The first theatre in New York City to bear the name The Winter Garden Theatre had a brief but important seventeen-year history (beginning in 1850) as one of New York's premier showcases for a wide range of theatrical fare, from variety shows to extravagant productions of the works of Shakespeare. Initially known as Tripler's Hall or Metropolitan Hall, it burned down in 1854 and was rebuilt as The New York Theatre. Although it burned to the ground several times, it rose from the ashes under different managers, bearing various names, to become known as one of the most important theatres in New York history.[1]
Interior of Tripler Hall, 1850. In 1854 it burned down and was replaced by The New York Theatre, which was renamed The Winter Garden Theatre by the impresarioDion Boucicault after extensive remodeling in 1859.
One of the most significant and politically influential productions in American theatre history took place at The Winter Garden Theatre on November 25, 1864. Junius Brutus Booth Jr., Edwin Booth, and John Wilkes Booth, three sons of Junius Brutus Booth, one of America's great tragedians, staged a benefit performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to raise funds to commission a statue of the playwright for Central Park.[3] Four months later John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln in Washington D.C., while shouting the historic words of Brutus in ancient Rome.[4] Throughout its seventeen-year history, The Winter Garden Theatre played a significant role in American theatre.
Groundbreakingedit
The so-called "Jenny Lind Hall", detail from a poster of 1850 before the concert hall was finished.[5]
The theatre was originally planned in 1850 for the first engagement of Jenny Lind, an internationally known singer known as the "Swedish Nightingale". Located at 667 Broadway, New York, across from Bond Street south of Amity Street (today's West Third Street),[6] the new theatre was to be "one of the largest musical halls in the world," boasting one of the largest stages in New York City.[7]
On Mercer Street. The theatre burned to the ground on January 8, 1854 and was replaced by a new theatre the same year.
Delays in construction resulted in the theatre not being ready for Lind's first show. She arrived to great fanfare and a reported gathering of over 40,000 (all arranged by her manager, P. T. Barnum), and opened at New York City's Castle Garden. The theatre that was to have opened with "the name of Jenny Lind [that] would attract attention all over the country",[8] was later opened as Tripler Hall. It had productions of numerous minstrel shows, which were fashionable and popular on the American stage.
Tripler Hall also was used for other large gatherings. In December 1850 it was the site of an important ceremonial meeting of the Freemasons of New York City, which was attended by thousands of men. It was described as "the event was regarded and still is regarded [1899] as a landmark in the history of Freemasonry in the history of New York."[9]
Several different managers had control during this period, with each manager naming the theatre as he or she pleased. When the theatre was used for the American Art-Union Prizes Distribution, a report in The Illustrated London News described the interior of Tripler Hall:
Never - not even on the nights of the "Nightingale" - has the capacity of Tripler Hall been more fully booked than the evening appointed for the distribution of the Art Union prizes. The immense floor (30 feet wider than Kester Hall), the aisles, the galleries before the stage, and beside the doors, were crowded to excess."[11]
On May 15, 1855, new management took over, presenting a musical by John and Morris Barnett called Monsieur Jacques. John Lafarge, owner of the famed Lafarge House which adjoined the theatre, assumed management and renamed it as Metropolitan Hall.
Laura Keeneedit
Laura Keene's Variety Theatre, 1856
On December 27, 1855, the actress and manager Laura Keene reopened the theatre as Laura Keene's Varieties with Old Heads and Young Hearts.[12]
Here the leading female impresario of New York produced an eclectic form of entertainment which she would perfect in subsequent productions such as the musical Seven Sisters five years later.
A rare etching of the interior of the theatre at this time depicts a production by Laura Keene in her theatre; From the point of view of the stage, it depicts what is probably the production of a classical text, with two figures in historical costumes standing downstage close to the footlights.[13] This etching, from the actors' point of view, gives a rare glimpse into theatrical production on the American stage in the pre-Civil War era.
Despite the success of the theatre under Laura Keene, the Panic of 1857 bankrupted the theatre, and it was forced to close once again.[14]
The Octoroon, Act IV, 1859. The premiere of this controversial melodrama became the "sensation" of the season. (Compliments of Special Collections, Templeman Library, University of Kent).[16]
During the summer of 1859, the daring actor–playwright–manager Dion Boucicault, called "the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century",[17] tried his hand at management, took over the theatre, and gave the theatre its final name of The Winter Garden Theatre with the opening of his original burlesqueChamooni III on October 19, 1859. The theatre was aptly named The Winter Garden because Boucicault remodeled the theatre extensively, surprisingly cutting the auditorium in half and installing "artificial tropical plants after a Parisian prototype."[18] Boucicault effectively turned the theatre into a "winter garden" in the fall of the year. Among Boucicault's stable of first-rung actors were Joseph Jefferson, Agnes Robertson, and Mrs. John Wood. Boucicault's dramatization of Charles Dickens's Christmas story Cricket on the Hearth was his opening production, starring Jefferson as Caleb Plummer and Robertson as Dot; this immensely popular production eventually toured, as one critic has said, to "every possible playhouse in English-speaking America."[19]
The Octoroonedit
That winter, on December 5 of 1859, Boucicault premiered one of his most popular - and controversial - melodramas The Octoroon, subtitled "Life in Louisiana", which he had adapted from the novel The Quadroon by Thomas Mayne Reid. The Octoroon, dealing with people of mixed white and African heritage, caused nothing short of a sensation, to see on the stage a drama that provoked discussions about race and politics.[20] About this new phenomenon, The New York Times wrote that it had become "the great dramatic sensation of the season":
Everybody talks about the Octoroon, [sic] wonders about the Octoroon, goes to see the Octoroon; and the "Octoroon" thus becomes, in point of fact, the work of the public mind...the public having insisted on rewriting the piece according to its own notions, interprets every word and incident in wholly unexpected lights; and, for aught we know, therefore, the "Octoroon" may prove after all to be a political treatise of great emphasis and significance, very much to the author's amazement.[21]
The newly named Winter Garden Theatre eventually became home to a series of musical extravaganzas and burlesques: Cinderella with music by Charles Koppitz and a text by Charles Dawson Shanley on September 9, 1861, The Wizard's Tempest by Charles Gayler, on June 9, 1862, and King Cotton by Charles Chamberlain on June 21, 1862.
On February 21, 1863, Edwin Booth took on the management of the Winter Garden Theatre (together with his brother-in-law, John Sleeper Clarke) with the intention of shifting the focus from musicals and burlesques to classical dramas. This enterprise included a toga-clad, one-night production of Julius Caesar on the evening of November 25, 1864, Evacuation Day, played by Edwin and his brothers, John Wilkes Booth and Junius Brutus Booth Jr.[3]
In the handbill promoting the production (right), it stated that there would appear, for one night only, "The Three Sons of the Great Booth." The three Booth brothers were then listed, from oldest to youngest, Junius, Edwin, and John, and beneath this, the Latin phrase that left no doubt that the entire production was dedicated to their father, the great tragedian Junius Brutus Booth: Filii Patri Digno Digniores.
As their mother watched on from a box on the aisle, the three Booth brothers reenacted the tragedy of Julius Caesar before an audience in The Winter Garden Theatre that was "packed to the rafters."[24] During the performance the clanging of fire bells could be heard from the streets of New York, as confederate sympathizers during the ongoing American Civil War tried to burn the city to the ground, which included fires set in the Lafarge House, which abutted the rear of The Winter Garden Theatre. About a half-hour into the performance, during the first scene of Act Two, when Brutus was pacing in his orchard, contemplating his pending assassination of Caesar, the clang and clatter of horse-drawn fire engines could be heard from the street outside. It seemed that there was a fire next door in the Lafarge House which threatened to engulf The Winter Garden Theatre. Before panic could consume the audience, Edwin stepped to the footlights to calm the audience.[24]
Julius Caesar and the burning of New York Cityedit
The fire at the Lafarge House that almost spread to The Winter Garden Theatre had been set by sympathizers to the cause of the Confederacy with the intention of burning New York to the ground during these, the last months of the Civil War.[25] At the Lafarge House, someone had set fires in the front parlor and had emptied a bottle of phosphorus on the furniture throughout a room on the third floor.[26]
In describing this "diabolical plot to burn the City of New York," which The New York Times called "one of the most fiendish and inhuman acts known in modern times," it was reported under a banner heading:
THE EXCITEMENT AT WINTER GARDEN
On November 26, 1864, confederate rebels set fire to the Lafarge House. The house was located next to the Winter Garden Theatre, and the rebels had the intention of spreading the fire and burning down New York. A woman was arrested at the Metropolitan Hotel after witnesses had seen her leaving each building right before they caught on fire. She was suspected of using phosphorus to help start the fires and was detained. The fire marshal Baker was in charge of investigating how the fires were started, while police tracked down other suspected people. The New York Times said that this rebel attempt was "one of the most fiendish and inhuman acts known in modern times."
When the alarm of fire was given at the Lafarge the excitement became very intense among the closely-packed mass of human beings in [the] Winter Garden Theatre adjoining the Lafarge, and but for the presence of mind of Mr. BOOTH, who addressed them from the stage of the theatre, telling them there was no danger, it is fearful to think what would have been the result. There was only the usual number of policemen and watchmen in attendance, and the panic was such for a few moments that it seemed as if all the audience believed the entire building was in flames, and just ready to fall upon their devoted heads. In addition to what Mr. BOOTH said from the stage, Judge McCLUNN rose in the dress circle, and in a few timely remarks admonished them all to remain quietly in their places, and at the same time tried to show them the danger which would attend a pell-mell rush for the doors, and especially the uselessness of it, inasmuch as the theatre part of the building was known to be on fire. The presence of a squad of policemen soon after so reassured the audience that with a few exceptions, they remained until the close of the performance.[27]
The city was saved, as was The Winter Garden Theatre. The production of Julius Caesar proceeded. The production was the first – and only – time that the three sons of one of America's great tragedians, Junius Brutus Booth, performed together on the same stage. The production raised $3,500 for the building of the statue of Shakespeare in Central Park, which stands there today.[28]
The "Hundred Nights Hamlet"edit
Edwin Booth as Hamlet at the Winter Garden Theatre, 1864
The following night, on November 26, 1864, Booth played the lead role in what became known as the “100 nights Hamlet",[29] a record which stood for fifty-six years.[30]
The Hamlet of Edwin Booth is well documented in reviews and diaries of those who saw the production. One review, appearing in Harper's shortly after the run of "the hundred nights Hamlet" summarized what Edwin Booth had accomplished during this important portrayal - a production which, perhaps more than any other single production in American stage history, solidified one of the great roles in dramatic history with a single actor. As a critic from the era then wrote: "A really fine actor is as uncommon as a really great dramatic poet. Yet what Garrick was in Richard III or Edmund Kean in Shylock, we are sure Edwin Booth is in Hamlet."[31]
Set design for Edwin Booth's production of Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1, An Apartment in Portia's House, 1867, by Charles Witham.
After that, Booth followed his Hamlet marathon on March 23, 1865, with a series of what he called "Grand Revivals": a series of classical dramas sumptuously produced at the Winter Garden that began with a highly acclaimed production of Othello, with Booth in the title role.[32]
After Lincoln’s assassination, Edwin Booth went int a self-imposed retirement and asked president Andrew Johnson for his brother's body and had him buried at Green Mount Cemetery in 1865. Finally, in February 1866, he returned to the stage and played his acclaimed Richelieu, followed in January 1867 by a spectacular production of Merchant of Venice that was considered one of the finest productions of that play during the 19th century.[33]
Demiseedit
On Saturday, March 23, 1867, a fire broke out under the stage which eventually burned the Winter Garden Theatre to the ground.[34][35]
A fire broke out about 8:40 o'clock on Saturday morning beneath the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre, resulting in the entire destruction of that establishment, and doing considerable damage to the Southern Hotel, formerly known as the Lafarge House. Although the Fire Department was promptly on hand, in an incredibly short space of time the flames had wrapped the entire interior of the Winter Garden in a sheet of fire, and the firemen were unable to work therein owing to the intense heat...By 9 o'clock the flames had reached their limit and the spectacle was one of peculiar grandeur and effect...At 9:15 the roof of theatre fell...The aggregate loss is roughly estimated at $250,000. Both the theatre and the hotel are owned by the Lafarge estate, as also the "stock" scenery and properties of the former...Messrs. EDWIN BOOTH and W. STUART also suffer severe losses. These gentlemen were the joint lessees and managers of the Winter Garden, and their extensive and valuable wardrobes, used in the recent Shakespearean revivals, as well as a large amount of new scenery and properties, were all destroyed by the flames. These articles were valued at $60,000 and uninsured...Mr. Booth is a heavy loser by the total destruction of his private wardrobe and many valuable presents. This wardrobe was considered to be the most extensive and valuable one in the possession of any single actor on this continent.[36]
Included in the wardrobe and also lost was Edwin Booth’s famous Hamlet costume. Rather than rebuild the theatre once again, Booth decided to erect his own theatre twenty blocks uptown on newly fashionable West Twenty-Third Street on the corner of Sixth Avenue, to be called Booth's Theatre.
^Mary C. Henderson. The City and the Theatre, (Back Stage Books, New York, 2004) p. 94-96.
^Mary C. Henderson. The City and the Theatre, (Back Stage Books, New York, 2004) p. 95.
^ abRoberts, Sam (November 25, 2014). "As Booth Brothers Held Forth, 1864 Confederate Plot Against New York Fizzled". The New York Times.
^Eleanor Ruggles. Prince of Players. (New York), p. 282
^Poster of Jenny Lind's first engagement in New York. The theatre was named "Jenny Lind Hall", before it was finished. Because of delays, the theatre was not ready for Lind's first performance and was named "Tripler Hall" instead. The complete poster is from the Library of Congress collection, LC-USZ62-1425.
^For 1859 map showing location and address, see Perris, William, “Plate 49” Maps of the City of New York, [Third Edition,] Vol. 4. Perris & Browne, New York, 1859, at New York Public Library Digital Gallery (Image ID: 1268339). For a good map of New York theatres of this era, see Mary C. Henderson's The City and the Theatre, (Back Stage Books, New York), p. 82.
^Brown, Thomas Allston. A History of the New York Stage, Vol. 1 (New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903) p. 424.
^Review of Jenny Lind's first performance in New York, for which tickets were auctioned off by P. T. Barnum for as much as a thousand dollars New York Herald, September 9, 1850.
^Ross, Peter. A Standard History of Freemasonry in New York. (The Lewis Publishing Company, New York) 1899.
^The Mercer Arts Center History, compiled by Joseph Devorkin, 2004.
^Vernanne Bryan. Laura Keene: A British Actress on the American Stage, 1826-1873 (McFarland & Company, Inc., 1997).
^Mary C. Henderson. The City and the Theatre, (Back Stage Books, New York, 2004) p. 94.
^McClintock, Inez and Marshall, Toys in America, Public Affairs Press, Washington, D. C., 1961, p. 151
^An original lithograph showing a "scene from 'The Octoroon', Adelphi Theatre, London, 1861." The lithograph is entitled, "Octoroon Quadrille" and depicts, "the slave sale". According to records: "It is possibly a title page for a piece of music" for The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault; compliments of Special Collections, Templeman Library, University of Kent
^The record of Booth's 100 consecutive performances of Hamlet lasted until John Barrymore played exactly 101 Hamlets in 1920.
^George William Curtis. "Editor's Easy Chair." Harper's, April, 1865, quoted in Charles H. Shattuck. The Hamlet of Edwin Booth. (University of Illinois Press; Chicago, 1969. p. 60.
^Brown, Thomas Allston. A History of the New York Stage, Vol. 1 (New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903).
Further readingedit
Brown, T. Allston. A History of the New York Stage. Vol. 3, Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1903, pp. 446–449.
Klein, Christopher. Inside John Wilkes Booth’s Famous Family. HISTORY, A&E Television Networks, 2009.
Osborne, John. In New York City, the Winter Garden Theater Is Destroyed by Fire. House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, 1867.
Rutigliano, Olivia. Fire! A brief history of theater fires in New York City—and the regulations that helped people escape them. Roundtable, Lapham’s Quarterly, 2019.
The New York Times. The Rebel Plot, Attempt to Burn the City, The Lost Museum Archive, 1864.
Willis, Richard A. Curtain down on Theatre Fires, Theatre Survey, vol. 13, no. 2, 1972, pp. 60–73.
winter, garden, theatre, 1850, first, theatre, york, city, bear, name, winter, garden, theatre, brief, important, seventeen, year, history, beginning, 1850, york, premier, showcases, wide, range, theatrical, fare, from, variety, shows, extravagant, productions. The first theatre in New York City to bear the name The Winter Garden Theatre had a brief but important seventeen year history beginning in 1850 as one of New York s premier showcases for a wide range of theatrical fare from variety shows to extravagant productions of the works of Shakespeare Initially known as Tripler s Hall or Metropolitan Hall it burned down in 1854 and was rebuilt as The New York Theatre Although it burned to the ground several times it rose from the ashes under different managers bearing various names to become known as one of the most important theatres in New York history 1 Interior of Tripler Hall 1850 In 1854 it burned down and was replaced by The New York Theatre which was renamed The Winter Garden Theatre by the impresario Dion Boucicault after extensive remodeling in 1859 Contents 1 Showcase 2 Groundbreaking 3 Laura Keene 4 Dion Boucicault 4 1 The Octoroon 5 Edwin Booth 5 1 Julius Caesar and the burning of New York City 5 2 The Hundred Nights Hamlet 6 Demise 7 Names 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External linksShowcase editSome of the leading actors and theatre managers of the 19th century worked at The Winter Garden Theatre from Jenny Lind and Laura Keene to Dion Boucicault and Edwin Booth 2 One of the most significant and politically influential productions in American theatre history took place at The Winter Garden Theatre on November 25 1864 Junius Brutus Booth Jr Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth three sons of Junius Brutus Booth one of America s great tragedians staged a benefit performance of Shakespeare s Julius Caesar to raise funds to commission a statue of the playwright for Central Park 3 Four months later John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln in Washington D C while shouting the historic words of Brutus in ancient Rome 4 Throughout its seventeen year history The Winter Garden Theatre played a significant role in American theatre Groundbreaking edit nbsp The so called Jenny Lind Hall detail from a poster of 1850 before the concert hall was finished 5 The theatre was originally planned in 1850 for the first engagement of Jenny Lind an internationally known singer known as the Swedish Nightingale Located at 667 Broadway New York across from Bond Street south of Amity Street today s West Third Street 6 the new theatre was to be one of the largest musical halls in the world boasting one of the largest stages in New York City 7 nbsp On Mercer Street The theatre burned to the ground on January 8 1854 and was replaced by a new theatre the same year Delays in construction resulted in the theatre not being ready for Lind s first show She arrived to great fanfare and a reported gathering of over 40 000 all arranged by her manager P T Barnum and opened at New York City s Castle Garden The theatre that was to have opened with the name of Jenny Lind that would attract attention all over the country 8 was later opened as Tripler Hall It had productions of numerous minstrel shows which were fashionable and popular on the American stage Tripler Hall also was used for other large gatherings In December 1850 it was the site of an important ceremonial meeting of the Freemasons of New York City which was attended by thousands of men It was described as the event was regarded and still is regarded 1899 as a landmark in the history of Freemasonry in the history of New York 9 In February 1852 a memorial service was held at Tripler Hall for James Fenimore Cooper the renowned American novelist Noted statesman Daniel Webster presided and eulogies were said by Washington Irving and William Cullen Bryant That same year English author William Thackeray concluded a national tour with a lecture at Tripler Hall 10 Several different managers had control during this period with each manager naming the theatre as he or she pleased When the theatre was used for the American Art Union Prizes Distribution a report in The Illustrated London News described the interior of Tripler Hall Never not even on the nights of the Nightingale has the capacity of Tripler Hall been more fully booked than the evening appointed for the distribution of the Art Union prizes The immense floor 30 feet wider than Kester Hall the aisles the galleries before the stage and beside the doors were crowded to excess 11 On May 15 1855 new management took over presenting a musical by John and Morris Barnett called Monsieur Jacques John Lafarge owner of the famed Lafarge House which adjoined the theatre assumed management and renamed it as Metropolitan Hall Laura Keene edit nbsp Laura Keene s Variety Theatre 1856On December 27 1855 the actress and manager Laura Keene reopened the theatre as Laura Keene s Varieties with Old Heads and Young Hearts 12 Here the leading female impresario of New York produced an eclectic form of entertainment which she would perfect in subsequent productions such as the musical Seven Sisters five years later A rare etching of the interior of the theatre at this time depicts a production by Laura Keene in her theatre From the point of view of the stage it depicts what is probably the production of a classical text with two figures in historical costumes standing downstage close to the footlights 13 This etching from the actors point of view gives a rare glimpse into theatrical production on the American stage in the pre Civil War era Despite the success of the theatre under Laura Keene the Panic of 1857 bankrupted the theatre and it was forced to close once again 14 This house was reopened Sept 8 1856 as Burton s New Theatre managed by William Evans Burton with The Rivals In 1858 Joseph Jefferson performed in the burlesque Mazeppa by F A Brady He was drawn across the stage atop a Crandall horse 15 Dion Boucicault edit nbsp The Octoroon Act IV 1859 The premiere of this controversial melodrama became the sensation of the season Compliments of Special Collections Templeman Library University of Kent 16 During the summer of 1859 the daring actor playwright manager Dion Boucicault called the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century 17 tried his hand at management took over the theatre and gave the theatre its final name of The Winter Garden Theatre with the opening of his original burlesque Chamooni III on October 19 1859 The theatre was aptly named The Winter Garden because Boucicault remodeled the theatre extensively surprisingly cutting the auditorium in half and installing artificial tropical plants after a Parisian prototype 18 Boucicault effectively turned the theatre into a winter garden in the fall of the year Among Boucicault s stable of first rung actors were Joseph Jefferson Agnes Robertson and Mrs John Wood Boucicault s dramatization of Charles Dickens s Christmas story Cricket on the Hearth was his opening production starring Jefferson as Caleb Plummer and Robertson as Dot this immensely popular production eventually toured as one critic has said to every possible playhouse in English speaking America 19 The Octoroon edit That winter on December 5 of 1859 Boucicault premiered one of his most popular and controversial melodramas The Octoroon subtitled Life in Louisiana which he had adapted from the novel The Quadroon by Thomas Mayne Reid The Octoroon dealing with people of mixed white and African heritage caused nothing short of a sensation to see on the stage a drama that provoked discussions about race and politics 20 About this new phenomenon The New York Times wrote that it had become the great dramatic sensation of the season Everybody talks about the Octoroon sic wonders about the Octoroon goes to see the Octoroon and the Octoroon thus becomes in point of fact the work of the public mind the public having insisted on rewriting the piece according to its own notions interprets every word and incident in wholly unexpected lights and for aught we know therefore the Octoroon may prove after all to be a political treatise of great emphasis and significance very much to the author s amazement 21 The newly named Winter Garden Theatre eventually became home to a series of musical extravaganzas and burlesques Cinderella with music by Charles Koppitz and a text by Charles Dawson Shanley on September 9 1861 The Wizard s Tempest by Charles Gayler on June 9 1862 and King Cotton by Charles Chamberlain on June 21 1862 Edwin Booth edit nbsp Julius Caesar at The Winter Garden Theatre with John Wilkes Booth Edwin Booth and Junius Brutus Booth Jr November 25 1864 On February 21 1863 Edwin Booth took on the management of the Winter Garden Theatre together with his brother in law John Sleeper Clarke with the intention of shifting the focus from musicals and burlesques to classical dramas This enterprise included a toga clad one night production of Julius Caesar on the evening of November 25 1864 Evacuation Day played by Edwin and his brothers John Wilkes Booth and Junius Brutus Booth Jr 3 The goal of staging Julius Caesar for just one night was to raise funds for the establishment of a statue of William Shakespeare designed by John Quincy Adams Ward in the relatively new Central Park on the northern outskirts then of Manhattan 22 Tickets went for sale for a then astounding price of five dollars Considering the way history was to unfold it is curious that it was Edwin Booth who played the role of Brutus assassin of Julius Caesar and the role of Marc Antony was played by John Wilkes Booth while lean and hungry Cassius was given to the heavier built Junius Brutus Booth Jr 23 24 In the handbill promoting the production right it stated that there would appear for one night only The Three Sons of the Great Booth The three Booth brothers were then listed from oldest to youngest Junius Edwin and John and beneath this the Latin phrase that left no doubt that the entire production was dedicated to their father the great tragedian Junius Brutus Booth Filii Patri Digno Digniores nbsp Handbill for the one night benefit performance of Shakespeare s Julius Caesar at The Winter Garden Theatre November 25 1864 with Junius Brutus Booth Jr Edwin Booth and John Wilkes BoothAs their mother watched on from a box on the aisle the three Booth brothers reenacted the tragedy of Julius Caesar before an audience in The Winter Garden Theatre that was packed to the rafters 24 During the performance the clanging of fire bells could be heard from the streets of New York as confederate sympathizers during the ongoing American Civil War tried to burn the city to the ground which included fires set in the Lafarge House which abutted the rear of The Winter Garden Theatre About a half hour into the performance during the first scene of Act Two when Brutus was pacing in his orchard contemplating his pending assassination of Caesar the clang and clatter of horse drawn fire engines could be heard from the street outside It seemed that there was a fire next door in the Lafarge House which threatened to engulf The Winter Garden Theatre Before panic could consume the audience Edwin stepped to the footlights to calm the audience 24 Julius Caesar and the burning of New York City edit The fire at the Lafarge House that almost spread to The Winter Garden Theatre had been set by sympathizers to the cause of the Confederacy with the intention of burning New York to the ground during these the last months of the Civil War 25 At the Lafarge House someone had set fires in the front parlor and had emptied a bottle of phosphorus on the furniture throughout a room on the third floor 26 In describing this diabolical plot to burn the City of New York which The New York Times called one of the most fiendish and inhuman acts known in modern times it was reported under a banner heading THE EXCITEMENT AT WINTER GARDENOn November 26 1864 confederate rebels set fire to the Lafarge House The house was located next to the Winter Garden Theatre and the rebels had the intention of spreading the fire and burning down New York A woman was arrested at the Metropolitan Hotel after witnesses had seen her leaving each building right before they caught on fire She was suspected of using phosphorus to help start the fires and was detained The fire marshal Baker was in charge of investigating how the fires were started while police tracked down other suspected people The New York Times said that this rebel attempt was one of the most fiendish and inhuman acts known in modern times When the alarm of fire was given at the Lafarge the excitement became very intense among the closely packed mass of human beings in the Winter Garden Theatre adjoining the Lafarge and but for the presence of mind of Mr BOOTH who addressed them from the stage of the theatre telling them there was no danger it is fearful to think what would have been the result There was only the usual number of policemen and watchmen in attendance and the panic was such for a few moments that it seemed as if all the audience believed the entire building was in flames and just ready to fall upon their devoted heads In addition to what Mr BOOTH said from the stage Judge McCLUNN rose in the dress circle and in a few timely remarks admonished them all to remain quietly in their places and at the same time tried to show them the danger which would attend a pell mell rush for the doors and especially the uselessness of it inasmuch as the theatre part of the building was known to be on fire The presence of a squad of policemen soon after so reassured the audience that with a few exceptions they remained until the close of the performance 27 The city was saved as was The Winter Garden Theatre The production of Julius Caesar proceeded The production was the first and only time that the three sons of one of America s great tragedians Junius Brutus Booth performed together on the same stage The production raised 3 500 for the building of the statue of Shakespeare in Central Park which stands there today 28 The Hundred Nights Hamlet edit nbsp Edwin Booth as Hamlet at the Winter Garden Theatre 1864The following night on November 26 1864 Booth played the lead role in what became known as the 100 nights Hamlet 29 a record which stood for fifty six years 30 The Hamlet of Edwin Booth is well documented in reviews and diaries of those who saw the production One review appearing in Harper s shortly after the run of the hundred nights Hamlet summarized what Edwin Booth had accomplished during this important portrayal a production which perhaps more than any other single production in American stage history solidified one of the great roles in dramatic history with a single actor As a critic from the era then wrote A really fine actor is as uncommon as a really great dramatic poet Yet what Garrick was in Richard III or Edmund Kean in Shylock we are sure Edwin Booth is in Hamlet 31 nbsp Set design for Edwin Booth s production of Merchant of Venice Act IV Scene 1 An Apartment in Portia s House 1867 by Charles Witham After that Booth followed his Hamlet marathon on March 23 1865 with a series of what he called Grand Revivals a series of classical dramas sumptuously produced at the Winter Garden that began with a highly acclaimed production of Othello with Booth in the title role 32 After Lincoln s assassination Edwin Booth went int a self imposed retirement and asked president Andrew Johnson for his brother s body and had him buried at Green Mount Cemetery in 1865 Finally in February 1866 he returned to the stage and played his acclaimed Richelieu followed in January 1867 by a spectacular production of Merchant of Venice that was considered one of the finest productions of that play during the 19th century 33 Demise editOn Saturday March 23 1867 a fire broke out under the stage which eventually burned the Winter Garden Theatre to the ground 34 35 A fire broke out about 8 40 o clock on Saturday morning beneath the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre resulting in the entire destruction of that establishment and doing considerable damage to the Southern Hotel formerly known as the Lafarge House Although the Fire Department was promptly on hand in an incredibly short space of time the flames had wrapped the entire interior of the Winter Garden in a sheet of fire and the firemen were unable to work therein owing to the intense heat By 9 o clock the flames had reached their limit and the spectacle was one of peculiar grandeur and effect At 9 15 the roof of theatre fell The aggregate loss is roughly estimated at 250 000 Both the theatre and the hotel are owned by the Lafarge estate as also the stock scenery and properties of the former Messrs EDWIN BOOTH and W STUART also suffer severe losses These gentlemen were the joint lessees and managers of the Winter Garden and their extensive and valuable wardrobes used in the recent Shakespearean revivals as well as a large amount of new scenery and properties were all destroyed by the flames These articles were valued at 60 000 and uninsured Mr Booth is a heavy loser by the total destruction of his private wardrobe and many valuable presents This wardrobe was considered to be the most extensive and valuable one in the possession of any single actor on this continent 36 Included in the wardrobe and also lost was Edwin Booth s famous Hamlet costume Rather than rebuild the theatre once again Booth decided to erect his own theatre twenty blocks uptown on newly fashionable West Twenty Third Street on the corner of Sixth Avenue to be called Booth s Theatre The site was then occupied by the Grand Central Hotel and is today the location for the New York University School of Law s Mercer Street Residence Names edit667 Broadway As of Name Managers Source page 37 October 17 1850 Tripler Hall N A 424December 1851 Metropolitan Hall N A 425January 8 1854 destroyed by fire N A 426September 18 1854 New York Theatre and Metropolitan Opera House N A 426September 30 1854 Great Metropolitan Theatre N A 427September 3 1855 The Metropolitan N A 429December 27 1855 Laura Keene s Varieties Laura Keene 431 2September 8 1856 Burton s New Theatre William Burton 435April 4 1859 The New Metropolitan N A 445September 14 1859 Winter Garden Theatre Dion Boucicault and Edwin Booth 446March 23 1867 destroyed by fire N A 467See also editWinter Garden Theatre the current theatreReferences edit Mary C Henderson The City and the Theatre Back Stage Books New York 2004 p 94 96 Mary C Henderson The City and the Theatre Back Stage Books New York 2004 p 95 a b Roberts Sam November 25 2014 As Booth Brothers Held Forth 1864 Confederate Plot Against New York Fizzled The New York Times Eleanor Ruggles Prince of Players New York p 282 nbsp Poster of Jenny Lind s first engagement in New York The theatre was named Jenny Lind Hall before it was finished Because of delays the theatre was not ready for Lind s first performance and was named Tripler Hall instead The complete poster is from the Library of Congress collection LC USZ62 1425 For 1859 map showing location and address see Perris William Plate 49 Maps of the City of New York Third Edition Vol 4 Perris amp Browne New York 1859 at New York Public Library Digital Gallery Image ID 1268339 For a good map of New York theatres of this era see Mary C Henderson s The City and the Theatre Back Stage Books New York p 82 Brown Thomas Allston A History of the New York Stage Vol 1 New York Dodd Mead amp Company 1903 p 424 Review of Jenny Lind s first performance in New York for which tickets were auctioned off by P T Barnum for as much as a thousand dollars New York Herald September 9 1850 Ross Peter A Standard History of Freemasonry in New York The Lewis Publishing Company New York 1899 The Mercer Arts Center History compiled by Joseph Devorkin 2004 The Illustrated London News January 24 1851 Brown pp 431 2 Vernanne Bryan Laura Keene A British Actress on the American Stage 1826 1873 McFarland amp Company Inc 1997 Mary C Henderson The City and the Theatre Back Stage Books New York 2004 p 94 McClintock Inez and Marshall Toys in America Public Affairs Press Washington D C 1961 p 151 An original lithograph showing a scene from The Octoroon Adelphi Theatre London 1861 The lithograph is entitled Octoroon Quadrille and depicts the slave sale According to records It is possibly a title page for a piece of music for The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault compliments of Special Collections Templeman Library University of Kent The New York Times September 19 1890 Henderson p 95 Dickensian 48 21 Jefferson Joseph The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson New York The Century Co 1889 and 1890 Chapter 8 p 207 Online at HathiTrust The New York Times December 15 1859 p 4 The statue of Shakespeare now stands to the south of the main Promenade and east of the Sheep Meadow in Central Park Julius Caesar Act I Scene ii a b c Ruggles p 164 The Rebel Plot Attempt to Burn the City All the Principal Hotels Simultaneously Set on Fire The New York Times November 26 1864 Ruggles 165 The Plot Full and Minute Particulars How the Plan Was Conceived How Its Execution Failed The New York Times November 27 1864 Michale W Kauffman American Brutus John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies Random House New York 2004 p 149 150 Brown p 460 The record of Booth s 100 consecutive performances of Hamlet lasted until John Barrymore played exactly 101 Hamlets in 1920 George William Curtis Editor s Easy Chair Harper s April 1865 quoted in Charles H Shattuck The Hamlet of Edwin Booth University of Illinois Press Chicago 1969 p 60 Kauffmann p 150 William Winter Life and Art of Edwin Booth MacMillan and Co New York 1893 p 49 Destruction by Fire of the Winter Garden Theatre PDF The New York Times March 25 1867 What Day Of The Week The New York Times March 25 1867 Brown Thomas Allston A History of the New York Stage Vol 1 New York Dodd Mead amp Company 1903 Further reading editBrown T Allston A History of the New York Stage Vol 3 Dodd Mead and Company 1903 pp 446 449 Klein Christopher Inside John Wilkes Booth s Famous Family HISTORY A amp E Television Networks 2009 Osborne John In New York City the Winter Garden Theater Is Destroyed by Fire House Divided The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College 1867 Rutigliano Olivia Fire A brief history of theater fires in New York City and the regulations that helped people escape them Roundtable Lapham s Quarterly 2019 The New York Times The Rebel Plot Attempt to Burn the City The Lost Museum Archive 1864 Willis Richard A Curtain down on Theatre Fires Theatre Survey vol 13 no 2 1972 pp 60 73 External links edithttp hd housedivided dickinson edu node 46433 article about the Winter Garden Theatre burning down in 1867 https www ibdb com theatre winter garden theatre 1391 article about how the Winter Garden Theatre started and some of its shows https sohorep org glossary the winter garden theatre article about the history of the Winter Garden Theatre and some of its managers 40 43 33 N 73 59 46 W 40 7259 N 73 9962 W 40 7259 73 9962 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Winter Garden Theatre 1850 amp oldid 1189119959, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
