Old New York In Photos #170 – Wallack’s Theatre 1870

Wallack’s Theatre Broadway & 13th Street – c.1870

This stereoview shows Lester Wallack’s Theatre located at 844 Broadway on the northeast corner of 13th Street.

Lester Wallack (1820-1888) is known today only by theater historians. But in the nineteenth century Wallack was among the most famous producer’s, director’s and actor’s in the world.

Wallack’s Theater was run by James and his son Lester Wallack. Over the years there were a few addresses associated with the impresarios, but the most notable location was 844 Broadway. The land and building was owned by Wallack’s partner, William Gibson whose name is emblazoned in large letters on the frieze near the roof. Gibson was a dealer in glass architectural and decorative fittings.

From 1861-1881 the theatre flourished with Wallack and his troupe putting on a variety of comedic and dramatic presentations.

When Wallack’s memoirs Memories of Fifty Years was published in 1889 the magazine The Critic wrote of Wallack:

His handsome face, dashing air, graceful manners and kind heart would soon have made a way for him, however, even if the path had not been open. From being at first an actor only, he became erelong a manager as well; and Wallack’s Theatre was as much an ‘institution’ in New York as the Battery, or Trinity Church, or Central Park. It was a place that every New Yorker believed it to be his duty as well as knew it to be his pleasure to ‘stand by,’ and no sojourner from out of town would look upon his visit as a success if he had not passed an evening or two at ‘ Wallack’s,’ Not only Mr.  Wallack himself, but his company, it seems as we look back over our play-bills, was more to us than the theatrical companies of to-day.

Who will ever take the place in our hearts of Mary Gannon, Mrs. John Hoey, William Blake, or—to come down to later years—of Effie Germon, Madeline Henriques, John Gilbert, Harry Beckett or Harry Montague?

The charm of Wallack’s Theatre was left behind when the company went up-town from Broadway and Thirteenth Street; (1882) so we were broken in gradually to the disbandment of the company and the change of the theatre’s name.

Wallack’s Theatre on 13th Street was renovated and eventually became the Star Theatre. In 1901 the theatre was demolished.

An incredible artifact survives on film – a time lapse record showing the demolition of the Star  Theatre taken by Thomas Edison’s Biograph Company.

The original 1902 publicity release describes “a specially devised electric apparatus took single exposures every four minutes” within brief normal-speed views at the film’s start and close. The film’s full title, Demolishing and Building Up The Star Theatre seems strange because viewers witness only the demolition. But Biograph’s recommendation to exhibitors is that the film also be run backward: “When this view is shown in the reverse, the effect is very extraordinary.”

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