Earl Carroll Theatre

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 18 August 1933 to the Mutual Life Insurance Company for $1 million.[3]

For Earl Carroll's Broadway Theatre, see Broadway Theatre (53rd Street). For the Hollywood, California theater, see Nickelodeon on Sunset.
753 Seventh Avenue, 1922

The French Casino

In 1934, after being acquired for $52 million (? - Empire State Building cost $40 million in 1931, so this figure is suspect.) by a business consortium consisting of Louis F. Blumenthal, Charles H. Haring and Jack Shapiro the theater was refurbished, and on 30 December 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.

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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, 18 August 1933.
  4. Chapman, Gary. "The French Casino". Jazz Age Club. Retrieved May 31, 2019.

Further reading

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