Iconic photos of a changing city, and commentary on our Collections & Exhibitions from the crew at MCNY.org
Forbidden Broadway is back again this Fall with a new “Alive and Kicking” addition gleefully lampooning the current offerings of the Great White Way. A revue show first conceived in the early 1980s, Forbidden Broadway harks back to an earlier tradition: American burlesque shows at the turn of the century.
One of the most successful burlesquing teams was the duo of Joe Weber and Lew Fields who opened their Music Hall in 1896 to perform musical revues and burlesques of their own devising. (At the time the term “burlesque” described over-the-top parodies of popular theatrical productions and had less to do with the art of striptease.) One of Weber and Fields‘s most popular targets was the work of Clyde Fitch. Though his work hasn’t been performed on Broadway in decades, Fitch was one of the most prolific playwrights of early twentieth century. In 1909, the year he died, Fitch had four productions in Broadway theatres, three of which were new works. He saw over 60 productions of his work open on Broadway, often staged by him, and there have been over 30 feature film adaptations of his plays. (For more on Fitch’s life, check out the thoughtful bio at the The Clyde Fitch Report.)Thanks to the efforts of the equitable photographers at Byron Company (and the Museum’s Digital Team), the Collections Portal contains images illustrating Fitch’s original intentions and the fun Weber and Fields had subverting them.
Fitch’s controversial play Sapho about a French seductress became the ridiculous Sapolio.
Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Olga Nethersole in “Sapho”], 1900. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.19676.
Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Plays, “Sapolio”], 1900. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.19684.
Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Annie Russell in “The Girl and the Judge”], 1901. Museum of the City of New York, 34.271.806D.
Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Lew Fields and Fay Templeton in “The Curl and the Judge”], ca. 1901. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.18806.
Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Marry Mannering as Geraldine Lang in “The Stubbornness of Geraldine”], 1902. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.19813.
Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Joe Weber and Lew Fields in “The Stickiness of Gelatine”], 1902. Museum of the City of New York, 48.210.1515.
Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [Ethel Barrymore in Act III of “Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines”], 1901. Museum of the City of New York, 34.271.804Q.
Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). [DeWolf Hopper, Fay Templeton and David Warfield in burlesque of “Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines”], ca. 1900. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.18681.
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“The Stickiness of Gelatine” (from “The Stubbornness of Geraldine”) — now THAT’S funny!