  This recollection is not accurate relative to details concerning the opening of Proctor’s Twenty-third Street Theatre. The site of that theatre was, at one time, occupied by a church. Later it was occupied by an armory for the Seventy-ninth Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y. Then it was converted into “Salmi Morse’s Temple Theatre,” but Morse was denied a license and could not open it. Under management From an old photograph. Belasco’s Collection. HENRY C. DE MILLE of Converse L. Graves, who took over Morse’s interest, it was opened, May 21, 1883, as the Temple Theatre, with a play called “A Bustle Among the Petticoats.” Max Strakosch succeeded Graves as manager of the house, and in turn sold his interest to Albert G. Eaves, a New York theatrical costumer, who, in association with Edward Stone, conducted the theatre for a short time. Thereafter, about 1885, it was restored to ecclesiastical service as the Twenty-third Street Tabernacle. F. F. Proctor leased the property in 1888, tore down the old building and erected a new one, which, as Proctor’s Twenty-third Street Theatre, was opened, May 5, 1889, with a performance, by Neil Burgess and his company, of “The County Fair.” Dockstader’s Minstrels succeeded Burgess, and on August 31 “The Great Metropolis” was there first acted. “Shenandoah,” transferred from the Star Theatre, where it was produced for the first time in New York on September 9, 1889, was presented there on October 21, that year, and it ran till April 19, 1890,—receiving, in all, 250 performances. Stuart Robson played there, in “The Henrietta,” from April 21 to May 31, when the theatre was closed. It was reopened on September 8, 1890, with a farce by William Gillette, called “All the Comforts of Home,”—adapted from “Ein Toller Einfall,”—which held the stage “About this time the newspapers were full of a bank scandal. A young man employed in a bank had speculated with funds and found himself in a very dangerous position. His father, a fine man of business, and a stockholder, had the sympathy of the entire public in his misfortune. Owing to the young man’s speculations, the bank was on the verge of closing, and the newspapers were full of harrowing details. As I read the accounts I came to this sentence in a statement made by the father: ’I’ll save the bank if it costs me a million a day!’ ’Henry,’ I said, ’there’s our play. We must deal with a father’s pride and love for his only son, no matter what deed the son may commit.’ To me the father’s statement meant: ’I’ll save my boy, though I am left without a penny and have to beg on the streets.’... “Next to inventing a plot and story, our greatest difficulty was to find a title. Our play was to have a universal appeal. One of our characters was a liberal Jew. Because of the broadness of the theme, we selected the name of ’Men and Women.’ It was an accepted rule at this time to have two sets of lovers, but we broke all traditions by introducing three sets of heroes and heroines in ’Men and Women,’ for we attempted to depict the frailties and weaknesses of many men and women. The Third Act represented a directors’ meeting on the night before the |
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