Old Howard Theatre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Old Howard Theatre was a famous burlesque house located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA's erstwhile Scollay Square. Comedian Fred Allen, in his memoir Much Ado About Me, described the theatrical district around the Old Howard as Boston's Broadway.
The theater, which was opened in 1845 at the site of a church as the Howard Atheneum, was in continuous operation until 1953. The new theater burned down in 1845 after four months in operation, then was rebuilt in marble. It burned down again in 1961, destroyed by a mysterious fire, when it was on the verge of being reclaimed by preservationists.
The early Howard Atheneum featured Shakespeare, other dramas and comedies, and ballet. Among the distinguished thespains to tread its boards were Edwin Booth and his brother, the notorious John Wilkes Booth, who played Hamlet there and went on to slay another king in a theater.
The house degenerated into a burlesque house and became famous for its comedians and strip-teasers. The fortunes of the theater declined as the Scollay Square neighborhood decayed after World War II into an urban ghetto, full of flop-houses catering to winos and other derelicts. The blighted neighborhood was razed in the mid-1960s and replaced by Boston's futuristic Government Center, though the Old Howard had preceded it, having been demolished in 1962.
