Various editions of Earl Carroll Vanities ran for several years, and the final production at the theatre was the second of “Earl Carroll’s Sketchbook” which ran for 400 performances in 1929. Keister and had 1,026 seats in orchestra and a single balcony levels (there were no boxes). The theatre was designed by architect George W. This was followed by the first edition of “Earl Carroll Vanities” (a rival to Florenz Ziegfeld’s “Follies”). After a couple of other flops, it had its first hit “The Gingham Girl” in August 1922. The first Earl Carroll Theatre was opened Februwith a Russian melodrama “Bavu” which had William Powell in its cast. 50th Street (from 1927 across from the famed Roxy Theatre). He would come to New York in 1909 and p aint many enchanting, atmospheric landscapes street scenes that captured the city’s day and nighttime beauty.īut even without having experienced Gotham, his rooftop paintings (third image, a study for “sur le Toit”) accurately reflect the “ bigness and bustle” of the early 20th century city, as one critic put it, of its summertime magic and energy and the fashionable urbanites set who populated its roofs.Located on the southeast corner of 7th Avenue and W. His rooftop paintings, like “Diner sur le Toit” (top) and a second unnamed painting (middle), were inspired by a book of photos of the Manhattan skyline. Yet amazingly, Hoffbauer had not yet been to New York. In 1904, this Impressionist painter created a series of paintings depicting well-dressed men and women dining on a New York City rooftop. “A number of hotels, including the Waldorf-Astoria, the Vendome, Hotel Belleclaire, the Majestic, and the Women’s Hotel, all have charming roof-gardens,” states a 1904 article in Leslie’s illustrated magazine.įrench artist Charles Hoffbauer was captivated by the roof garden craze too. After the first roof garden opened on top of the Casino Theater at Broadway and 39th Street in the 1880s, other theaters and hotels opened entertainment venues on their roofs, offering cool breezes and panoramic views illuminated by the city’s new electric lights. New Yorkers in the Gilded Age thought so as well. Spending a warm evening in a New York rooftop bar or restaurant is one of the city’s sublime summertime pleasures.

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