Identifier: ourtheatrestoday00dimm (find matches)
Title: Our theatres to-day and yesterday
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Dimmick, Ruth Crosby
Subjects: Theater -- New York (State) New York
Publisher: New York : The H.K. Fly Company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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CHAPTER VI. THE BEGINNING OF BURLESQUE. The Olympic Theatre, located at 144 Broadway, between Grand and Howard streets, was opened September 12, 1837, and was described by a critic of the day as a parlor of elegance 1837 and beauty. The opening performance was Perfec-tion, followed by The Lady and the Devil. Theauditorium was small and was entered by a subterranean passage running between the boxes and furnished with distinct ticketvendors and doorkeepers. The first and second rows of boxeswere shut off from the lobby by a series of doors and were setapart for ladies and their escorts. A bar was run in connectionwith the theatre for the accommodation of the thirsty. Seats inthe boxes sold for 75 cents, and in the pit for 37^/2 cents. TheOlympic, however, was not placed on a paying basis until theseason of 1838-9, when William Mitchell took hold of it. Thenfrom 1841 to 1845 it became the leading place of amusement inthe city, producing light farces, extravaganzas and burlesques,in whic

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