Willie Hammerstein

He ran the Victoria Theatre on what became Times Square, Manhattan, presenting very popular vaudeville shows with a wide variety of acts.

[1][2] He started work as a press agent, then built a vaudeville theatre on 110th Street, Manhattan, called Little Coney Island.

[6] Oscar Hammerstein went bankrupt in 1898 and his Olympia theater, which Willie was managing, was sold at auction, but he simultaneously built the Victoria Theatre and the roof top Venetian Terrace Garden.

He promoted new performers and established celebrities of all types, physical freaks, illusionists, and risqué exotic dancers.

[9] To keep costs and prices down, a typical Hammerstein bill would feature a few well-paid stars and a large number of lower-priced novelty acts.

[10] Later the Keith-Albee circuit booking office gave Hammerstein a monopoly on big-time vaudeville in Times Square.

They opened the Palace Theatre at 47th Street and 7th Avenue, advertising "refined glamour" and featuring the biggest stars of vaudeville.

[4] In June 1905 Willie Hammerstein signed up Will Rogers to perform in the Victoria for afternoon matinees and in the Paradise Roof Garden in the evenings.

[5] The young Mae West played eleven one-week engagements in 1912 and 1913, a good fit with the audience through her suggestion of notoriety.

For those who are fond of Spanish dancing her turn proved as attractive as ever, and she seems to have lost none of the suppleness and grace that characterized her performances in the old days... Holdovers who continued to win applause were Ernest Hogan and his Memphis Students, Rice and Prevost, the quaint comedy acrobats; Four Bard Brothers, fine gymnasts, and Will R. Rogers, lasso expert.

[4][a] In 1911 Irving Berlin was featured at the Victoria, billed as "The Composer of a Hundred Hits", and performed a number of his songs including That Mysterious Rag.

[17] Other types of human curiosity were "Shekla, Court Magician to the Shah of Persia" and "Madamoiselle Fatima, Escaped Harem Dancer: ... She has a distinctive Turkish personality and dances with original movements all her own, accompanied by her two Eunuch Servants.

[4] Sports celebrities like boxer James J. Corbett and baseball pitcher Rube Marquard also drew audiences.

[7] The Victoria Theatre was pulled down two years after Willie Hammerstein died, and the Rialto was built in its place, the first movie palace in Times Square.