Pike's Opera House
Encyclopedia
Pike's Opera House, later renamed the Grand Opera House, was a theatre in New York City
on the northwest corner of 8th Avenue
and 23rd Street
, in Chelsea
, Manhattan
.His other Pike's Opera House, in Cincinnati, burned in the Great Fire of Cincinnati, in 1866. Rebuilt after the fire, and the first home of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
, it burned again in 1903. It was constructed in 1868 on a grand scale, for distiller and entrepreneur Samuel N. Pike (1822 - Dec.7, 1872) In Michael Rehs, Wurzeln in fremder Erde: Zur Geschichte der südwestdeutschen Auswanderung nach Amerika DRW-Verlag, 1984, ISBN 3-8718-1231-5 Samuel N. Pike is listed as a German Jew, born 1822 in Schwetzingen
/Baden
-Germany
. His birthname was Samuel N. Hecht; he changed the name 1827 in the USA to Pike, of Cincinnati
at a cost of a million dollars and survived until 1960 as an RKO movie theater. Public housing was built in its place as part of an urban renewal
project.
. In six proscenium boxes and three tiers of seating, it could accommodate 1800, but over 3500 were known to have gained admittance at some popular performances. Pike's Opera House opened with a performance of La Traviata
which was followed, in quick succession, by seven operettas by Jacques Offenbach
in the space of four months, but the theatre succumbed after its first season of competition with the Academy of Music
on 14th Street.
and Jay Gould
Fisk quickly bought out Gould's share. (Brown 1903:600). bought Pike's theater in January 1869 and renamed it the Grand Opera House. Fisk extended the repertory to include more operetta
— Offenbach
's La Périchole
had already received its American premiere there, 4 January 1869— and plays, like Sardou
's La Patrie, expressly translated for the theater. Vehicles for his mistress Josie Mansfield are often reported, though her name does not appear in the detailed cast lists in Thomas Allston Brown's History of the New York Stage;Frances Farmer
portrayed her in the wildly inaccurate film The Toast of New York (1937). her house west of the theater on 23rd Street was connected to the theater, it was reported, by a subterranean tunnel.
, Fisk barricaded himself in his second-floor premises at the opera house, which served as headquarters for his Erie Railway
. When he was shot by his partner, Edward S. Stokes, Fisk's body lay in state in the grand lobby.
" (in blackface
) and Buffalo Bill
were among the first season's attractions; theatrical productions were accompanied by "specialty acts".
converted it in modern style. it opened 4 August 1938 with a double bill of Having a Wonderful Time and Sky Giant. It closed for demolition, 15 June 1960 and was gutted by fire 29 June.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on the northwest corner of 8th Avenue
Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)
Eighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic. Eighth Avenue begins in the West Village neighborhood at Abingdon Square and runs north for 44 blocks through Chelsea, the Garment District, Hell's Kitchen's east end, Midtown and the...
and 23rd Street
23rd Street (Manhattan)
23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since...
, in Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.His other Pike's Opera House, in Cincinnati, burned in the Great Fire of Cincinnati, in 1866. Rebuilt after the fire, and the first home of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
As the fifth oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours...
, it burned again in 1903. It was constructed in 1868 on a grand scale, for distiller and entrepreneur Samuel N. Pike (1822 - Dec.7, 1872) In Michael Rehs, Wurzeln in fremder Erde: Zur Geschichte der südwestdeutschen Auswanderung nach Amerika DRW-Verlag, 1984, ISBN 3-8718-1231-5 Samuel N. Pike is listed as a German Jew, born 1822 in Schwetzingen
Schwetzingen
Schwetzingen is a German town situated in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, around southwest of Heidelberg and southeast of Mannheim.Schwetzingen is one of the 5 biggest cities of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district and it is a medium-sized centre including the cities and municipalities of...
/Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
-Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. His birthname was Samuel N. Hecht; he changed the name 1827 in the USA to Pike, of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
at a cost of a million dollars and survived until 1960 as an RKO movie theater. Public housing was built in its place as part of an urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
project.
History
Pike's Opera House opened on January 9, 1868, on the property of Clement Clark Moore, whose house "Chelsea" has given its name to the neighborhood; Pike bought up the leases to the land and secured residual right from the Moore heirs. Its frontages were 185 feet and 80 feet. The grand auditorium was seventy feet from the parquet to its domeDome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
. In six proscenium boxes and three tiers of seating, it could accommodate 1800, but over 3500 were known to have gained admittance at some popular performances. Pike's Opera House opened with a performance of La Traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
which was followed, in quick succession, by seven operettas by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
in the space of four months, but the theatre succumbed after its first season of competition with the Academy of Music
Academy of Music (Manhattan)
The Academy of Music was a New York City opera house, located at East 14th Street and Irving Place in Manhattan. The 4,000-seat hall opened on October 2, 1854. The New York Times review declared it to be an acoustical "triumph", but "In every other aspect .....
on 14th Street.
Fisk and the Grand Opera House
Jim FiskJames Fisk (financier)
James Fisk, Jr. —known variously as "Big Jim," "Diamond Jim," and "Jubilee Jim"—was an American stock broker and corporate executive.-Early life and career:...
and Jay Gould
Jay Gould
Jason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
Fisk quickly bought out Gould's share. (Brown 1903:600). bought Pike's theater in January 1869 and renamed it the Grand Opera House. Fisk extended the repertory to include more operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
— Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's La Périchole
La Périchole
La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...
had already received its American premiere there, 4 January 1869— and plays, like Sardou
Sardou
Sardou is a surname, and may refer to:* Saint Sacerdos of Limoges, also known as Saint Sardou* Victorien Sardou, French dramatist* Victorien Sardou was also the basis for naming Eggs Sardou, which is a part of Creole cuisine....
's La Patrie, expressly translated for the theater. Vehicles for his mistress Josie Mansfield are often reported, though her name does not appear in the detailed cast lists in Thomas Allston Brown's History of the New York Stage;Frances Farmer
Frances Farmer
Frances Elena Farmer was an American actress of stage and screen. She is perhaps better known for sensationalized and fictional accounts of her life, and especially her involuntary commitment to a mental hospital...
portrayed her in the wildly inaccurate film The Toast of New York (1937). her house west of the theater on 23rd Street was connected to the theater, it was reported, by a subterranean tunnel.
Fisk's murder
At the time when Fisk and Gould's failed attempt to corner the market in gold resulted in "Black Friday", September 1869Black Friday (1869)
Black Friday, September 24, 1869 also known as the Fisk/Gould scandal, was a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators’ efforts to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. It was one of several scandals that rocked the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant...
, Fisk barricaded himself in his second-floor premises at the opera house, which served as headquarters for his Erie Railway
Erie Railroad
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, originally connecting New York City with Lake Erie...
. When he was shot by his partner, Edward S. Stokes, Fisk's body lay in state in the grand lobby.
Poole and Donnelly
In 1876, when the authorities began cracking down on theatre fire safety, the Grand Opera House was the only theatre to pass inspection, but a rapid series of managers had been unable to make a financial success, its overhead swallowing profit, "the house was considered, in theatrical parlance, a 'Jonah', and it was almost impossible to find any respectable manager who would take it," the historian of New York's theater recorded in 1903. When John Poole and Thomas Donnelly rented it in 1876, it was with the proviso that "a small percentage of the profits should go to the Erie Railway company". The new management lowered the price of admission and catered to the popular tastes of New York's "west side": "Uncle Tom's CabinUncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
" (in blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
) and Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
were among the first season's attractions; theatrical productions were accompanied by "specialty acts".
RKO cinema
For its conversion to the second RKO 23rd Street Theater, Thomas W. Lamb AssociatesThomas W. Lamb
Thomas White Lamb was an American architect, born in Scotland. He is noted as one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas in the 20th century.-Career:...
converted it in modern style. it opened 4 August 1938 with a double bill of Having a Wonderful Time and Sky Giant. It closed for demolition, 15 June 1960 and was gutted by fire 29 June.