According to the entertainment page in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of October 1, 1922 there was much to do in Brooklyn. Movies had hardly thought about talking but there were some good old silents such as Harold Lloyd in Grandma’s Boy and Buster Keaton in Cops along with vaudeville at Loew’s Metro-politan at Fulton, Smith and Livingston.
Mark’s Brooklyn Strand at Fulton and Rockwell Place had a goody on screen: John Barrymore in Sherlock Holmes with a stage show. Barrymore could not yet speak from the screen but the ‘famed Mark Strand Orchestra’ accompanied him with some dramatic music. (The Strand and the next-door Majestic were vacant for many years. The Strand building now houses the Brooklyn Information and Culture organization (BRIC). The Majestic has joined the complex of Brooklyn Aca-demy of Music playhouses and is now the Harvey Lichtenstein Theatre.)
Vaudeville was still the thing Brooklynites were flocking downtown to enjoy. Keith’s Orpheum at Fulton and Flatbush had an all comedy show headed by Eddie Foy and all the little Foys in their new 1922 revue. The Shubert-Crescent, Flatbush Avenue Extension near Fulton Street, was presenting “The Irresistible Pair,” comedians Joe Weber and Lew Fields, and other all-star acts in “advanced vaudeville.” Not exactly advanced vaudeville, but burlesque in 1922 did not mean bawdy jokes and stripteasers but a sort of low key vaudeville called “burlesque for the entire family.” The Casino ballyhooed Radio Girls with Billy Gilbert in the cast and someone named “Cleora?” Star Burlesque had ‘the funniest show in town’ with a lively cast; and at the Gayety the burlesque revue was Pell Mell, ‘burlesque as you like it.’
On October 1, 1922 there was no opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, but B.F. Keith had onstage a terrific revue which included Vincent Lopez and his Pennsylvania Band along with ‘a first run feature picture’. BAM advertised 1,000 seats at $1, none higher. Near BAM, the Majestic had a musical comedy The Rose of Stamboul (Sigmund Rom-berg wrote the music). Admission there was 50 cents to $2.
If you had wanted a little work-out with your fun you could have gone to the Brooklyn Roller Skating Rink out near Ebbets Field where you could have done some fancy turns from 8 to 11. On Tuesday night they had block skating; on Wednesday night Ski Dee skating; and on Thursday a Mysterious Couple Contest. Whatever those things were, they sound like more fun than watching TV.
— Vernon Parker
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