1900–1901

Abstract

Abstract The coming of the new century was accompanied by a wave of national optimism that was echoed up and down the length of Broadway. Indeed, 1901 was the year in which Broadway was christened “the Great White Way.” Nighttime strollers from Madison Square to Longacre Square (later Times Square) delightedly lifted their eyes skyward to feast on glittering, beckoning electric signs, which invited them to an evening’s entertainment. At the season’s outset the Dramatic Mirror listed nearly sixty auditoriums in Manhattan, approximately two dozen of them offering first-class or major touring productions.