Heller performed for several months in 1877, then Minnie Cumming's Drawing Room Theatre . George and Marshall Mallory then erected yet another building on
198-764: The management of Walter N. Lawrence until Eno's descendants demolished the building and the Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1908. By that time the " Theater District " had moved uptown to the Times Square area around 42nd Street. In its forty years of operation some 250 plays were produced at the Madison Square Theatre. Following are productions that ran at least six weeks, noting runs of 100 or more performances. Daly Era (1869-1873) Mackaye and Mallory Eras (1879-1885) Palmer Era (1885-1891) Hoyt-McKee-Lawrence Era (1894-1908) Amos Eno Amos Richards Eno (November 1, 1810 – February 21, 1898)
SECTION 10
#1732773082164216-476: The nation's first theatrical touring organization with multiple companies of a single play and developed their promotional and management skills. The Frohmans, along with Marcus Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger , who met while working in the Madison Square Theatre's publicity department, and David Belasco , who also worked at the theatre in this period, became major forces in American theatrical management over
234-585: The next 35 years. The Rev. Dr. George Mallory, owner (with his brother) and editor of the Episcopal Church publication The Churchman , sought to use their ownership of the theatre "to elevate the moral tone of the American stage", among other things by running only American-written plays cast almost exclusively with American actors. The Mallorys managed the theatre on this principal themselves for four years. In 1885 they brought in impresario A.M. Palmer who bought them out and managed until 1891, with
252-670: The reputation of having been the first use of brownstone in the city. Retiring from active participation as a merchant, he concentrated in 1856–59 in building the famous Fifth Avenue Hotel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street in Madison Square , Manhattan, and the adjacent Madison Square Theatre in 1863. North of Madison Square , Eno built a brick four-storey house at 233 Fifth Avenue , between 26th and 27th Streets, that served as his residence for many years. In April 1890, Eno sold it to The Reform Club for $ 240,000 (equivalent to $ 8,138,667 in 2023). Anson Phelps Stokes
270-494: The site, for actor-director-playwright Steele Mackaye who had produced a few shows in the small hall in 1879 under a name they kept, the Madison Square Theatre . Mackaye's famous stage technology improvements included the "double stage", an elevator the size of the full stage that was raised and lowered by counter-weights and reduced scene changes to one or two minutes from five or more. The double stage required
288-520: Was an American real estate investor and capitalist in New York City. He built the Fifth Avenue Hotel and many other developments on the streets of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, where he established a prominent family fortune of 20 to 40 million U.S. dollars. Amos Richards Eno was born November 1, 1810, in Simsbury, Connecticut . Amos R. Eno began his career as a merchant of dry goods who expanded into real estate in New York City having built
306-613: Was in 1888 its founding president. Before moving into Eno's mansion, the club had been located at 12 East 33rd Street. The structure at 233 Fifth Avenue, still much in its original form, currently is the home of the Museum of Sex . Eno and relatives, in April 1882, chartered the Second National Bank of New York, headquartered in the hotel. In 1884 scandal hit the family bank when one of Amos' sons, John Chester Eno, president of
324-548: Was meant to evoke an intimate drawing-room, with imitation-mahogany trim, gold and pale colors, Shakespeare illustrations, and a Tiffany -designed drop curtain that burned in an otherwise uneventful fire a few weeks after the reopening. The Mallory brothers and Mackaye soon fell out, and Mackaye lost the rights to his single commercially successful play, Hazel Kirke , and his position at the theatre. By then Business Manager Daniel Frohman had hired his brothers Gustave and Charles . They used Hazel Kirke's long run to implement
#163836