Earl Carroll Theatre

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For Earl Carroll's Broadway Theatre, see Broadway Theatre (53rd Street). For the theater in California, see Earl Carroll Theatre (Los Angeles).
Earl Carroll Theatre
Earl Carroll Theatre, Manhattan.jpg
The building in 1922
General information
Location753 Seventh Ave., Manhattan, New York City
Opened1922
Demolished1990

The Earl Carroll Theatre, built by Broadway impresario and showman Earl Carroll, was located in the Broadway Theater District in New York City at 753 Seventh Avenue & West 50th Street. Designed by architect George Keister,[1] it opened on February 25, 1922,[2] and was highly successful for a number of years until it was demolished and rebuilt on a lavish scale. It reopened in August 1931 with Carroll's billing that it was "the largest legitimate theater in the world." However, the facility's operating costs proved astronomical and it went into foreclosure in early 1932 after which it was acquired by producer Florenz Ziegfeld who renamed it the Casino Theatre. The Casino was the site of a very successful revival of Ziegfeld's production of Show Boat in 1932. However, Ziegfeld too went bankrupt only a short time later. The property was auctioned in foreclosure on August 18, 1933 to the Mutual Life Insurance Company for $1 million.[3]

The French Casino[]

In 1934, after being acquired for $52 million[dubious – discuss] by a business consortium consisting of Louis F. Blumenthal, Charles H. Haring and Jack Shapiro the theater was refurbished, and on December 30, 1934 it reopened as the French Casino night club.[4] The chic nightclub offered dinner and a Broadway cabaret show and became very successful for several years. Its first revue was titled Revue Folies Bergeres. The French Casino operated until its closure in 1938. Soon after, the Broadway producer Billy Rose acquired the building and renamed it the Casa Manan nightclub. The club operated with a similar cabaret policy as the French Casino had produced. Under the helm of Rose, the venue traded until the end of 1938. Thereafter, the building was converted in to retail space and in 1940 eventually became a Woolworth's Department Store. The building was demolished in 1990.

Description[]

The building was six-stories, made of dark brick with retail stores on the street level and offices above. It was one hundred feet (30 m) long and about thirty feet (9.1 m) deep, behind which the theater wing stretches to the left. Between the fourth and fifth floors, a big sign on the facade said "Earl Carroll Theatre" in capital letters. The right side of the office building had a marquee over the theater entrance, which is through the office building. There was another marquee at the theater wing on the left.

References[]

  1. ^ "Earl Carroll Theatre, New York. George Keister, Architect" (April 1922). Architecture and Building. Vol. 54 No. 4, pp. 39-40
  2. ^ Woollcott, Alexander (February 27, 1922). "The Play" (PDF). The New York Times.
  3. ^ "Casino Theatre Sold at Auction." New York Evening Post, August 18, 1933.
  4. ^ Chapman, Gary. "The French Casino". Jazz Age Club. Retrieved May 31, 2019.

Further reading[]

  • Lost Broadway Theatres by Nicholas van Hoogstraten (1991). Princeton Architectural Press (ISBN 1-878271-06-7)

External links[]

Coordinates: 34°05′51″N 118°19′29″W / 34.097488°N 118.324692°W / 34.097488; -118.324692

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