Hayes Theater
240 West 44th Street | Times Square | built 1912
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1912
Winthrop Ames opens his intimate Little Theatre
Producer Winthrop Ames personally funded a 299-seat playhouse on West 44th Street, designed by Ingalls & Hoffman in a neo-Georgian style inspired by small European theaters he had visited. The Little Theatre opened March 12, 1912, with John Galsworthy's The Pigeon, and every seat was close to the stage since there was no balcony.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1920
Beyond the Horizon, Eugene O'Neill's first full-length play, runs at the Little Theatre
Oliver Morosco, who leased the Little from Winthrop Ames in 1919, used the house for experimental drama. After Mama's Affair, a script by a novice writer chosen in a contest Morosco sponsored, he presented Beyond the Horizon, the first full-length play by Eugene O'Neill. Richard Bennett headed the cast, and the production ran 111 performances and earned a Pulitzer Prize.
- 1920
Herbert Krapp enlarges the Little Theatre with a balcony
Between 1917 and 1920, architect Herbert J. Krapp expanded the Little Theatre, adding a balcony that raised its capacity from 299 to 450 seats. Winthrop Ames had lost roughly half a million dollars running the playhouse by 1922, and his estate was worth only $77,000 when he died in 1937.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1931
The New York Times buys the Little Theatre to tear it down, but public protest saves it
In 1931 the New York Times bought the Little Theatre, which stood beside its own building, intending to demolish it to make room for the trucks that served the Times Building. The public outcry that followed stopped the plan. From 1931 to 1941 the newspaper ran the house as a playhouse, and its first hit under that arrangement was Elmer Rice's The Left Bank, which played 241 performances.
- 1936
Cedric Hardwicke makes his American debut as the theater takes Anne Nichols's name
In 1936 the long-running Pre-Honeymoon transferred from the Lyceum to the Little, and the house was renamed Anne Nichols' Little Theatre for one of the play's authors. Henry Bernstein's Promise followed, with Cedric Hardwicke in his American debut. Cornelia Otis Skinner's one-woman show Edna His Wife, in December 1937, brought back the Little Theatre name.
- 1951
The playhouse becomes an ABC broadcasting studio
The New York Times Company bought the theater in 1931, and after plays continued there until 1941, it served as a conference hall before ABC converted it into a broadcasting studio in 1951. Broadway shows briefly returned in 1963, then Westinghouse Broadcasting took over the space in 1965 to tape programs such as The Merv Griffin Show. Live theater returned to the building for good in 1977.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1958
Dick Clark's ABC show and Johnny Carson's daytime show broadcast from the Little Theatre
ABC used the playhouse as a television studio through the late 1950s. The Dick Clark Show began originating from the building in February 1958 and stayed until September 1960. During the same period the network also aired the daytime program Who Do You Trust?, hosted by Johnny Carson, from the stage that Winthrop Ames had built for intimate drama.
“Dick Clark's The Dick Clark Show started broadcasting from the Little Theatre in February 1958, remaining there through September 1960.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1962
Roger Euster buys the Little Theatre for $850,000 and plans 17-hour days of programs
In June 1962 Roger Euster, through his company Little Theatre Inc., bought the playhouse for $850,000 after outbidding several others, raising part of the money with a $294,000 stock offering. He planned marathon presentations of plays, impersonations, children's shows and classic programs running 17 hours a day. He also set up a basement bar and gave patrons free drinks until the city's license commissioner stopped it, because the theater had no liquor license.
“…opened a bar in the Little's basement and offered free alcoholic beverages to patrons, but the New York City license commissioner quickly halted the practice…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1973
The Little Theatre reopens as a gay pornographic cinema, then drops the films after owners protest
Amid the decline of Times Square, the Little was vacant by mid-1972 and stood empty for six months in 1973. It reopened that September as a venue for gay pornographic films. Owner Leonard Moore said he had not known what his tenants were showing, and he quickly ended the screenings after other theater owners protested. In May 1974 Westinghouse Broadcasting took over the building after Moore defaulted on a mortgage.
“Moore, who claimed he did not know that his tenants were pornographic film exhibitors, quickly halted the film screenings after other theatrical owners protested.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1977
Albert Innaurato's Gemini moves in from off Broadway and runs 1,819 performances
In 1974 Ray Aranha's My Sister, My Sister brought legitimate theater back to the Little for the second time. Its next hit was Albert Innaurato's Gemini, which arrived from off Broadway in 1977. The play stayed for four years and 1,819 performances.
“The next hit at the theater was Albert Innaurato's play Gemini, which transferred from off Broadway in 1977 and ran for 1,819 performances over the next four years.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1982
Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy opens and runs for three years
In June 1982 Harvey Fierstein's play Torch Song Trilogy opened at the Little, after several short-lived shows, among them Ned and Jack in 1981 and, in 1982, Solomon's Child and The Curse of an Aching Heart. The play stayed for three years and gave the small house its next hit. A revival of Torch Song Trilogy returned to the theater in 2018 under Second Stage.
“The theater's next hit came in June 1982 when Harvey Fierstein's play Torch Song Trilogy opened; it ran for three years.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1983
The theater is renamed for actress Helen Hayes
The Little Theatre, as it was still known, was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre in July 1983 to honor the veteran actress, who was then 82 and had outlived her previous namesake theater on West 46th Street. It carried that name until a 2018 renovation shortened it to the Hayes Theater.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
The city designates the Little Theater a landmark after a hearing with 80 supporters
The Landmarks Preservation Commission held hearings on June 14 and 15, 1982, and continued them on October 19, 1982. Eighty witnesses spoke in favor of designation and one against, and the owner, who attended with representatives, said he had not formed an opinion. The Commission designated the Little Theater on November 17, 1987, when it seated 499 and was still the smallest house on Broadway.
“Eighty witnesses spoke in favor of designation. One witness spoke in opposition to designation.”
- 2018
Second Stage reopens the theater as the Hayes Theater
Second Stage Theater bought the playhouse in April 2015 for $24.7 million and spent $22 million rebuilding it between 2016 and 2018, turning to the Rockwell Group to design the renovation. It reopened in March 2018 with Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, its name shortened from Helen Hayes to Hayes Theater. The 597-seat house is now marketed as Broadway's smallest venue.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Hayes TheaterWikipedia
- The 1912 Helen Hayes Theater -- 240 West 44th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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