In the theater's first year of operation, three million people visited. Throughout the aughts, the Hippodrome was a box office powerhouse and its offerings won critical acclaim. During a show, the stage was illuminated by 40, electric lights, which required almost men to operate. The theater required so much electricity that the building had its own dedicated generators. The entire facade along Sixth Avenue was lit up, an electrical marvel that that could be seen for miles. Even the two corner towers of the building, topped by a globe, were covered in electric lights.
Perhaps the biggest star ever to visit the Hippodrome was the great Harry Houdini. During a show in January of , Houdini brought a five-ton Asian elephant on stage, led her into a large cabinet, and proceeded to make her disappear. The "Vanishing Elephant" became one of Houdini's famous tricks, elevating his reputation as a master magician and illusionist.
After World War I, the theater began to show musical extravaganzas produced by Broadway impresario Charles Dillingham. Dillingham's most famous production was the show " Better Times ," which ran for more than performances. Despite the success of "Better Times," though, the Hippodrome was in trouble. Debts began to pile up. Soon, the Hippodrome's elephants—symbols of its grand beginnings— were moved uptown to the Bronx's Royal Theater.
Dillingham stepped down and B. Albee, president of the B. Keith Vaudeville Circuit, took over the theater's management. Albee hired the legendary theater designer Thomas Lamb to transform the Hippodromef into a vaudeville theatre. Lamb built a smaller stage and discarded many of the original theater's unique features. Films were added to the Hippodrome's repertoire to attract new customers, but by that point, there were already newer and grander movie palaces in the Theater District.
Keith-Albee sold the theater in , to a developer hoping to erect a skyscraper on the land. When the stock market crashed, the developer abandoned its plans. A successful run of the circus musical "Jumbo" briefly revitalized the Hippodrome and for several years thereafter, it booked late-run movies, boxing, wrestling, and Jai Lai matches.
By the end of the decade, with real estate values in the area rising, a theater on the site no longer made sense. In , the Hippodrome was torn down. A new building at went up in Edison bought it from Mass Mutual in and later renovated it , adding the glass curtain wall and a new lobby. Electricity was used in every conceivable way in the Hippodrome, from the obvious to the inventive. The entire block-long facade was itself an electrical billboard, that "threw a fire and glare of electric illumination for miles.
The inside of the theatre was as much an unequalled lighting spectacle. The amount of current used by the Hippodrome's stage was more than the average electrical station could supply.
Electricity also warmed the grease paint and curling irons for hundreds of chorus girls; wardrobes used electric irons to press costumes; carpenters heated their glue with electricity; chefs used electric ovens and dishwashers; the building itself was supplied with an electrified heating and cooling system, water pumps, telephones, hydraulic elevators and mechanical hoists, and numerous other electrical conveniences.
Shocked by an unexpected decline in attendance during the Hippodrome's second season, the investors battled with the producers to raise ticket prices. Furthermore, the investors were concerned by Thompson's plans for an amusement park in Manhattan, which they viewed as a competitor of the Hippodrome.
In the latter half of the century, an office tower was placed on the site of the Hippodrome; only the name remains in silver-colored lettering on the modernist facade. NOTES 6. More about Thompson's Peter Pan-like character is described on p. April 13, ; "New York's Gigantic Toy," p.
A close description with photographs of the Hippodrome lighting apparatus and other uses of electricity appear in "Electricity at the New York Hippodrome," Electrical World 47 May 5, p. Or watch diving horses while a member chorus sings in triumph? Or see some of your favorite comedians and singers perform live on a huge sparkling stage? But on August 16, , the Hippodrome closed its doors for the last time. Built in with a seating capacity of 5, people, the Hippodrome was at one time the largest and most successful theater in New York.
It featured lavish spectacles complete with circus animals, diving horses, opulent sets, and member choruses. The most popular vaudeville variety stage artists of the day, including Harry Houdini, performed at the Hippodrome during its heyday.
But by the late s, the growing popularity of motion pictures replaced the vaudeville acts and circus spectacles presented at the Hippodrome. In , RKO, the motion picture company, purchased the theater.
Movie screens took over the stages for audiences who were hungry for this new kind of entertainment. After it closed its doors in , the Hippodrome Theater presented its final spectacle: the building's demolition. The era that made the Hippodrome famous lives on in the American memory. Do you know the names of any other stars from that vaudeville era? Ask a grandparent! Lamb , J. Morgan location Sixth Avenue map.
Thomas W. Beaux-Arts with a Moorish Revival twist. It was called the world's largest theatre by its builders. The theatre was located on Sixth Avenue, now named Avenue of the Americas, between Forty-third and Forty-fourth streets. Its auditorium seated 5, people and it was equipped with what was then the state of the art in theatrical technology.
The theatre was acquired by The Shubert Organization in Our Podcasts. Pop Culture. Those Were The Days. About Us. Our Book. Contact Us. Subscribe to our newsletter. Walking Tours.
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