Koster & Bial's Music Hall facts for kids

Koster and Bial's Music Hall

Koster and Bial's Music Hall was a very famous theater in New York City. It was a big place for vaudeville shows. Vaudeville was a popular type of entertainment. It featured many different acts like singers, dancers, comedians, and magicians. The music hall was located on Broadway and Thirty-Fourth Street. Today, the large Macy's department store stands in that spot.

The theater was huge, with seats for 3,748 people. This was twice the size of many other theaters back then! Tickets cost from 25 cents for a seat in the gallery to $1.50 for a seat closer to the stage. John Koster and Albert Bial started this important venue in the late 1800s. The music hall finally closed its doors in 1901.

The Story of Koster and Bial's

This music hall was known for featuring many of the top performers of its time. It is also famous in movie history. This is because it was the site of the very first public showing of the Vitascope on April 23, 1896.

Before this big music hall, Koster and Bial had another place. It was called Koster and Bial's Concert Hall. That hall was on 23rd Street. They had taken over a place called Bryant's Opera House. This earlier venue was known for minstrel shows. Koster and Bial offered both food and drinks along with their vaudeville shows. They found a clever way to serve drinks. They used a folding fan instead of a regular curtain. This helped them follow the rules about serving alcohol in theaters.

The last Koster and Bial's Music Hall opened in a new location. They moved uptown into what used to be the Manhattan Opera House. This was a huge theater built in Herald Square in 1892. It was built by Oscar Hammerstein I. He loved grand opera and wanted a place for it. However, he soon had money problems. So, Hammerstein decided to change his theater into a vaudeville hall.

He offered Koster and Bial a partnership. Hammerstein would manage the shows. Koster and Bial would manage the food and drinks. The new Koster and Bial's Music Hall opened on August 28, 1893. It quickly became very successful! But Hammerstein and his partners had disagreements. Lawsuits followed. In the end, Koster and Bial bought out Hammerstein. They ran the theater all by themselves. The theater finally closed in 1901. It was torn down to make way for the Macy's Department Store.

The First Vitascope Show

A small advertisement appeared in The New York Times on April 19, 1896. It was mixed in with many other theater ads. It announced something special:

KOSTER AND BIAL'S MUSIC HALL, 34th st.

TO-MORROW (MONDAY) NIGHT.

THE ONLY CHEVALIER.

2---NEW SONGS---2

Together with all the other

GREAT FOREIGN STARS.

EXTRA--Due notice will be given of the first

public exhibition of Edison's latest marvel,

THE VITASCOPE.

The Vitascope was a new invention. It could project moving pictures onto a big screen. It was actually invented by Thomas Armat. But Thomas Edison's company, Kinetograph, bought and sold it. So, it was presented as if Edison had invented it. The pictures were shown on a twenty-foot screen. This screen was set in a fancy gold frame.

On April 24, the Times reported on the event:

Koster and Bial's Music Hall

EDISON'S VITASCOPE CHEERED. "Projecting Kinetoscope" Exhibited for First Time at Koster and Bial's. ... The clever inventor's newest toy showed his moving pictures. They were projected onto a white screen in a dark hall. In the middle of the balcony was a strange object. It looked like a double tower. It had two oblong holes in the front. The tower was covered with blue velvet. The moving figures looked about half life size.

The report continued:

...a buzzing and roaring were heard in the tower. Then a very bright light shone on the screen. Two young blonde women appeared. They wore pink and blue dresses. They were doing an umbrella dance very quickly. Their movements were very clear. After they disappeared, a view of waves crashing on a sandy beach surprised everyone. There was also a funny boxing match. It was between a tall, thin comedian and a short, fat one. Another scene was a comic story called "The Monroe Doctrine." There was also a short moment from a play. And finally, a skirt dance by a tall blonde woman. All the views looked wonderfully real and were very exciting!

See also

• White Rats of America