Category Archives: Theatre

Theatre

Broadway

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Broadway : a cabaret and boot-legging drama of New York night-life

‘Broadway’ was regarded at the time as one of the best and slickest crime plays seen on the stage, laying bare the gangster racket in New York at the height of Prohibition in the mid 1920s. It was staged in both New York and London and was described as a thoroughly modern melodrama, although Theatre World insisted that the correct description, although a hybrid expression, was in fact a comedy drama.

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Dolly Tree, Theatre

Round in 50

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Round in 50

Julian Wylie’s 1922 spectacular show for the London Hippodrome was Round in 50. It was not a golf problem but a ‘musical adventure’ designed as a vehicle for the hugely popular comedian George Robey, with the later addition of the American vaudeville star Sophie Tucker.

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Dolly Tree, Theatre

The Peepshow

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The Peepshow

The debut revue from the Julian Wylie and Jas W. Tate organization at the London Hippodrome was The Peepshow launched 14th April 1921. Described as a tropical fantasia it proved to be a runaway success partly because several of the main scenes had already been tried and tested in previous Wylie–Tate productions, and so from the outset, the production was viewed as being polished and well produced.

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Theatre

Yvonne: A musical comedy

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Yvonne: A musical comedy

Yvonne was an original musical comedy staged by George Edwardes at Dalys Theatre, London in mid 1926. It followed the huge success of Katja the Dancer, which had run for many months, and was a hard act to follow.

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Theatre

Folies d’Amour

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Folies d’Amour

The 4th production at the French Casino, New York was Folies d’Amour launched in late August 1936 and transferred to the London Casino in January 1937. Once again Clifford Fischer presented an excess of scenic artifice, flamboyant costumes and feminine pulchritude to such an extent that the New York Times said he was following in Ziegfeld’s footsteps with such tableaux as the Flowers of Paris, the old Jewel Box, the Metal Age and naughtiness of Goodnight.

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Theatre

Folies de Femmes

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Folies de Femmes

The Folies de Femmes revue was the third show launched at the French Casino New York in February 1936 with an array of talent and spectacular scenes that included the Women from Paris, Military Fashions, Music of the Accordians and Supper in Paris.

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Theatre

The Revue Folies Bergere

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The Revue Folies Bergere

The first spectacular and sumptuous stage show produced by Clifford Fischer for the French Casino project in Chicago and New York in 1934 was the Revue Folies Bergere.

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Theatre

The French Casino Project

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The French Casino Project

Following the example of the Ambassadeurs theatre-restaurant in Paris, an ambitious business consortium conceived the idea of a chain of luxurious theatre-restaurants and at one time in the mid 1930s they had branches in Chicago, New York, Miami and London. Clifford Fischer (who owned the Ambassadeurs) staged extravagant, French inspired revues that were created to tour each venue and were hailed as being the best cabaret entertainment ever seen.

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Theatre

Folie Parisienne

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Folie Parisienne

Folie Parisienne was the second presentation at the French Casino New York in September 1935. It was transferred to the Miami Beach French Casino in January 1936 and was then the opening show at the London Casino in April 1936. It was a highly elaborate mix of spectacle, ballet and speciality acts with fashion shows, dog shows, butterflies, fountains, a carpet of roses, aerialists, dancers and as usual a magnificent array of mannequins and chorus girls.

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Theatre

Clifford Fischer

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Clifford C. Fischer, the originator of the French Casino Project

One of the most picturesque figures in show business, Clifford C. Fischer was an internationally distinquished booking agent and producer who really made a name for himself staging spectacular stage shows as part of the French Casino theatre-restaurant project in the mid 1930s.

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