Hollis_Street_Theatre

Hollis Street Theatre

Hollis Street Theatre

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The Hollis Street Theatre (1885–1935) was a theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, that presented dramatic plays, opera, musical concerts, and other entertainments.

The Hollis Street Theatre on a postcard, c. 1907

Brief history

Boston architect John R. Hall designed the 1,600-seat theatre in 1885, on the site of the former Hollis Street Church.[1] The interior was designed by Zachariah Mode, who also designed the interior of the Colonial Theater in Boston.[2]

On opening night,

The new theatre was crowded to-night by an audience which came from among the best people in Boston. The street was crowded with people in the afternoon, and it was almost impossible to get near the doors at the time they were opened. People holding tickets met with great difficulty in getting in, so that the audience was not entirely seated until some time after the curtain should have risen. As soon as they did get in, however, they found a roomy, gorgeous interior fitted up with every attention to comfort and decorated brightly in gold, blue, and white. Most of the tickets had been sold in advance by auction, and it has been impossible for several days to secure places for the opening performance. ... The Mikado ... made an immense hit to-night.[3]

The many shows presented at the theatre featured a number of notables, including Maurice Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt, William Gillette, Henry Irving, Doris Keane, Julia Marlowe[4] and Ellen Terry. Others associated with the theatre included Isaac B. Rich; Edward E. Rice; Charles Frohmann.[5]

The building was demolished in 1935.

Sarah Bernhardt
E.H. Sothern
Maude Adams
Billie Burke
Fritzi Scheff
Ethel Barrymore

Selected shows

References

  1. [1]
    Edwin M. Bacon (1886), Bacon's dictionary of Boston, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., OL 7066965M
  2. [2]
    Zachariah Mode of Boston Dead, Internationally Known as Interior Decorator, Boston: Daily Boston Globe, July 14, 1930
  3. [3]
    A new Boston playhouse: opening of the Hollis-Street Theatre with 'The Mikado.' New York Times. November 10, 1885.
  4. [4]
    "Boston Press Club". Boston Globe. February 7, 1892. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  5. [5]
    Boston Athenaeum. "Theater history: Hollis Street Theatre (1885-1935)". Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  6. [6]
    A new Boston playhouse: opening of the Hollis-Street Theatre with 'The Mikado.' New York Times. November 10, 1885.
  7. [7]
    Boston Globe, Jan. 6, 1887.
  8. [8]
    Boston Globe, Jan. 13, 1887.
  9. [9]
    Boston Globe, April 5, 1887.
  10. [10]
    "Reviewing Uncle Tom Onstage". Univ. of Virginia.
  11. [11]
    Raoul Granqvist, Imitation as resistance: appropriations of English literature in nineteenth-century America, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8386-3639-X, p.252
  12. [12]
    New York Times, Nov. 21, 1892
  13. [13]
    Souvenir hand fan Apl 12, 1892
  14. [14]
    New England Magazine and Bay State Monthly. 1910. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. [15]
    "Daddy Long Legs program". 1916. Archived from the original on 2010-07-07. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
  16. [16]
    "The Ruth D. Gates Digital Scrapbook | Program for "Doris Keane in the Czarina"".

42°21′0.22″N 71°3′52.14″W
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