The American playwright and actor William Gillette is best remembered today for the role of Sherlock Holmes that he first created for the stage in 1899 and played for more than thirty years. Gillette also adapted foreign plays for the American stage and wrote strong melodramas and spy stories in which he frequently appeared himself. This volume includes All the Comforts of Home (1890), Secret Service (1895) and Sherlock Holmes (1899). Gillette's sure grasp of the keys to theatrical success, together with his technical innovations, makes him an interesting and important theatre figure. In his time, as playwright and player, he achieved a new combination of melodramatic suspense with a cool, understated acting style. These three plays represent the range of his dramatic talent.

America's third largest city until 1890, Brooklyn, New York, had a striking theatrical culture before it became a borough of Greater New York in 1898. As the city gained size and influence, more and more theatres arose, with at least 15 venues ultimately vying for favor. Too many theatregoers, however, preferred the discomforts of a ferry and horsecar trip to New York's playhouses instead of supporting the local product. Nor did the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 do Brooklyn's theatres any favors. Manhattan's Goliath slayed Brooklyn's David. This first comprehensive study of Brooklyn's old-time theatre describes the city's early history, each of its many playhouses, its plays and actors (including nearly every foreign and domestic star), and its scandals and catastrophes, including the theatre fire that killed nearly 300. Brooklyn's ongoing struggle to establish theatres in a society dominated by anti-theatrical preachers, including Henry Ward Beecher, is detailed, as are all the ways that Brooklyn typified 19th century American theatre, from stock companies to combinations. Replete with fascinating anecdotes, this is the story of a major city from which theatre all but vanished before being reborn as a present-day artistic mecca.