The New York Architect - June 1911 (copyright expired)
The Forty-Sixth Street and Broadway Realty Co. was specifically organized to erect a unique theater at 206 to 212 West 46th Street. Before ground was broken, on July 2, 1910, the Record & Guide reported that Henry B. Harris and Jesse L. Lasky had signed the lease. The two producers envisioned a cabaret in New York City based on the restaurant-nightclub-theater in Paris, the Folies Bergère.
Designed by Herts & Tallant, the Folies Bergère cost $200,000 to erect--about $6.62 million in 2024. The windowless façade was covered with a tapestry of polychrome terra cotta tiles--"old ivory, turquoise blue, and gold," according to The New York Architect in June 1911. (The journal felt the exterior "presents a convincing argument for a more extended introduction of color in the facades of buildings of all descriptions.") Below the "wrought bronze cornice" was a panel by eminent muralist William de Leftwich Dodge. The New York Architect explained, "This frieze represents, in allegory, all the characters of vaudeville."
The Heating & Ventilating Magazine, October 1911 (copyright expired)
Inside the three entrances, the lobby was decorated in white marble with colored mosaic floors. William de Leftwich Dodge supervised the decoration of the auditorium, drawing on the French roots of the Folies Bergère. Gilded plaster festoons and paintings by Dodge created a decidedly Parisian atmosphere. In its July 1911 issue, The Green Book said the auditorium suggested, "with its delicate color scheme, nothing else so much as the interior of a jewel box," adding, "The walls and pillars are covered with damask the shade of salmon, or crushed strawberry, or old rose."
The New York Architect, June 1911 (copyright expired)
Harris and Lansky departed from the traditional theater by treating the orchestra level and the front of the first balcony as a restaurant. The Green Book Album wrote:
When you enter the auditorium you see, instead of the ordinary orchestra chairs, row after row of tables. Each row is elevated a foot or so above that ahead of it, so that a good view of the stage is to be had from every seat, and an iron rail separates one company of diners from the next.
Wait staff in white tie assemble in the orchestra and front balcony. The Heating & Ventilating Magazine, October 1911 (copyright expired)
Patrons in evening dress ordered from menus written in French and were served by white-tied waiters. Diners would enjoy orchestra music from 6:00 to 8:15, when the curtain rose. As the evening drew to a close, a call boy glided from table to table asking who needed a taxi. Those patrons who did were handed numbered cards, eliminating the need for a curbside wait.
The Folies Bergère opened on April 27, 1911. The New-York Tribune reported, "Dinner with music, dancing and fiery little tabloid shows as an accompaniment, will be served from 6 p.m. to 8:15, when the curtain will go up on 'Hell," a profane burlesque in one act by Rennold Wolf, with music by Maurice Levi...The revue will satirize plays and people of present public interest." The revue was followed by the American premier of the ballet, Temptation, by Alfredo Curti; which was followed by another revue, Gaby.
The article noted, "Supper will be served from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. During the revues and the ballet refreshments will be served and smoking permitted in all parts of the house." The supper portion of the evening was accompanied by the cabaret show, "giving New York the first midnight music hall."
Later that year, Harris and Lasky produced A La Broadway. The "satirical burlesque in one act" opened on September 22. The Sun reported, "It consisted or large quantities of girls, many changes of costumes and a pair of really funny comedians." What audiences and critics could not know was that they were seeing the first appearance of an 18-year-old Brooklyn girl who would eventually shake American theater to its foundations. "Miss Mae West had a song or two that went pretty well and she danced with considerable grace and originality," said the article.
Unfortunately, Mae West's first Broadway show closed after eight performances. Lasky's and Harris's bold concept had not turned a profit. On September 30, Variety reported on the closing of the Folies Bergère. "While it is claimed that the restaurant portion of the enterprise has yielded a profit, the scheme has proved itself impractical owing to the limited seating capacity of the house under the present policy."
That year another producer, Beatrice DeMille, introduced Jesse L. Lasky to her son, Cecil B. DeMille. Lasky would team with him and Samuel Goldwyn to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, a moving picture firm. Harris traveled to London in April 1912 to arrange a play. He was lost on the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.
With its auditorium remodeled with traditional seating, the theater reopened as the Fulton Theatre. It offered both live plays and occasional moving pictures. On November 24, 1915, for instance, an advertisement in The Evening World announced four screenings a day of Fighting In France, "The French Government Official Motion Pictures taken by order of the Great General Staff of the French Army for the National Archives."
The play Penny Arcade opened on March 24, 1930, a three-act drama about bootlegging and murder. In the audience that night was Al Jolson, who was not taken with the performances of lead actors Eric Dressler and Lenita Lane, but with two supporting players, Joan Blondell and James Cagney. According to Matthew Kennedy in his Joan Blondell, A Life Between Takes, Jolson purchased the motion picture rights to the play for $20,000. "He quickly sold it to the Warner Bros. film studio in California, but only under the agreement that Blondell and Cagney come attached with a three-week contract to film the play." It was the beginning of film stardom for the two unknowns.
The stage of the Fulton Theatre would see famous entertainers over the years. On January 18, 1932, The New York Times reported, "Maurice Chevalier, the French film actor and entertainer, will begin a limited concert engagement of one and a half weeks at the Fulton Theatre."
Boris Karloff opened in the 1941 play Arsenic and Old Lace,; and on November 20, 1946, Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, the prequel to her 1939 drama The Little Foxes, opened with Patricia Neal as Regina Hubbard. Also in the cast were Paul Ford and, Jean Hagen. In 1951, Audrey Hepburn made her theatrical debut in Gigi.
On November 9, 1955, The New York Times reported, "The incandescent name of Helen Hayes will glow permanently on the marquee of a Broadway playhouse starting Nov. 21." It was a great honor. The only other living actress to have a theater name for her was Ethel Barrymore. When told of the renaming, Helen Hayes remarked, "I burst into tears. It was too much for me. An actress' life is so transitory--suddenly you're a building."
The "extensively renovated" theater was dedicated on November 30, 1958 and opened the two nights later with Helen Hayes starring in Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet. The New York Times reported the auditorium had been "refurbished in Louis XIV decor" and that the "theatre's seating capacity was increased by 113 to 1,152." The new decorations included a "mirror-paneled lobby with white marble stairs," and "'royal enclosures' with custom arm chairs and cushions, a series of French Lalique basket lights and crystal chandeliers."
The Helen Hayes sign covered the Dodge mural and a new glass building-wide marquee was installed. photo from the collection of the Library of Congress.
The Helen Hayes Theatre was the venue of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Long Day's Journey Into Night, and the long running Mary, Mary by Jean Kerr which opened on March 8, 1961 and ran for three years.
One of the "royal enclosures" with chandelier is seen in this photo of the renovated theater. from the collection of the Library of Congress.
Henry Fonda was starring in the one-man show Clarence Darrow in the spring of 1974. Following his performance on the night of April 23, he collapsed in his dressing room. His wife, Shirley Mae Adams, told reporters the extra strain of the Tony ceremonies two nights earlier had caused exhaustion. Five days later, The New York Times reported the 68-year-old actor was still hospitalized. Although Fonda eventually recovered, the play did not. It was replaced by another one-man show, Will Rogers, starring James Whitmore.
On March 23, 1982, The New York Times reported that demolition had begun on the Helen Hayes Theater. Preservationists had obtained a temporary stay, but it was lifted by the United States Supreme Court, removing "the last major impediment to construction of the 50-story Portman Hotel in the Times Square area," said the article. The demolition was part of what would become known by some as "The Great Theater Massacre of 1982." Four other vintage theaters would be demolished with the Helen Hayes--the Morosco, the Bijou, the Astor and the Gaiety.
A day earlier, 1,000 demonstrators had gathered on West 45th Street to hear pleas from performers including Celeste Holm, Tammy Grimes, Jose Ferrer, Colleen Dewhurst, Estelle Parsons, and Treat Williams. Producer Joseph Papp broke the news to the gathering. "I'll tell you frankly, these theaters are going to come down. The Supreme Court has lifted the stay."
Because of the architectural importance of the Helen Hayes Theater, Portman Properties agreed to preserve one-third of the façade. But on June 9, 1982, The New York Times reported that the façade "collapsed during demolition work on the remainder of the theater."
photo by Fred R. Conrad, The New York Times June 9, 1982.
The vandalism was not only architectural. Many saw the demolition of the theater as an affront to Helen Hayes. The following year, the Little Theatre was renamed the Helen Hayes Theater.
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