The Original Sin City: New York Broadway Shows

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Satan's Circus

New York Broadway Shows have not always been the glittering spectacle they are today. Broadway, as we know it, is the result of nearly 250 years of "variety" performances. In it's early years Broadway was know as Satan's Circus because of the prostitutes and low-lives that hustled and sold their wares throughout the district.



Known as the "Tenderloin" by brutal police captain, Alexander "Clubber" Williams, Broadway started as a collection of brothels, bars, burlesque and minstrel theatres. In the late 1800's the Tenderloin went through a reformation and began to show signs of the glitz and glamour still to come.

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and the Murder of the Century

New York Broadway Shows have spawned some pretty juicy love affairs throughout their history. Chorus girls hooking up with multi-millionaires, as was the case of the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst's tryst with showgirl Marion Davies.

Their love affair has been colorfully described as "The # 1 whore of the world's biggest son-of-a-bitch."

Another juicy Broadway hook-up is the famous architect Stanford White's affair with Evelyn Nesbit, which ultimately left White dead by Nesbit's jealous husband, eccentric millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw.

Nesbit was an early version of the supermodel: more beautiful than talented. The story behind the murder of the century is told very well here . Nesbit's story has been retold also in E.L. Doctorow's amazing book, Ragtime, Doctorow calls Nesbit “the first sex goddess in American history.” Ragtime was later made into a famous Broadway musical in the late 1990’s.

Broadway’s Endless Hunger For More Everything

Broadway has always been a great breeding ground for beauty and excitement, and in the early years of New York Broadway shows no one profited more than Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld, the entrepreneur fond of publicity stunts.

Flo made his name in the Big Apple with the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Follies" redefined chorus girls on Broadway making them sexual objects, yet unattainable and aloof from the upscale patrons that frequented the shows.

The Ziegfeld Follies were the biggest attraction of the New York Broadway shows, but they were far from the only show in town. The follies set the stage for bigger and better spectacles in the years to come. Broadway in the 1920's was a time of showmanship, indulgence, and debauchery.

Jerome Charyn says in Gangsters and Gold Diggers:
Appetite defined the new Broadway--an endless hunger, and almost childlike innocence and cruelty.

Charyn writes this in the context of the famous baseball player, Babe Ruth's impact on the flavor of Broadway in the 1920's, "The twenties crystallized around the Babe." Ruth ought to have been elected mayor of New York City, he single-handedly got a new venue built for the Yankees and ruled over Broadway like a king.

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