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Irving Place Theatre

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An undated photograph of the Irving Place Theatre
For the rock venue, see Irving Plaza

The Irving Place Theatre was located at the southwest corner of Irving Place and East 15th Street in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1888, it served as a German language theatre, a Yiddish theatre, a burlesque house, a union meeting hall, a legitimate theatre and a movie theatre. It was demolished in 1984.[1]

The theater is the setting for the 2013 fictional play, The Nance.[2]

History

The original building on the site was Irving Hall, which opened in 1860 as a venue for balls, lectures, and concerts. It was also for many years the base for one faction of the city's Democratic Party.[3]

The facility was rebuilt, and opened as Amberg's German Theatre in 1888 under the management of Gustav Amberg, as a home for German-language theatre.[4] Heinrich Conried took over management in 1893, and changed the name to Irving Place Theatre. The first night of the play Narrentanz (The Fool´s Game) by Leo Birinski took place here on November 13, 1912.[5]

In 1918 the facility became the home of Yiddish Art Theater[6] company under the management of Maurice Schwartz.[7] By the 1920s burlesque shows were offered alongside Yiddish drama.[8] Composer-arranger Harry Lubin, of The Outer Limits fame, was musical director of the theater during the 1920's and 1930's.[9][10]

Clemente Giglio converted the theatre in 1939 into a cinema to present Italian films.[11] In 1940 it was taken over by a group of non-Equity actors, the "Merely Players", whose productions were picketed by the theatrical unions.[12] During WWII it presented a steady program of mixed bills of Soviet propaganda and French films, as well as weekly folk dance sessions.

References

Notes

  1. ^ "Cinema Treasures - Irving Place Theatre".
  2. ^ "A Play's Love Woes Cut Close to Home". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. March 28, 2013. Retrieved 2014-10-12.
  3. ^ "Union Square Loses Its Old Residences" (PDF). The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 18 June 1916. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  4. ^ Ward & Trent; et al., eds. (1907–21). "23". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes. Vol. XVIII. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. ISBN 1-58734-073-9.
  5. ^ "The Fool´s Game Acted" (PDF). The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 14 November 1912. p. 11. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  6. ^ Theater Profile
  7. ^ "German Drama to Move; Irving Place Theatre Will Be Yiddish Playhouse". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 14 February 1918. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  8. ^ Shteir, Rachel (2004). Striptease: the untold history of the girlie show. Oxford University Press US. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-19-512750-8. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  9. ^ "Harry Lubin". apm Music. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  10. ^ Burns Mantle (ed.). "The Best Plays of 1938 and 1939". Google Play. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  11. ^ "The Screen: Ethiopian War in Film" New York Times (April 11, 1939) - "Cinema opens April 10, 1939 with "II Grande Appello" ("The Last Roll-Call") made in Ethiopia by Mario Camerini"
  12. ^ "Show That Defies Unions Takes In $74 in a Week" New York Times (February 25, 1940) - "Outside the New Irving Place Theatre, at Fifteenth Street, the actors have posted a sign that reads: 'We are a young cooperative group, pro-labor to a man,' After giving 'Othello' for a week despite picket lines established by A.F. of L. theatrical unions, a group of youthful actors checked up on their box-office receipts yesterday and discovered that they had taken in $74"
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