1904-1919 Broadway Grows Up
1904
Long Acre Square renamed Times Square, after the New York Times builds its new office tower on 42nd Street and Broadway.
George M. Cohan makes his solo Broadway debut as star and composer of "Little Johnny Jones"; songs include "Give My Regards to Broadway."
Times Square subway station opens. The IRT subway line brings New Yorkers rapid transit and access to the new theater district.
1905
The Syndicate and the Shubert Brothers -- two rival producers -- are locked in a struggle to be major theater owners in the theater district.
1906
"Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway," Cohan's next big show, makes a star out of comedian Victor Moore.
Fanny Brice is fired from Cohan's show, "Talk of the Town."
1907
Florenz Ziegfeld's "Follies of 1907" debuts at the Jardin de Paris.
Franz Lehár's 1905 operetta "The Merry Widow," a sensation in Europe, takes New York City.
"Marie from Sunny Italy" is the first published song by a young Russian immigrant named Israel Baline; the publishers misspell his name as "I. Berlin."
1908
Nora Bayes captivates the "Follies" audience by singing "Shine on, Harvest Moon."
Ethel Merman is born in Astoria, Queens.
1909
Berlin writes a new song in Yiddish for comedienne Fanny Brice: "Yiddle with a Fiddle (Play Some Rag Time)."
1910
"Naughty Marietta" by Victor Herbert is the first operetta set in America; songs include "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life!"
Bert Williams is the first black entertainer to appear in a Broadway show, "Follies of 1910," as a star opposite white entertainers. Fanny Brice makes her "Follies" debut in the same show.
1911
The Shubert Brothers open the enormous Winter Garden Theatre with the show "La Belle Paree," featuring blackface entertainer Al Jolson singing Jerome Kern's "Paris Is a Paradise for Coons."
Impresario Florenz Ziegfeld puts his name before his show's; marquees now read "The Ziegfeld Follies."
1912
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" sells two million copies of sheet music, making Irving Berlin the most famous composer of his day. Widowed after six months of marriage, he writes "When I Lost You" for his departed wife.
Weber and Fields, two famous comedians whose ethnic music hall shows amused audiences for decades, retire.
1913
Producer Martin Beck builds the Palace Theatre at 47th and Broadway. It's dubbed "the Valhalla of Vaudeville," where every vaudevillian wants to play. Ziegfeld moves his annual "Follies" into the elegant New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street.
1914
Composer Jerome Kern creates a jaunty American ballad, "They Didn't Believe Me," for "The Girl from Utah."
Comedian Ed Wynn makes his "Follies" debut.
"Watch Your Step," a "ragtime opera," is Irving Berlin's first full-length musical.
1915
Ziegfeld opens the Midnight Frolic, a roof garden, atop the New Amsterdam Theatre, where performers like Will Rogers try out their acts. Downstairs, W. C. Fields makes his "Follies" debut, supplanting Ed Wynn.
"Nobody Home," the first of the intimate Princess Theatre shows, opens with a score by Jerome Kern and book by Guy Bolton.
1916
Recent Yale grad Cole Porter writes his first Broadway score, "See America First"; it's panned, and he moves to France.
Oscar Hammerstein II and Lorenz Hart write the Columbia University Varsity show together; the teenaged brother of a Hammerstein friend -- Richard Rodgers -- offers his congratulations backstage.
1917
Hyperkinetic comedian Eddie Cantor makes his "Follies" debut.
Houdini performs an escape trick while being lowered outside the Hippodrome Theatre on 44th Street.
1918
To assist the war effort, Irving Berlin creates and performs in "Yip, Yip, Yaphank"; songs include "Oh, How I Hate to Get up in the Morning."
George M. Cohan writes "Over There" as a patriotic gesture.
Composer George Gershwin writes his first full Broadway score, "La, La, Lucille."
1919
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart begin their professional songwriting partnership.
The "Ziegfeld Follies of 1919," the most lavish edition to date, includes the Berlin song "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody."
Gershwin writes "Swanee" with Irving Caesar and Buddy De Sylva; Jolson's gramophone recording of the song, made in 1920, sells two million copies.
Actors' Equity is formed after striking actors, stagehands, and musicians bring Broadway to a halt for a month, from August to September.
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