In 1913, Thomas G. Moses recorded that Sosman & Landis delivered scenery for Moss and Brills’ new theatre in New York. Moss & Brill had two theaters in New York, the Eighty-sixth Street and the DeKalb. The theatrical management firm also opened two theaters during January 1913. Both were combination houses, bringing the total number of theaters owned by Moss & Brill up to five, according to newspapers.
The Hamilton Theatre opened on January 23 and the Jefferson theatre opened on January 25. On January 24, 1913, the “Brooklyn Citizen” included an article about Moss & Brill’s new Hamilton Theatre:
“THE HAMILTON OPENS.
Moss and Brill’s new Hamilton Theatre, which is located at 146th street and Broadway, Manhattan, had its opening last night. A fine program consisting of eight vaudeville numbers was presented. At the conclusion there were calls for the management, but the demands for a speech were not answered. The new institution is a handsome building, seating about two thousand persons, and will be devoted to vaudeville at popular prices. Friends of those interested in the new enterprise expressed their feelings by sending numerous large bouquets. A handsome souvenir programme was distributed.”
The second venue opened by Moss & Brill that January was the Jefferson Theatre. The Jefferson Theatre was slightly larger than the Hamilton Theatre, with a 3,000 seating capacity. It was located on the edge of what is now known as the East Village, at 214 E. 14th Street. The narrow entrance was between two tenement buildings was the entrance, leading to the main auditorium in the back of the building, situated near E. 13th Street. Over the years The Jefferson Theatre became known as the RKO Jefferson Theatre. It did not survive, however, and was demolished in 2000.
“The New York Times” announced the opening of the venue on 26 Jan. 1913: “The Jefferson Theatre, the second of the new houses to be opened by Moss & Brill vaudeville producers, was opened to the public last night. It is at Fourteenth Street and Third Avenue. George Kiester, architect of the Cohan, Belasco, Astor and Hamilton Theatres, designed the Jefferson. A feature in its construction is the span of 90 feet of balcony and orchestra entirely unobstructed by posts or pillars. The Hamilton Theatre at 146th Street and Broadway were opened by the same firm on Thursday night. It is a marble building with a frontage of 100 feet on Broadway. It has only one balcony, but is equipped with twenty-four boxes, and will seat approximately 2,500. The color scheme is gold and brown. Both houses will resent continuous performances from 1 to 11 of vaudeville and moving pictures” (page 44):
Both the Hamilton and Jefferson theaters were completed at a cost of $1,000,000 and listed as “popular price” venues. The “Evening World” reported, “With the other Moss & Brill house, the Eighty-sixth Street Theatre, and the Cunningham & Fluegelman theatres, the McKinley Square, in the Bronx, and the DeKalb, in Brooklyn, seating capacity for more than 12,000 persons will be provided and an outlay in buildings and ground of more than $3,000,000 represented” (The Evening World, New York, 18 Jan. 1913, page 6).
The history of Moss & Brill is integral in the establishment of a new theatre circuit that appeared in 1912. That year newspapers announced the establishment of the Consolidated Booking Offices of America. The new company consolidated the interests of Moss & Brill and Fluegelmen & Cunningham, both of New York, with the Sheehan and Olympia circuits of New England, taking the title Sheedy and Affiliated Vaudeville Circuit. The company controlled about thirty weeks of vaudeville bookings from New York to Portland, Maine. Two weeks later, the newly formed Sheedy and Affiliated Vaudeville Circuit united their interests with the Theatre Booking Corporation, of Chicago; the Charles H. Miles Circuit of Detroit and Cincinnati, and the Klein & Crawford Circuit that extended from St. Louis to Omaha, to form the Consolidated Booking Offices of America. On August 16, 1912, the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” reported, “Combination of Independent ‘Small-Time’ Vaudeville Gains Ground.” This consolidation of smaller circuits resulted in vaudeville artists being able to secure contracts for fifty-six weeks of solid bookings instead of only thirty, meaning “headliners” from previously bigger circuits, were able to appear for the first time at popular prices.
The Consolidated Booking Offices of America incorporation papers were filed in Albany, New York in 1912 and the new company had a suite of twelve offices in the George M. Cohan Theatre Building in New York City, on Broadway, near Forty-third street. They featured popular-priced vaudeville, thus necessitating the use of venues with large-seating capacities of 2,000 or more to generate significant profits.
The new circuit also landed a major deal with Kinemacolor in De Kalb that year (see past posts #822-823 about Kinemacolor movies). On Feb. 1, 1913, “The Chat” announced “By the purchase of rights in Greater New York to exhibit the kinemacolor photo plays and motion pictures, Messrs. Cunningham and Fluegelman, proprietors of the DeKalb [Theatre], with their partners in the Consolidated Booking Offices, Messrs. Moss and Brill, now own the rights in this city outside of a small strip on Broadway from 34th street to Columbus Circle” (Brooklyn, New York, page 42). Instead of the current prices for Kinemacolor that ranged from $0.50 to $1.50, the prices at the DeKalb Theatre were $0.25.
Change was in the air for popular entertainment as the moving picture industry continued to gain ground, offering theatre managers with an opportunity.
“The Evening World” answered the question “Why new theatres of this type are needed on January 18, 1913 (page 6): “It is the general opinion that the metropolis is already overstocked with theatre, and just now Broadway and its adjacent territory has more than can be filled. And yet more are being built, while the dramatic field is overstocked. The same may be said of the popular-price houses. There are hundreds of these, including the ‘motion picture’ houses, and one would naturally infer that the field is over worked. But Mr. Moss and Mr. Brill were the first to see the possibilities of building modern fireproof theatres to supply the ever-increasing demand for popular amusement at popular prices.”
To be continued…
