44th Street Theatre

World War I soldiers and sailors attend a free show at the 44th Street Theatre in 1918
Former names	Weber and Fields' Music Hall
Address	216 West 44th Street
Location	Manhattan, New York City
Owner	Shubert Organization
Type	Broadway theatre
Construction
Opened	21 November 1912 (1912-11-21)
Closed	1945
Architect	William A. Swansea

The 44th Street Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 216 West 44th Street in New York City from 1912 to 1945. It opened and operated for three years as the Weber and Fields' Music Hall. Its rooftop theatre, the Nora Bayes Theatre, presented many productions of the Federal Theatre Project in the mid 1930s. Its basement club became the famed Stage Door Canteen during World War II.

History[edit]

Connie Haines, Maxie Rosenbloom, Ben Lyon, Morton Downey and Joan Blondell at the Stage Door Canteen (1943)

The 44th Street Theatre was located at 216 West 44th Street in New York City. The architect was William Albert Swasey, who designed the theatre in an 18th Century Georgian style.^[1] Built by The Shubert Organization in 1912, it was first named Weber and Fields' Music Hall. The theatre was renamed on December 29, 1913^[1] when the comedy duo of Joe Weber and Lew Fields split with the Shuberts.^[2][3]

A theatre on the roof of the building, Lew Fields' 44th Street Roof Garden, became the Nora Bayes Theatre in 1918.^[2][4] In the mid-1930s it presented Federal Theatre Project shows.^[5]

In the basement of the 44th Street Theatre, the original rathskeller, became a small nightclub^[6] named the “Little Club” during Prohibition.^[2][7]

In 1940 the building was purchased by The New York Times Company, which leased it back to Lee Shubert. When the American Theatre Wing requested the basement club as an entertainment venue for servicemen, Shubert gave them the property without charge. In March 1942 the 40-by-80-foot club space became the original Stage Door Canteen, which operated throughout World War II, became the subject of a popular film, and inspired other canteens throughout the United States.^[8]

In 1930, the Film Daily Yearbook listed 44th Street Theatre as a movie theatre. The theatre showed films for a brief period of time before returning to stage productions. For movie screenings, the theatre had 1,468 seats, and 1 screen.^[1]

The most notable film screening of 44th Street Theatre was of the German lesbian film “Maedchen in Uniform” in 1931. The movie played for a season twice daily and three times on Sundays and holidays. The theatre boasted that they had ‘Lower prices than any other two-a-day movie on Broadway’.^[1]

In 1940, The New York Times purchased the 44th Street Theatre. After Shubert's lease expired in June 1945, the building was demolished. A New York Times printing plant was built in its place, part of the newspaper's postwar expansion of its 229 West 43rd Street headquarters.^[1] The printing plant was later abandoned, but a plaque remains to mark the location of the Stage Door Canteen.^[8]

Notable productions[edit]

Ingrid Bergman and Burgess Meredith in Liliom (1940)

Productions staged at the 44th Street Theatre are listed at the Internet Broadway Database.^[2]

• 1913: The Girl on the Film
• 1914: The Lilac Domino
• 1915: Katinka
• 1916: The Blue Paradise
• 1917: Maytime
• 1924: Six Characters in Search of an Author
• 1925: Song of the Flame
• 1927: The Five O'Clock Girl
• 1927: A Night in Spain
• 1928: Animal Crackers
• 1933: Face the Music
• 1934: Four Saints in Three Acts
• 1934: Conversation Piece
• 1940: Liliom
• 1941: The New Opera Company
• 1942: Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus)
• 1943: Winged Victory
• 1944: Yellow Jack
• 1945: On the Town

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Media related to 44th Street Theatre at Wikimedia Commons