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The second Earl Carroll Theatre at 7th Avenue & 50th Street. View looking Southeast. Image from Getty Images / New York Historical Society.

Between 1931 – 1934 much happened with Earl Carroll’s massive, popular priced theatre. It would change ownership three times and  get a name change. Rechristened the Casino in the spring of 1932, the change of name did not bring good luck.

1931

During construction of the new Earl Carroll Theatre, Carroll announced additional plans for the Seventh Avenue site.

New York Evening Post, November 5, 1930, Pg. 28. Article from fultonhistory.com

By April of 1931 the plans for the office building changed and became more ambitious and a bit bizarre.

The New York Herald-Tribune, April 1, 1931, Pg. 49. Image from Proquest.com.

In the past it was not uncommon for hotels and theatres to have roof gardens. Here is where after theatre patrons could enjoy drinks and shows and escape the city’s heat in the summer. The old Casino Theatre at Broadway and Thirty-Ninth Street started the fashion in 1882. Other famous roof spots came later at Madison Square Garden and the New Amsterdam Theatre.

A special after hours night spot was also part of the plans for the new theatre. The basement, not the roof, would be the place for Earl Carroll’s nightclub.

Site of the proposed night club in the basement of the Earl Carroll Theatre. Image from The Architectural Forum, November, 1931, usmodernist.org.

Floor plans of the lower levels of the Earl Carroll Theatre and space for the night club. Image from The Architectural Forum, November, 1931, usmodernist.org.

Carroll announced the plans for the night club to the press on July 4, 1931 as the theatre neared completion.

Richmond Times Dispatch, July 5, 1931, Pg. 40. Image from Newspapers.com.

Hoping to have the night club open by New Year’s Eve, by late November Carroll realized  the impossibility of this. He pushed back the opening to into early, 1932.

New York Daily News, November 25, 1931, Pg. 29. Image from Newspapers.com

As 1931 came to an end so did Earl Carroll’s luck.  Even with the popular price seating policy, audience size dwindled as the depression deepened. Carroll fell behind in his rent and loan obligations. There was no opening of the night club in mid-January. It would never open.  Carroll lost his theatre just six months after it’s gala opening.  The following month the Seventh Avenue Corporation sued Earl Carroll and his backing angel W. R. Edrington for $400,000.

1932

New York Daily News, February 22, 1932, Pg. 2. From Newspapers.com

As March, 1932 began, The Vanities moved to the Forty-Fourth Street Theatre and Carroll moved to offices on Fifth Avenue. He never returned to his theatre again. Carroll’s financial backer, Edrington, went back to his native Fort Worth, Texas and filed for bankruptcy. While there he succumbed to pneumonia on November 6, 1932 at the age of 60.

Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Zeigfeld. Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/

This brand new and most modern theatre now needed a new tenant. And Florenz Ziegfeld would be the one. Looking for a theatre to stage a revival of his biggest success, Show Boat, the empty Earl Carroll Theatre was perfect. Ziegfeld too ill in the spring of 1932 to leave his house at Hastings-on-Hudson, announced to the press in late April his leasing of the theatre. One of the concessions the Seventh Avenue Corporation made to Ziegfeld was a changing the name. Starting with Show Boat the Earl Carroll Theatre became the Casino. This was Ziegfeld’s tribute to the original Casino Theatre at Broadway and 39th Street, which was razed just two years earlier.

The original Casino Theatre (1882 – 1930), Broadway and 39th Street. Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/

With its enormous size, Ziegfeld continued Carroll’s popular price policy. Show Boat found the success that eluded the Earl Carroll Vanities and became the most successful show of the season. Show Boat kept the lights on at the Casino Theatre from May 19 – October 22, 1932. A 180 performance run, which was unheard for a Broadway revival. The future was looking bright.

With Show Boat up and running, Ziegfeld began planning a follow up for the Casino. Unfortunately, his health continued to deteriorate. Spending a month in a New Mexico sanitarium, his health did begin to improve. On his release he traveled to Los Angeles, where his wife Billie Burke, was filming A Bill of Divorcement for R-K-O. But the trip proved too taxing. Ziegfeld’s health took a turn for the worse. He died soon after his arrival in California at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital on July 22, 1932.

New York Daily News headline of Florenz Ziegfeld’s death. Image from Newspapers.com.

Upon Ziegfeld’s death, theatrical producer / promoter A. C. Blumenthal took over Ziegfeld’s business affairs. In late July Blumenthal announced to the press that a new edition of The Ziegfeld Follies would move into the Casino Theatre soon after the closing of Show Boat that autumn.

A. C. Blumenthal with June Lang at a Hollywood premiere in 1939. Image from Hulton Archive / Getty Images.

For reasons now unknown, Blumenthal was unable to get a new edition of the Follies into production after the closing of Show Boat. In the early autumn of 1932, Blumenthal also planned to finance a new opera company that would make its home at the Casino.

Announcement of a new popular price opera company to rival the Metropolitan. New York Times, September 28, 1932, Pg. 28. Image from Proquest.com.

Singers from the Metropolitan Opera, unhappy that their upcoming season would be reduced from twenty-four to sixteen weeks, were planning to form a rival popular price company. But like so many other enterprises during the depression, Blumenthal did not find the needed financial backing. The new company never materialized. Once again the Seventh Avenue Corporation went looking for a new tenant for their theatre.

George White in the early 1930s. Image from imdb.com.

Now it was Earl Carroll’s revue competitor, George White who entered into the saga of the Earl Carroll / Casino Theatre. White’s home theatre for his revues, the Apollo, had been leased to another company. So for his new show he successfully leased the Casino. But this would not be a new edition of The Scandals. This was going be George White’s Music Hall Varieties. Basically The Scandals under a different name. Also different would be the number of performances.  The new show would have two performances daily, even on Sundays. Nearly doubling the normal eight performances a week of a Broadway show. But Actors Equity intervened preventing White from opening a Broadway revue under the guise of two-a-day vaudeville. As a result  the show played the standard number of weekly performances. With a $3.00 top, White continued the popular price policy.

Advertisement for the opening night of George White’s Music Hall Varieties. New York Daily News, November 14, 1932, Pg. 33. Image from newspapers.com.

Headlining the revue was a 1932 powerhouse trio, singer Harry Richmond, actress Lili Damita and comedian Bert Lahr.

George White’s Music Hall Varieties was mildly successful. It had a two edition run before closing on January 21, 1933.

1933

February 5, 1933 advertisement for the opening of Melody on the 14th. New York Daily News, Pg. 59. From newspapers.com

In less than three weeks, White followed up the Music Hall Varieties with an operetta. Melody, with music by Sigmund Romberg and setting by Joseph Urban, opened at the Casino on February 14, 1933. Revues and operettas were waning in audience popularity by the 1930s. The run of Melody proved less successful than Music Hall Varieties, closing after 79 performances on April 22, 1933.

Chorus line from Melody. Image from MCNY.org

With the closing of Melody the Casino went “dark” for two months. With no income coming in and taxes and interest on loans adding up, the Seventh Avenue Corporation was anxious for any source of revenue. They found it from a not so usual tenant.

The two sheet poster for Moonlight and Pretzels (Directors: Karl Freund, Monte Brice). Image from Amazon.com.

Movie musicals had fallen out of audience favor by the end of 1930. With the release of Warner Bros. 42nd Street in March of 1933, the genre was enjoying a renewed popularity. All the studios rushed “backstage” musicals into production. And Universal Pictures joined in with Moonlight and Pretzels. Directed by Karl Freund and Monte Brice, the musical starred Leo Carrillo, Mary Brian and Roger Pryor. But Moonlight and Pretzels was not made in Hollywood. Filming took place at the Eastern Service Studios (formerly Paramount and today the Kaufman Astoria Studio) in Astoria, New York.

The Eastern Service Studio in 1921 when it was Paramount. Image from silentlocations.com.

While the studio’s soundstage proved more than adequate for the dramatic portions of the film, it was too cramped for big production numbers. The problem was solved by using the stage of the unused Casino Theatre in Manhattan. As a result of shooting inside the theatre, present day audiences get glimpses of the interior of the auditorium.

The main title for Moonlight and Pretzels, 1933. Frame grab from internet.

The lighting console for the theatre is seen directly behind the orchestra leader. Frame grab from the internet.

Shooting wrapped in June and once again the enormous theatre sat empty. With the Seventh Avenue Corporation receiving no income they fell behind on their obligations. The “white elephant” of a theatre went into foreclosure by the summer of 1933.

New York Daily News article. August 8, 1933, Pg.21. Image from newspapers.com.

The Mutual Life Insurance Company did not rush any productions into the Casino. In December, 1933 it was announced that the next show would be an import from Europe.  The White Horse Tavern, a very elaborate operetta would open in early 1934.

Daily News article from December 21, 1933, announcing The White Horse Tavern for the Casino Theatre. Image from newspapers.com

It did not open in January, the show was too costly to mount at that time. A couple years later it did open on Broadway as White Horse Inn. By that time the Casino was no longer available, the Center Theatre would be its home.

1934

In the winter of 1934, opera kept the lights on at the Casino Theatre. But not the proposed opera company made up of singers from Metropolitan Opera. Two traveling companies found the stage facilities of the theatre perfect for their needs. The Russian Opera Company returning to New York, moved in to the Casino giving their first performance on February 1st.

January 21, 1934 newspaper advertisement for the Russian Opera Company at the Casino Theatre. New York Herald-Tribune, Page D2. Article from proquest.com

After a two week stay, the Russian Opera Company’s last performance came on February 14th. But New York City opera lovers did not have a long wait before another company moved into the Casino Theatre.

New York Times announces the opening of the San Carlo Opera Company’s season at the Casino Theatre. New York Times, February 23, 1934, Pg. 23. Article from proquest.com.

On Sunday evening March 4th, the San Carlo Opera closed their successful New York season with a performance of Il Trovatore. Just less than a month later, vaudeville replaced opera on the stage. Casino Varieties, headlined by George Jessel opened on the afternoon of April 2, 1934.

Review for the Casino Varieties. New York Daily News, April 4, 1934, Pg.65. Image from newspapers.com.

Casino Varieties, closed one week shy of its planned four week run, on April 22nd. The theatre shut down completely for five days. It reopened on Friday April 27th with a new entertainment policy. The Casino Theatre began to show first run films with a five act stage show. This seemed to be the best solution for a theatre of such a large size.

Review for the first film shown at the Casino Theaatre, Finishing School (RKO, 1934). New York Daily News, April 28, 1934, Pg. 29. Image from newspapers.com.

Wanda Hale gives about equal time to the film and the theatre in her review. And it seems the theatre got the better notice. But like everything else concerning this theatre, even movies failed to find success. Whether it was lack of getting first run films or just too much competition, after only three weeks the film and stage show policy was dropped. And again the theatre sat dark. Two weeks later a tiny article appeared on page 14 of The New York Times, concerning a French theme dinner show headed for the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.

New York Times, May 29, 1934, Pg. 14. Image from proquest.com

Unbeknownst to all at the time was how much this show would play a part in the success of the Casino Theatre.

Sources: The New York Daily News, The New York Evening Post, The New York Herald-Tribune, The New York Times, The Richmond Times Dispatch.

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)

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