Theater District, Midtown Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The St. James (built as the Erlanger) Theater survives today as one of the historic playhouses that symbolize American theater for both New York and the nation. Built in 1926-27, the St. James was designed by the prominent firm of Warren & Wetmore as the last Broadway theater erected for Abraham Erlanger.
Abraham Erlanger had been a principal in the infamous Klaw & Erlanger Theatrical Syndicate, which had dominated the American theater industry for several decades on either side of the turn of the century. After the break-up of the Syndicate, Klaw and Erlanger went their separate ways, and each built theaters named for themselves.
The Erlanger was the first theatrical commission of Warren & Wetmore, one of New York's most prominent architectural .firms. This commission demonstrated Erlanger's determination to make the house that bore his name as handsome a theater as possible.
The St. James, as an unusual theater design by the architects of Grand Central Terminal, and the last Broadway venture of Abraham Erlanger, represents a special and important aspect of the nation's theatrical history. Beyond its historical importance, its facade is a handsome, if restrained, Beaux-Arts style design which contributes to the visual cohesiveness of the Shubert Alley cluster on West 44th and West 45th Streets.
For half a century the St. James Theater has served as home to countless numbers of the plays through which the Broadway theater has come to personify American theater. As such, it continues to help define the Broadway theater district, the largest and most famous concentration of legitimate stage theaters in the world.
The Development of the Broadway Theater District
The area of midtown Manhattan known today as the Broadway theater district encompasses the largest concentration of legitimate playhouses in the world. The theaters located there, some dating from the turn of the century, are significant for their contributions to the history of the New York stage, for their influence upon American theater as a whole, and in many cases for their architectural design.
The development of the area around Times Square as New York's theater district at the end of the 19th century occurred as a result of two related factors: the northward movement of the population of Manhattan Island (abetted by the growth of several forms of mass transportation), and the expansion of New York's role in American theater. The northward movement of Manhattan's residential, commercial, and entertainment districts had been occurring at a steady rate throughout the 19th century. In the early 1800s, businesses, stores, hotels, and places of amusement had clustered together in the vicinity of lower Broadway.
As New York's various businesses moved north, they began to isolate themselves in more or less separate areas: the financial institutions remained downtown; the major retail stores situated themselves on Broadway between 14th and 23rd Streets, eventually moving to Herald Square and Fifth Avenue after the turn of the century; the hotels, originally located near the stores and theaters, began to congregate around major transportation centers such as Grand Central Terminal or on the newly fashionable Fifth Avenue; while the mansions of the wealthy spread farther north on Fifth Avenue, as did such objects of their beneficence as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^"
The theater district, which had existed in the midst of stores, hotels, and other businesses along lower Broadway for most of the 19th century, spread northward in stages, stopping for a time at Union Square, then Madison Square, then Herald Square. By the last two decades of the 19th century, far-sighted theater managers had begun to extend the theater district even farther north along Broadway, until they had reached the area that was then known as Long Acre Square and is today called Times Square.
A district of farmlands and rural summer homes in the early 1800s, Long Acre Square had by the turn of the century evolved into a hub of mass transportation. A horsecar line had run across 42nd Street as early as the 1860s, and in 1871, with the opening of Grand Central Depot and the completion of the Third and Sixth Avenue Elevated Railways, it was comparatively simple for both New Yorkers and out-of-towners to reach Long Acre Square.
Transportation continued to play a large part in the development of the area; in 1904 New York's subway system was inaugurated, with a major station located at 42nd Street and Broadway. The area was then renamed Times Square in honor of the newly erected Times Building. The evolution of the Times Square area as a center of Manhattan's various mass transit systems made it a natural choice for the location of legitimate playhouses, which needed to be easily accessible to their audiences.
The theater business that invaded Long Acre Square at the end of the 19th century consisted of far more than a few playhouses, for at that time New York was the starting-point for a vast, nationwide entertainment network known as "the road." This complex theater operation had its beginnings in the 1860s when the traditional method of running a theater, the stock system, was challenged by the growing popularity of touring "combination" shows.
In contrast to the stock system, in which a theater manager engaged a company of actors for a season and presented them in a variety of plays, the combination system consisted of a company of actors appearing in a single show which toured from city to city, providing its own scenery, costumes, and sometimes musical accompaniment. Helped by the expansion of the nation's railroads after the Civil War, the combination system soon killed off the majority of stock companies. By 1904 there were some 420 combination companies touring through thousands of theaters in cities and towns across the country.
Of crucial importance to the operation of the combination system was a single location where combination shows could be cast, rehearsed, tried out, and then booked for a cross-country tour. Since New York was already regarded as the most important theater city in America, it is not surprising that it became the headquarters for the combination system. In addition to the many theaters needed for an initial Broadway production for the combinations before they went on tour, New York's theater district encompassed rehearsal halls, the headquarters of scenery, costume, lighting, and makeup companies, offices of theatrical agents and producers, theatrical printers and newspapers, and other auxiliary enterprises. Close to the theater district were boarding houses catering to the hundreds of performers who came to New York in the hope of being hired for a touring show or a Broadway production.
As theaters were built farther uptown, the auxiliary enterprises also began to move north. By the turn of the century,
the section of Broadway between 37th Street and 42nd Street was known as the Rialto. Theater people gathered or promenaded there. Producers could sometimes cast a play by looking over the actors loitering on the Rialto; and out-of-town managers, gazing out of office windows, could book tours by seeing who was available.
The theater district that began to move north to Long Acre Square in the 1890s was thus a vast array of business enterprises devoted to every facet of theatrical production.
The movement of the theater district north along Broadway had proceeded at a steady pace during the latter part of the 19th century. The Casino Theater was opened on the southeast corner of Broadway and 39th Street in 1882. A year later, it was j oined by a most ambitious undertaking--the construction of the Metropolitan Opera House on Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets. In 1888, the Broadway Theater was erected on the southwest corner of Broadway and 41st Street. Five years later, the American Theater opened its doors at Eighth Avenue between 41st and 42nd
Streets, as did Abbey's Theater at Broadway and 38th Street and the Empire Theater at Broadway and Fortieth Street.
It remained for Oscar Hammerstein I to make the move into Long Acre Square itself. At the close of the 19th century, Long Acre Square housed Manhattan's harness and carriage businesses, but was little used at night, when it seems to have become a "thieves' lair.11 In 1895 Hammerstein erected an enormous theater building on Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets. The original plan for the Olympia called for a "perfect palace of entertainment--which would have included three theaters, a bowling alley, a turkish bath, cafes and restaurants." Only part of this visionary plan ever became a reality. On November 25, 1895, Hammerstein opened the Lyric Theater section of the building, and a little over three weeks later he inaugurated the Music Hall section. Never a financial success, the Olympia closed its doors two years after it opened. Nevertheless, it earned Hammerstein the title of "Father of Times Square."
By the turn of the century Hammerstein had built two more theaters in the Long Acre Square area, and in the years 1901-1920 a total of forty- three additional theaters appeared in midtown Manhattan, most of them in the side streets east and west of Broadway. Much of this theater-building activity was inspired by the competition between two major forces in the industry, the Theatrical Syndicate and the Shubert Brothers, for control of the road. As each side in the rivalry drew its net more tightly around the playhouses it owned or controlled, the other side was forced to build new theaters to house its attractions.
The result was a dramatic increase in the number of playhouses, both in New York and across the country. After World War I, as the road declined and New York's theatrical activity increased, the general economic prosperity made possible the construction of thirty additional playhouses in the Times Square area, expanding the boundaries of the theater district so that it stretched from lust west of o Eighth Avenue to Sixth Avenue, and from 39th Street to Columbus Circle.
The stockmarket crash of 1929 and the resulting Depression caused a shrinkage in theater activity. Some playhouses were torn down, many were converted to motion picture houses, and later to radio and television studios. From the time of the Depression until the 1960s no new Broadway playhouses were constructed. Fortunately, the theaters that survive from the early part of the century represent a cross - section of types and styles, and share among them a good deal of New York's rich theatrical history.
Evolution of Theater Design
The frenzy of theater construction that occurred in New York during the first thirty years of this century brought with it an evolution in architecture and decoration. At the close of the 19th century American theaters were still being built in the style of traditional European opera houses, with high proscenium arches, narrow auditoriums, two or three balconies built in a horseshoe configuration, and dozens of boxes, some set into the front of the first balcony. Although contemporary notices of the theaters attributed specific (though often vague) styles or periods to them, their interiors were more often than not a melange of styles and colors.
With the increase of theater cons true tion afte r the turn of the century came a new attitude toward theater architecture and decoration as firms such as Herts and Tallant, Thomas W. Lamb, and others, began to plan the playhouse's exterior and interior as a single, integrated design. The Art Nouveau style New Amsterdam Theater, which opened in 1903, signalled this new seriousness in theater design.
Perhaps influenced by such European experiments as Wagner's Festival Theater at Bayreuth, American theater architects after the turn of the century began to structure their playhouses along different lines. Proscenium openings were made lower and wider, auditoriums were made shallower, seating was planned in a fan shape, and the number of balconies was usually reduced to one. Boxes were cut back to a minimum. The theaters that were built just before and after World War I for the most part shared this new configuration.
Because many of New York's extant playhouses were built during the period in which New York was serving as the starting-point for nationwide tours, they represent a style of theater architecture that is characteristic not only of New York but also of other cities across the United States, for a show which was originally produced in a New York theater would require similar conditions in the theaters in which it toured, and theater owners often hired the same architects to design and build theaters in several cities. Thus, New York's theaters set the standard for theater construction across the United States, as an inspection of designs for theaters in various cities will show.
The Broadway Theater in American Theatrical History
The playhouses still standing in the Broadway theater district share among them over eighty years of American theatrical history. In the early years of the century, when American theater was still heavily influenced by Europe, the theaters played host to such great international stars as Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and to adaptations of such European successes as The Merry Widow and Floradora.
It was in the Broadway theaters that the beginnings of a distinctly American drama could be seen in the Western melodramas of David Belasco, the social comedies of Clyde Fitch and Langdon Mitchell, and the problem plays of Edward Sheldon and Eugene Walter. With the rise of the "little theater" movement in the second decade of the century, it seemed that theatrical leadership had passed from Broadway to such experimental "art" theaters as the Provincetown Playhouse and the Neighborhood Playhouse. Before long, however, the innovations of the little theaters infused Broadway with new life. Beginning with the production of Eugene O'Neill's first full-length play, Beyond the Horizon, on Broadway in 1920, the playhouses of Broadway presented the work of a new generation of playwrights, including, in addition to O'Neill, Maxwell Anderson, Philip
Barry, S.N. Behrman, Rachel Crothers, Sidney Howard, George S. Kaufman, George Kelly and Elmer Rice.
The Depression of the 1930s brought with it a new concern with political and social issues, and the dramas presented in the Broadway playhouses reflected that concern. Commercial producers gave us plays by Lillian Hellman, Robert E. Sherwood, and Thornton Wilder, whle the Group Theater and other new organizations introduced such writers as Clifford Odets and Sidney Kingsley. The Broadway theaters continued to house challenging plays during the 1940s and 1950s, when new talents such as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and William Inge first began writing for the theater.
Meanwhile, musical comedy had blossomed from the adaptations and imitations of European operetta popular at the turn of the century to a uniquely American art form. By the 1940s and 1950s the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and many others, were being exported from the stages of Broadway to theaters around the world.
The 1960s and 1970s were decades of ferment and change, both in and out of the theater. As in the 1920s, the impetus for theatrical experimentation came from outside of Broadway, and as in the 1920s, the experimentation helped to revitalize the Broadway theater. Today, the playhouses of Broadway are showcases for the best plays of the Off- and Off-Off Broadway theaters, as well as for exciting productions from theatrical workshops, regional theaters, and outstanding foreign companies.
Having moved gradually northward all during the 19th century, New York's theater district finally came to rest at Times Square, where it has remained for almost ninety years. The economic Depression of the 1930s discouraged speculative ventures such as the construction of new theaters, while after prosperity returned in the wake of World War II, the cost of renting land and constructing a theater was prohibitively high. The northward movement of the theater district may also have been discouraged for a number of years by the existence of the Sixth Avenue Elevated Railway, which crossed from Sixth to Ninth Avenues at 53rd Street, thereby providing a natural northern boundary for the theater district.
The St. James Theater, as one of the Broadway playhouses surviving today in the theater district, contributes to the totality of the district's history by virtue of its participation in that history.
Abraham Erlanger
Abraham Lincoln Erlanger (1860-1930) was a principal figure in the Theatrical Syndicate, formed with Marc Klaw, which emerged around the turn of the century as the most powerful theatrical agency in the country, dominating the theater industry for several decades.
Erlanger took his first theatrical job at age fifteen as a coat-room attendant at Cleveland's old Academy of Music, where he eventually worked his way up to the position of stage manager. Later he became business manager of the Euclid Avenue Opera House in the same city, under the ownership of Senator Mark Hanna. In the 1880s he became a co-manager of the George S. Knight Company, managing their seasonal tours. In 1884 his experience led to his being hired to manage the tour of Shadows of a Great City, for famous actor Joseph Jefferson III.^
Marc Klaw (1858-1936), originally a lawyer in Kentucky, turned to part-time work reviewing plays for the local papers in order to make ends meet. His theatrical connections expanded when the Frohmans, major New York producers, retained him to handle litigation involving the pirating of plays. His success in the case of an illicit production of a Frohman play, Hazel Kirke, led to Klaw's being offered the position of legal counsel in the Frohmans' New York office.
Klaw and Erlanger met in 1887; their first venture involved the co- management of Joseph Jefferson and Effie Ellsler. Their partnership was formed the following year, when the two men took over operation of the Taylor Exchange. Out of this operation emerged what has been described as "the first booking office and the first formalized booking procedures in America." Among their innovations were centralized booking, legally binding contracts, and the use of pictures of actual stage productions, instead of posed photos, for publicity prints. By 1895, the Klaw &
Erlanger agency was the second largest in the nation, controlling nearly 200 theaters.
Klaw & Erlanger's first independent production was The Great Metropolis, followed by The Country Circus. ^ Their productions ranged widely, including among others "aerial ballet," and presentations of German opera conducted by Walter Damrosch.
In 1896 Klaw and Erlanger joined with Charles Frohman, A1 Hayman, Samuel F. Nixon, and J. Frederick Zimmerman to organize the Theatrical Syndicate. Operating along the lines of a trust, the Syndicate grew to control theater bookings nationwide. From just over thirty theaters, the Syndicate expanded until it controlled between seven and eight hundred houses, said to represent at least one in every American city with a population of 5000 or more.
The Syndicate avowed its intention of bringing about needed reforms in the booking of shows, but in the process created a monopoly with exclusive control of bookings for its hundreds of theaters. The firm of Klaw & Erlanger was made responsible for all attractions presented in Syndicate - controlled theaters.
The monopolistic practices of the Syndicate eventually resulted in a number of other producers, both individuals like David Belasco and larger organizations like the Shuberts, uniting to fight its influence. The growth of the Shubert organization, especially, beginning about 1910, represented a serious challenge. The Syndicate was finally dissolved in 1916. Klaw & Erlanger retained its dominant position as a booking agency; the partners continued their roles as managers and producers, and eventually collaborated with both Belasco and the Shuberts. Following a quarrel, Klaw and Erlanger parted company in 1919, each continuing independently in the theatrical field.
It was in the role of producer that Klaw & Erlanger commissioned two theaters to be built on the south side of 42nd Street: the New Amsterdam, and the Liberty. The New Amsterdam was actually a multi-use building incorporating two theaters and a ten-story office tower to house their booking and producing enterprises. The Liberty was intended to be a home for the comedy team of the Rogers Brothers, whom Klaw & Erlanger managed. For the designs of their two new theaters, Klaw & Erlanger turned to the prestigious architectural firm of Herts & Tallant, renowned specialists in the architecture of theaters.
After their split, in 1921, Klaw built his own theater, the Klaw Theater (later the Avon Theater; demolished) at 251 West 45th Street, in the heart of the Shubert Alley theater cluster. That same year Erlanger followed suit with plans for his Erlanger Theater (although it was not completed until 1927) also in the Shubert Alley cluster. Herts & Tallant were no longer in business and Herbert Krapp, from their office, was engaged building theaters for the Shuberts; Klaw hired theater architect Eugene DeRosa to design the Klaw Theater, while Erlanger turned to the nationally prominent firm of Warren & Wetmore.
Warren & Wetmore
When Abraham Erlanger commissioned the architects Warren & Wetmore to design a new theater for him, the firm had already established a reputation as one of the country's preeminent designers of commercial and public buildings, especially in New York City. Although the office is best remembered today for its work on Grand Central Terminal, and a number of hotels including the Biltmore, the Vanderbilt, the Commodore, and the Ritz in New York City, their work also included several theaters and halls in the northeast, of which Erlanger's theater was the first.
Charles Delevan Wetmore (1866-1941) received an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1889, and in 1892 graduated from the Harvard Law School. He had also studied architecture, and before joining the law firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, had designed three dormitory buildings on the Harvard campus--Claverly, Westmorly and Apley Court. Wetmore first met his future partner when he consulted with him concerning the design of his own house. Warren, impressed by his client's architectural ability, suggested he leave law, and Warren & Wetmore was established in 1898.
Whitney Warren (1864-1943), after attending Columbia briefly, continued his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the pupil of Daumet and Girault from 1885 to 1894. Upon his return to this country, Warren entered the offices of McKim, Mead & White, where he remained until the formation of his own firm. Warren & Wetmore's first major commission was for the New York Yacht Club of 1899, an exceptionally fine example of Beaux-Arts design, but it was not until the Grand Central Terminal commission that the firm's reputation was fully established. Grand Central was the first of a number of railroad stations, including those built for the Michigan Central, the Canadian Northern and the Erie Railroads.
The Biltmore Hotel, designed in assocation with Reed & Stem, as was the Terminal, as part of the development of the Grand Central area, was the first in a long series of grand hotels by Warren & Wetmore. The Vanderbilt, the Commodore, the Ritz-Carlton, the Ambassador, and the Linnard were all constructed within the Grand Central district. The firm also received commissions for hotels outside New York, among them the Hotel Ambassador in Atlantic City, the Belmont in Newport, Rhode Island, the Royal Hawaiian in Honolulu, and the Bermudiana in Hamilton, Bermuda. The firm's best known office tower, the New York Central Building of 1928, now known as the Helmsley Building, is located just north of the Terminal.
Warren was an intense Francophile, a founder of New York's Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, an officer in the French Legion of Honor, and a member of the Institut de France. He was appointed architect for the reconstruction of the Louvain Library in Belgium after World War I. Warren's family ties and his own secure social footing made Warren & Wetmore a favorite of New York's rich and socially prominent. They received commissions for town houses and commercial structures from members of the Vanderbilt, Goelet and Gould families.
The Erlanger Theater, preliminary drawings for which were completed in 1922, was Warren & Wetmore's first theatrical commission. They went on to design a second theater for Erlanger in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. The Buffalo Erlanger Theater, like the New York City version, also opened in 1927; in style it resembled a three-story Federal era house, with a box office and marquee at the front. (The interior has since been converted into office space.) Warren & Wetmore also designed the Warren Theater in Warren, Pennsylvania, and were responsible for alterations and additions to the New National Theater in Washington, D.C.
The firm's largest and most ambitious theater project came three years after the completion of Erlanger's Theater in New York. The Paramount Theater and Convention Hall complex in Asbury Park, New Jersey, not only boas ted an auditorium seating approximately 2000, but also a skylit convention hall with a capacity upwards of 3000, both under the same roof.
The exterior of this enormous structure was largely jced brick, with extensive polychromatic terra-cotta ornament and trim. The firm also designed the Casino Building in Asbury Park, which not unlike Grand Central Terminal consisted of three huge windows on each of the two sides.
The Erlanger Theater
Although Abraham Erlanger had already built two theaters jointly with Marc Klaw -- the New Amsterdam in 1902-03 and the Liberty in 1902-05-- problems plagued Erlanger when he attempted to erect his own playhouse following the dissolution of the Theatrical Syndicate and the Klaw & Erlanger partnership in 1919. More than six years of planning, delays and changes elapsed before Erlanger finally opened his own theater in 1927. Originally commissioned in 1921 as the Model Theater, it was to have been "of simple design with seating for 1200 and ready for occupancy by the beginning of 1922."^
But Erlanger became embroiled in litigation with his former partner and the Shuberts, and court proceedings and injunctions temporarily halted any plans to go forward with the new playhouse, despite the completion of Warren & Wetmore's preliminary drawings in early 1922. By the end of that year, Erlanger appeared ready to complete the theater when it was announced in December that he had signed exclusive contracts with the vaudeville team of Bernard & Collier to star in a musical revue for the new house. Under the agreement, the two would appear only in New York, while the name of the Model Theater would be changed to the Bernard & Collier Music Hall and become a permanent home of revues similar to the new Music Box Theater.
For unknown reasons, the Bernard & Collier plans never materialized; instead, another three years elapsed before Erlanger announced for a third time his intentions to build a theater. "The new house," it was said, "will be constructed along the lines of the New Amsterdam and be equal to that theater in capacity... the cost will be one million dollars." Finally, on September 26, 1927, more than six years after the original plans to build had been drawn, and $500,000 over the estimated cost, Erlanger's Theater opened with George M. Cohan's critically acclaimed production of The Merry Malones.
In 1921, when Erlanger first began plans to build his theater, the cluster of theaters on 44th and 45th Streets now known collectively as Shubert Alley was already largely in place. On West 44th Street the site was adjoined on the west by Winthrop Ames's Little Theater, while the Shuberts' Broadhurst and Shubert Theaters were across the street; on West 45th Street stood the Booth and the Plymouth, with Marc Klaw's new theater nearby. By the time the Erlanger had been completed in 1927, the western edge of the block had been rebuilt with the Theatre Masque (today the Golden), Royale, and Majestic Theaters together with the adjoining Lincoln (today Milford) Hotel. The Erlanger was the last theater to be built of the the two-block cluster which has become the symbolic heart of the theater district in New York.
Why Erlanger chose Warren & Wetmore to design his theater remains a matter of conjecture. It can only be presumed that Erlanger wanted the best for his project and, with Herts & Tallant out of the field, turned not to another theater architect but instead to a firm with a major national reputation.
The Erlanger Theater replaced an unassuming row of three-story brownstones on the 125 x 100 foot site; when completed, it towered 98 feet, or eight stories, above West 44th Street, making it one of the taller Broadway theaters. Its very large facade was architecturally conservative compared to earlier, pre-War theaters, but the architects' skillful use of proportion and material secured for it a clear and dignified presence.
The facade of the Erlanger is a plainly finished stucco surface above a cast stone and granite base, flanked by rusticated cast stone quoins. Seven windows -- five rectangular ones in the center flanked by two bulls- eyes -- run across the top of the facade, underneath a cornice adorned with theatrical masks. The most distinctive and eye-catching feature of the facade is the elaborate wrought-iron loggia directly above the main entrance canopy. The loggia's trip1e-arched design with an entablature with openwork frieze topped by finials hides an outdoor balcony and fire escape. Its highly ornamental quality offers a dramatic contrast to the plain wall facade behind it.
The Erlanger was architecturally simpler than the exuberant Shubert, built in 1912 as a grand monument to Sam S. Shubert, or the neo-Georgian Little, also 1912, designed to suggest the intimate drama within. More like it were the facades of the later Broadhurst and Majestic, but even so, on its opening, typical responses were:
The new Erlanger's is probably the least ornate of all the theatres recently added to the Times Square district. Although the structures was erected at a cost of $1,500,000, its entire effect, both on the exterior and interior, is one of simplicity. In the auditorium there has been a studied attempt to create an intimate rather than a theatrical atmosphere— The facade, stretching along West Forty- fourth Street, is of stone and stucco on a granite base.
The major implication of the simplicity of the facade, as of the Majestic across the street, was immediately understood by at least one commentator, who noted that it "is most appropriate as a setting for the inevitable electric sign." And indeed, two tall narrow signs, one on each side with large lettering reading "ST. JAMES," frame and rise the full length of the austere wall surface.
Erlanger survived the opening of his theater by only three years. In 1932, when it appeared that Erlanger's estate might be insolvent, Vincent Astor, owner of the land under the Erlanger theater, sued Erlanger Theatrical Enterprises for non-payment of rent, forcing the Erlanger estate to dispose of the theater.^ Soon after, Lodewick Vroom, formerly Gilbert Miller's manager, bought the theater and renamed it the St. James as a gesture of friendship toward England and the British royal Court of St. James.^
Having been acquired by the Shubert Organization in 1941, the St. James later passed, in 1957, to Scarborough House, Inc., a real estate investment company. Scarborough, in turn, turned over the operation and management of the theater to the Jujamcyn Corporation.® Major interior renovations and alterations costing $600,000 were undertaken soon after the purchase; the "new" St. James then reopened in December of 1958. The exterior was largely unaffected by the alterations.
Today the St. James stands on West 44th Street as one of the "Shubert Alley" houses that form the symbolic core of the Broadway theater district.
The St. James as a Playhouse^
The Erlanger opened on September 26, 1927 with The Merry Malones, a musical comedy written by, scored by, produced by and starring George M. Cohan. A combination of musical dramas and revues followed, the most popular of which was Fine and Dandy, a musical with Eleanor Powell and Bobby Clark that introduced "Can This Be Love." The house was then leased to the Civic Light Opera Company which presented Gilbert and Sullivan in repertory as well as operettas by Lehar, Friml and Herbert.
Following that engagement the theater went dark, reopening as the St. James under the management of Lodewick Vroom in December, 1932. Bea Lillie, Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough starred in Vroom's first show, the sophisticated revue Walk A Little Faster. In the spring the Civic Light Opera returned with more Gilbert and Sullivan. December brought the American debut of the renowned Monte Carlo Ballet Russe with soloists Leonide Massine, Irina Baranova and Tamara Toumanova.
Clark and McCullough returned in December 1934 with another revue, Thumbs Up, which introduced two standards, "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart," and "Autumn in New York." Then in February 1937, Maurice Evans opened in the first of a series of noteworthy Shakespearean productions which included Richard II (1937) performed for the first time in this country since 1878, and Twe1fth Night (1940) in which he co-starred with Helen Hayes.
With the acquisition of the St. James by the Shuberts in 1941, this tradition of fine dramatic and musical entertainment continued. Native Son, based on Richard Wright's powerful novel, brilliantly acted by Canada Lee and directed by Orson Welles, was a critical and popular success, playing 114 performances in 1941. Two years later, in March 1943, "a musical play that is perfection itself" opened at the St. James and instantly became a landmark production in the history of the American Broadway musical. Ok1ahoma! is still considered Rodgers and Hammerstein's masterpiece and was one of the St. James's most popular shows (2248 performances).
Since Oklahoma the St. James has continued to house major musical hits. These have included Where's Charley? with Ray Bolger's show-stopping "Once in Love With Amy" (1948, 792 performances), Rodgers and Hammerstein's wonderful The King and I with Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner (1951, 1,246 performances), Adler and Ross's The Pajama Game with Eddie Roy, Jr., John Raitt, and Janis Paige (1954, 1,061 performances), and Li'l Abner with Edie Adams, Peter Palmer and Stubby Kaye (1956, 693 performances).
Following the Shubert's forced divestment of the St. James, and the accompanying renovations, the house reopened with another Rodgers and Hammerstein hit, Flower Drum Song. Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn then starred in Jean Anouilh's Beckett in 1960. Two hit musicals followed, Do Re Mi with Nancy Walker and Phil Silvers, and Subways Are For Sleeping with Carol Lawrence, Orson Bean and Sydney Chaplin. More redecoration and alterations worth $50,000 equipped the St. James for the opening of Irving Berlin's musical Mr. President in 1962. John Osborne's Luther wtih Albert Finney followed in 1963.
In January 1964 the St. James's longest running musical hit opened and did not close until 1970 after 2844 performances. He 1lo Do 1ly starring Carol Channing and directed by Gower Champion remains, along with Oklahoma, one of Broadway's most popular musicals. Michael Stewart, who wrote the book for Hello Dolly, 'continued his own success at the St. James with his lyrics to Barnum, a recent Tony Award-winning musical which opened in 1980. In 1983, the St. James's tradition for great musical productions continued with another Tony Award-winning musical, My One and Only. In the spring of 1987, the long-running musical Forty-Second Street transferred from the Majestic Theater.
Description^"
The St. James Theater has a symmetrically-designed, Beaux-Arts inspired facade which is wider than it is high and is faced in stucco and cast stone above a cast stone base and granite water tab1e. The ground floor is punctuated by openings set in deep reveals containing: a metal stage door to the west, three pairs of aluminum and glass doors below transoms leading into the box office lobby, a service door above two steps, paired metal doors leading from the auditorium, and a paired alumnium and glass door leading to the office floors, and an additional service door to the east. Signs are placed in the transom areas above the doors; one display box is placed on the wall between the lobby doors and the service door; and a large sign board is placed on the wall between the office doors and the western service door. The base terminates in a wide band course. Two marquees, the western marquee suspended from its original standards, shelter the stage door, lobby doors, and auditorium doors. Modern sign boards rise from the marquees. Above the base, the facade is flanked by cast-stone quoins and dominated by a central decorative loggia of iron which contains a fire exit.
The base of the loggia flares out above the eastern marquee, rising to panels. The main portion of the loggia is arcaded with sty1ized Ionic columns flanking the arches. The arch spandrels contain winged creatures and foliation. The arched openings are filled with ornate grilles surmounted by cartouches flanked by foliation. An entablature with an openwork frieze incorporating figures, urns , arid foliation surmounts the loggia. Small finials are placed on the roof of the loggia. Two original vertical signs with the name of the theater and decorative corbel at the base and lantern at the top (on the western sign) flank the loggia.
The uppermost story of the facade contains several window openings. Circular bulls-eye windows with foliate surrounds flank five square-headed windows -- scrolled eared surrounds alternate with no surrounds. A frieze with comic and tragic masks f1anking vertical incisions with bell flower motifs spans the facade, rising to a simple cornice. The eastern side wall is partially visible and is faced stucco over brick. Both the quoins and the frieze and cornice return on the eastern wal1.
Conclusion
The St. James Theater survives today as one of the historic playhouses that symbolize American theater for both New York and the nation. Located on West 44th Street, it is one of the group of theaters forming "Shubert Alley," the physical and symbolic heart of the Broadway theater district. Last of the theaters constructed for Abraham Erlanger, founding partner in the Theatrical Syndicate, it helped shape the character of the Broadway theater district. Designed for Erlanger by the prominent firm of Warren & Wetmore, architects of Grand Central Terminal, the St. James represents an unusual and important aspect of the nation's theatrical history. Its facade is a restrained but handsome example of the late Beaux-Arts classic style which Warren & Wetmore adapted to the needs of a Broadway theater.
For half a century the St. James Theater has served as home to countless numbers of the plays through which the Broadway theater has come to personify American theater. As such, it continues to help define the Broadway theater district, the largest and most famous concentration of legitimate stage theaters in the world.
- From the 1987 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report