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Single leaf wrapper folded; two typescript leaves; one handbill. 4to. The Greenwich Village Theatre playhouse opened on November 15, 1917 on Sheridan Square at Christopher Street, where W. 4th Street and 7th Avenue meet, and was designed by Herman Lee Meader in a Dutch Colonial style. Actor Frank Conroy was integral in its development and ran the theatre. As early cinema became popular in 1921, The Greenwich started showing films between play engagements. The theatre caused controversy with some residents of Greenwich Village who took offense at the Bohemian lifestyles the space cultivated and promoted, and many complaints were lobbied against it over incidents such as a "lewd poster" for an Audrey Munson film, Heedless Moths. In May 1926 the theater management announced that it had merged with the Actors' Theatre. The name Actors' Theatre was retained and, while its permanent home had not been decided upon, the announcement made one thing clear: "It will not be the Greenwich Village." In January 1928 N. Brewster Morse signed a five-year lease with owner Marguerite A. Barker. Marguerite Abbott Barker (b.1893 - d.1930) was a woman of wealth through her father who was president of Eastman Kodak. She was very active in the Greenwich Village theatre scene and hoped to provide a more experimental approach to the theatre experience that included "musical, dramatic and motion picture features, with a change of program every two weeks." In the lounge area art exhibitions were to be held, "where tea, coffee and cigarettes will be served during the intermissions." Among the first films screened was Paul Fejos's The Last Moment, described by one critic as an "impressionistic picture." She intended to show "unusual films at popular prices" beginning on April 9, 1928. Fashion was the first play produced by a woman playwright, Anna Cora Mowatt, in 1845 and revived by the Provincetown Players (the original Players included George Cram Cook, Susan Glaspell, Eugene O'Neill, John Reed, Louise Bryant, Floyd Dell, Ida Rauh, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Djuna Barnes) who maintained residence The Provincetown Playhouse at 133 MacDougal Street. This production for The Greenwich Village Theatre ran from April to July 1924 and in the program here states Eugene O'Neill among it's directors. On February 4, 1930, The New York Times announced "Demolition of the Greenwich Village Theatre on the northwest corner of Christopher and Fourth Streets.will begin early in March." The article explained that developers George and Edward Blum had filed plans for a 19-story apartment building, the tallest in Greenwich Village. The demolished theater was replaced with the two-story Art Deco style Stewarts Cafeteria building that survives, significantly altered at street level. Illustrated unbound pamphlet wrapper folded, with toning and some soiling along edge on recto, two spots on verso, and small tear near center at edge of page on verso; two typescript leaves folded in: Anna Cora Mowatt's prologue to Fashion and Count Jolimaitre prologue from the Provincetown Player's production; a typescript leaf with a subscription handbill laid in; overall a very good copy of a scarce program and novel piece of New York and theatre history Single leaf wrapper folded; two typescript leaves; one handbill. 4to.
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