DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Old Broadway: 1957-58 Season Pics

**n2Oddw8P** · 01-14-2008, 04:56 AM

Some info on that 1958 Off-Broadway production of "Ulysses in Nighttown" with Zero Mostel and directed by Burgess Meredith is found at the blog of Grumpy Old Bookman, HERE and then HERE

The full cast for the show is listed HERE

The show was at the Rooftop Theater at 111 East Houston Street, just east of Houston Street -- now the site of the Avalon Chrystie development / Whole Foods.

At one time the building at the site housed both the National Theatre / Roosevelt Theatre:

The full address was 111-117 East Houston. The site had been home to a household supply manufacturer from 1871-1911. I believe the theatre was built by Louis Minsky and Max Steuer, open by May 1913, and was known originally as the National (along with the National Winter Garden). In March 1935, it became the combination house known at the New Roosevelt Theatre. Simply the Roosevelt by September 1936, it exhibited Ukrainian, Soviet, Yiddish, and Chinese movies in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The National Winter Garden, located on the sixth floor, seated 299 and was known as the Rooftop Theatre from at least the mid-1940s through the building's closing. The theatre proper was known as the Downtown National from at least 1941-1951. The theatre was closed when it was purchased by the Transit Authority in 1958. PBS is airing "Jews in America" this month. About an hour and forty minutes into Part One, there are several shots of the eight-story building with separate marquees for the National and Roosevelt. Before moving their shows to Broadway in the 1930s the four Minsky Brothers produced their then-risque burlesque shows at the National Winter Garden at this location:

... Another famous raid occurred in April, 1925, and inspired the book and film The Night They Raided Minsky's. By this time it was permissible for girls in shows staged by Ziegfeld, George White and Earl Carroll -- as well as burlesque -- to appear topless as long as they didn't move. In a show at the National Winter Garden, Madamoiselle Fifi (nee Mary Dawson from Pennsylvania) stripped to the waist and then moved.

Occasionally a raid was triggered by the comedy material, but filthy comics didn't last long because they were a liability to the management.

Business boomed during Prohibition and the National Winter Garden's notoriety grew. Regular patrons included John Dos Passos, Robert Benchley, George Jean Nathan, Conde Nast, and Hart Crane.

01-14-2008, 04:56 AM	#4
n2Oddw8P Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 426 Senior Member	Some info on that 1958 Off-Broadway production of "Ulysses in Nighttown" with Zero Mostel and directed by Burgess Meredith is found at the blog of Grumpy Old Bookman, HERE and then HERE The full cast for the show is listed HERE The show was at the Rooftop Theater at 111 East Houston Street, just east of Houston Street -- now the site of the Avalon Chrystie development / Whole Foods. At one time the building at the site housed both the National Theatre / Roosevelt Theatre: The full address was 111-117 East Houston. The site had been home to a household supply manufacturer from 1871-1911. I believe the theatre was built by Louis Minsky and Max Steuer, open by May 1913, and was known originally as the National (along with the National Winter Garden). In March 1935, it became the combination house known at the New Roosevelt Theatre. Simply the Roosevelt by September 1936, it exhibited Ukrainian, Soviet, Yiddish, and Chinese movies in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The National Winter Garden, located on the sixth floor, seated 299 and was known as the Rooftop Theatre from at least the mid-1940s through the building's closing. The theatre proper was known as the Downtown National from at least 1941-1951. The theatre was closed when it was purchased by the Transit Authority in 1958. PBS is airing "Jews in America" this month. About an hour and forty minutes into Part One, there are several shots of the eight-story building with separate marquees for the National and Roosevelt. Before moving their shows to Broadway in the 1930s the four Minsky Brothers produced their then-risque burlesque shows at the National Winter Garden at this location: ... Another famous raid occurred in April, 1925, and inspired the book and film The Night They Raided Minsky's. By this time it was permissible for girls in shows staged by Ziegfeld, George White and Earl Carroll -- as well as burlesque -- to appear topless as long as they didn't move. In a show at the National Winter Garden, Madamoiselle Fifi (nee Mary Dawson from Pennsylvania) stripped to the waist and then moved. Occasionally a raid was triggered by the comedy material, but filthy comics didn't last long because they were a liability to the management. Business boomed during Prohibition and the National Winter Garden's notoriety grew. Regular patrons included John Dos Passos, Robert Benchley, George Jean Nathan, Conde Nast, and Hart Crane.
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