Broadway from 1900 to 1918

Broadway 1900-1918

During the time period from 1900-1918, Broadway was just beginning to develop as a cultural center in New York City. In its beginnings, Broadway was provincial and parochial, bearing no serious relation to art or life, and not taken very seriously by the general public. Characterized by charm and simplicity, the theater district attracted large audiences of middle class people in search of music, excitement, and romance, the best seats in the house only costing $1.50 to $2.00.

The theater district originated in 1900 on 13th Street where The Star theater was located, showing a play called "A Great White Diamond." Broadway extended to only 45th Street, where the New York Theater was playing "The Man in the Moon Junior" and "Broadway to Tokyo." Other productions at this time included "Way Down East" at The Academy of Music on 14th Street portraying the essential goodness of country people, and "Ben Hur" on 41st Street at the Broadway Theater. At the Madison Square Theater on 24th Street ran a production called "Coralie Company, Dressmakers" in which a white man is discovered in bed with a Negress, a play which was considered scandalous and shocked the public.

For the most part in this "Era of Good Feelings," the relationship between audience and actors was mostly cordial and unsophisticated, but lively and exuberant. Audiences often became very involved in the plays, sometimes talking to the actors, hissing, or clapping. All theaters at this time had a pit orchestra that played before the show, during intermission, and after the show, engaging the audience in music.

Before the United States entered World War One in 1917, Broadway theater did not deal with reality or social issues in its plays. One of the only plays that dealt with these ideas was a grim war play called "Moloch" by Beulah Marie Dix, produced in 1915 by George Tyler. This play dramatized distasteful topics, such as brutality and suffering. The public at this time, however, tended to stray toward other, more cheerful plays. Once the war began, Broadway plays were used as an escape from harsh reality. Dr. Frank Crane, the guru of 1917, in response to governmental desire to tax play tickets during the war, pointed out how amusement is essential to people during harsh times like war, stating "The stage is not a nations weakness, extravagance or undoing, but it is a nations deep refreshment that gives to the hearts and minds of a great people that spirit of courage and light and adventure that is needed to achieve success in the arena of world conflict."

Although Broadway plays were used mostly to escape the reality of the war, the Broadway community itself became very active in assisting the war effort. The play "Yip, Yip, Yaphank" at the Century Theater was used to raise money for the war relief, marking the climax of Broadways participation in the war in 1918. The show, written by Irving Berlin, was a conventional musical show, but it was equipped with soldiers who impersonated chorus girls, a cartoon of kitchen police called "Safe for Democracy", and the ballad "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." The show aroused the enthusiasm of thousands of Americans, and transformed the boredom of army life into humor.

The Empire Theatre on Broadway and 40th Street