Brooklyn Theatre -- Brooklyn History
Image via Brooklyn Public Library

Read Part 2 of this story.

Brooklyn’s theaters have provided entertainment for almost as long as there has been a city of Brooklyn. Until the invention of the moving picture show, the theater could house all kinds of entertainment, from symphonies and opera, to serious drama, to comedies, vaudeville and minstrel shows.

We had it all. Like any large city, theaters popped up in many places and in many neighborhoods, and a study of Brooklyn’s theaters would be most interesting indeed. By the end of the 19th century, Brooklyn did have its own theater district, centered near the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Streets, and neighboring streets of downtown Brooklyn.

Fifty years earlier, a few of the older theaters were still located closer to City Hall, as the center of downtown Brooklyn’s civic, commercial and social life was right around City Hall and Brooklyn Heights.

In 1871, a new theater was going up on the corner of Washington and Johnson Streets. Washington Street is now Cadman Plaza East, and Johnson Street is an obscure street that cuts through Cadman Plaza.

The theater was located directly across the street from the Post Office building, which was not built until much later, a block from City Hall.

The Daily Eagle calls the theater, Our Thesbian Temple, on April 25th of 1871, and looks forward to it upcoming opening. The article goes to great length to describe the building and all of its levels, seats, stage, and exterior.

Brooklyn Theatre -- Brooklyn History

The building was owned by the Brooklyn Building Association, and was managed by Sara G. and Frederick B. Conway, veteran theater managers. The building could hold 1,600 patrons, and was close to the Manhattan ferries that could easily take Manhattan theater goers back and forth.

By 1876, it was managed by the management team of Albert M. Palmer and Sheridan Shook. On a cold night in December, 1876, the third worst fire in US history was poised to take place here. When it was over, from 278 to over 300 people would be dead.

The management team of Palmer and Shook produced popular adaptations of French plays. They also ran the Union Square Theater in Manhattan, and shared productions with that theater.

Brooklyn Theatre -- Brooklyn History
Photo via Wikipedia

They were known for hiring respected actors and putting on popular entertainments. The play the night of the fire was called the Two Orphans, and was a melodrama about the lives of two pitiful orphans, one who falls into poverty, the other riches.

The play was at the end of its run, and the scenery, props and costumes for several other plays were stored at the theater. Like many theaters of the day, the Brooklyn was a proscenium theater, with a stage that was a performance platform, a prop factory and a warehouse.

Backstage, scenery could be flown in on ropes, backdrops lowered and props and stage settings brought on and off stage. The stage was lit by gas, with gaslights lit by an electric spark that was controlled by the operator at the gas table.

He also controlled the gas-lit border lamps which had tin reflectors that cast the light backwards onto the backstage area and on the borders. These lamps were all in wire cages designed to keep them away from the canvas and flammable materials.

Brooklyn Theatre -- Brooklyn History
Photo via Wikipedia

The audience was seated on three different levels. There were eight private boxes, affording the most expensive seating in the theatre.

The ground floor held 600 seats for parquet and parquet circle seating. The dress circle held 550 seats on a second floor balcony, while the family circle was located on the third floor, and seated 450 people.

These cheap seats had their own separate entrance, so higher paying patrons did not have to interact with the family circle crowds. This entrance was reached by a passageways and stairs in the rear of the theater, which snaked their way through the lower floors to the third floor.

The higher paying patrons had much more direct entrances and exits that opened up to the lobby and onto Washington street. There was another emergency exit along the alley side of the building, but that was generally kept locked to prevent gate crashers.

There were no external fire escapes. There were also stage doors and exits backstage for loading and unloading scenery and equipment, which opened onto Johnson Street.

The night of the fire, the theater was full, with about 1000 people in the audience. There was some later discrepancies about the real number of people present, but one of the theater’s owners said there were about 360 people in the dress circle, 250 in the parquet and parquet circle section, and about 400 people in family circle.

Around 11pm, the curtain was down for the scene changes between the fourth and fifth act, and the orchestra was playing during this intermission.

Backstage the actors were preparing for a scene that was supposed to take place in an old boathouse on the banks of the Seine. The scenery was a flimsy canvas covered frame which blocked the backstage and flies from view.

The actors were in their places waiting for the curtain to rise. The stage manager noticed a small flame on the left side of the stage, coming from the lower part of a drop hanging near one of the border lights.

There was water in paint buckets backstage and a fire hose, but neither were right at hand, and he figured that by the time they were available, the fire would have spread.

He instructed his carpenters to put out the flames, which they did by beating the flames out with long poles they had on hand for pulling set pieces around. The actors noticed the fire, but the curtain went up, and the show went on.

Next time: the horrific fire and loss of life that ensued, and the aftermath.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. The original BAM on Montague street burned too didn’t it?
    It’s interesting to note that Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights can seat 1,800, it is bigger even than a modern Broadway musical house. Henry Ward Beecher packed them in back in the day. Of course Congregationalists were unlikely to visit the theater. Respectable people were shuttered in their houses by 10:00. This must have catered to people with loose morals from places like Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. 🙂