New York Hippodrome
New York Hippodrome | |
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George A. Fuller Company | |
Other information | |
Seating capacity | 5,300 |
The Hippodrome Theatre,
The Hippodrome was built by
The theater closed in August 1939,[7] and a modern office tower known as The Hippodrome Center (1120 Avenue of the Americas) opened on the site in 1952.
Construction
Construction of the Hippodrome began in June 1904, with Frederick Thompson and
The exterior of the red-brick and
Opening
The gala opening on April 12, 1905, was completely sold out, with seats being priced at as little as 25 cents in the theater's "Family Circle", while others had been auctioned off for as much as $575. The performance was a four-hour extravaganza, the first act of which was called
The glory years
Under the direction of Charles Dillingham, the Hippodrome was the largest and most successful theater in New York. The Hippodrome featured lavish spectacles complete with circus animals, diving horses, opulent sets, and 500-member choruses. Until the end of World War I, the Hippodrome housed all sorts of spectacles then switched to musical extravaganzas, including Good Times which ran for 456 performances from 1920 to 1921.[10] and Better Times, which ran for 405 performance in 1922–23[11] When Dillingham left in 1923 to pursue other interests, the Hippodrome was leased to Keith-Albee, which hired architect Thomas W. Lamb[9] to turn it into a vaudeville theater by building a much smaller stage and discarding all of its unique features. The most popular vaudeville artists of the day, including illusionist Harry Houdini, performed at the Hippodrome during its heyday. Others might vanish rabbits, but in 1918, on the brightly lit stage of the Hippodrome, Houdini made a 10,000-pound elephant disappear, creating a sensation.
The Hippodrome's huge running costs made it a perennial financial failure, and a series of producers tried and failed to make money from the theater. It became a location for vaudeville productions in 1923 before being leased for budget opera performances, then finally becoming a sports arena.
Decline and fall
In 1922, the elephants that graced the stage of the Hippodrome since its opening moved uptown to the Bronx's Royal Theater. On arrival, stage worker Miller Renard recalled, the elephants were greeted with extraordinary fanfare:
The next day the Borough President gives them a dinner on the lawn of the Chamber of Commerce up on Tremont Avenue, with special dinner menus for the elephants. It was some show to see all those elephants march up those steps to the table where each elephant had a bale of hay. The[n], the Borough President welcomes the elephants to the Bronx, and the place is just mobbed with people. And that was the worst week's business we ever done in that theatre.
In 1925, movies were added to the vaudeville, but within a few years, competition from the newer and more sumptuous movie palaces in the Broadway-
After that, the Hippodrome sputtered through bookings of late-run movies, boxing, wrestling, and jai alai games, then was demolished in 1939 as the value of real estate on
Legacy
The office building and parking garage built on the site in 1951–52, owned by Edison Properties, uses the name "The Hippodrome Center."[12][13] Through the 1960s, the modern building was the corporate headquarters of the Charter Communications media publishing company.
Selected shows
- A Yankee Circus on Mars (1905)
- A Society Circus (1905)
- Neptune's Daughter (1906)
- The Auto Race (1907)
- Sporting Days (1908)
- A Trip to Japan (1909)
- The International Cup, the Ballet of Niagra, and the Earthquake (1910)
- Around the World (1912)
- Under Many Flags (1912)
- America (1913)
- Wars of the World (1915)
- Hip! Hip! Hooray! (1915)
- The Big Show (1916)
- Cheer Up (1917)
- Everything (1918)
- Happy Days (1919)
- Good Times (1920)
- Get Together (1921)
- Better Times (1922)
- Jumbo (1935)
In popular culture
- In 1915, John Philip Sousa composed a march titled "The New York Hippodrome" commemorating his band's performance run in the Hip Hip Hooray extravaganza at this venue.[14]
- In 1944, in the Leonard Bernstein musical On the Town, Chip isn't aware of its demolition in the number "Come Up to My Place."
- The 1952 film Million Dollar Mermaid has scenes set in the Hippodrome[15] with Esther Williams playing Annette Kellerman in water ballets, Maria Tallchief as Anna Pavlova and Rod Rogers as Marceline.
References
Notes
- ^ "Raze Old Hippodrome Theater in New York; Will Build 'Taxpayer'". Chicago Tribune. July 9, 1939. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
- ISBN 0300067666. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
- ISBN 9780030850608. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
Hippodrome Theater.
- ISBN 9780786411610. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
- ISBN 9780810119949. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-300-11465-2.
- ^ a b c "World Theatres – alphabetical listing", World-Theatres, 2008, webpage: World-theatres.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-312-38468-5.
- ^ ISBN 0-486-40244-4.
- ^ "Good Times". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
- ^ "Better Times". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
- ^ "The Hippodrome Center" Archived August 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Star Office Space
- ^ "Emporis building ID 114364". Emporis. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
- ^ "The New York Hippodrome March". United States Marine Band. Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (December 5, 1952). "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; ' Million Dollar Mermaid,' With Esther Williams as Annette Kellerman, at Music Hall". The New York Times. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
Bibliography
- Epstein, Milton. The New York Hippodrome: A Complete Chronology of Performances, From 1905 to 1939. Performing Art Resources, vol. 17–18. New York: Theatre Library Association, 1993. ISBN 978-0-03-261014-9