Automats, Taxi Dances, And Vaudeville Book

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xv

Part I Chinatown, Chatham Square, and the Bowery 1

1 A Round for the Old Atlantic (The Atlantic Garden) 5

2 Chinatown Theater (The 1893 Chinese Theater) 25

Part II Union Square and the East Village 43

3 A Roof with a View (American Mutoscope Studio) 47

4 Caretakers of Second Avenue (Hebrew Actors' Union) 65

Part III The Tenderloin 79

5 If You Can Make 'Em Cry (Tin Pan Alley) 85

6 Tenderloin Winners and Losers (Shang Draper's Gambling House) 107

Part IV Harlem 129

7 A Theater of Our Own (The Lincoln Theater) 135

8 Rise and Fall of the Original Swing Street (West 133rd Street) 155

Part V Times Square 165

9 The Strike Invisible (Horn & Hardart's Original New York Automat) 169

10 Last Dance at the Orpheum (The Orpheum Dance Palace) 187

11 Nights of Gladness (Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe) 203

Epilogue 223

A Note on Sources 231

Notes 235

Bibliography 251

Index 257

About the Author 269

Figures

I.1 The former Baby Grand, 319 West 125th Street, 2008 xviii

1.1 The Atlantic Garden during its vaudeville years, early 1890s 6

1.2 The Atlantic Garden, 2008 22

2.1 Interior of the Chinese Theater, 1896 24

2.2 Doyers Street, with the former Chinese Theater building, 2008 41

3.1 Filming at the American Mutoscope rooftop studio, 1897 48

3.2 The former American Mutoscope rooftop, 2008 62

4.1 Membership cards from the Hebrew Actors' Union, 1921 and 1993 64

4.2 The Hebrew Actors' Union, 31 East 7th Street, 2008 77

5.1 Tin Pan Alley during its peak years, early 1900s 84

5.2 View of the buildings of Tin Pan Alley, numbers 55 through 47, 2008 104

6.1 Tenderloin scene, perhaps the"cork room" of Koster & Bial's, 1890s 108

6.2 Shang Draper's former gambling house, 6 West 28th Street 126

7.1 The Lincoln Theater, 1916 136

7.2 Side view of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, the former Lincoln Theater, 2008 152

8.1 133rd Street nightclub as photographed by Andreas Feininger, 1940 154

8.2 Basement level of 168 West 133rd Street, once Pod's and Jerry's Log Cabin, 2008 162

9.1 Times Square Automat, 1914 170

9.2 Remnant of decorative ceiling, Times Square Automat, 2006 184

10.1 Orpheum dancers, 1936 189

10.2 Orpheum Dance Palace, 2005 200

11.1 Diamond Horseshoe patrons, early 1940s 204

11.2 Diamond Horseshoe window case in front of Paramount Hotel, 2007 220

E.1 Second floor of the former Nest Club building, 169 West 133rd Street, 2007 224

Maps

1 Bowery/Chinatown, ca. 1905 xxviii

2 Union Square/Second Avenue, ca. 1928 42

3 Tin Pan Alley/Tenderloin, 1902 78

4 Harlem/West 133rd Street, ca. 1929 128

5 Broadway/Times Square, ca. 1940 164