ANNOTATION

From its entrance at 214 West 42nd Street, the New Amsterdam Theatre was just a sliver of a building. With a front lot that measured only 25 feet across, the designers Henry Herts and Hugh Tallant created an elaborate Art Nouveau entrance that reflected the opulence inside. In the years following its 1903 opening, it was home to such figures as Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Marie Dressler, Fanny Brice, Eva Le Gallienne, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Ziegfeld with his Follies. The theater's glory days, decline and current renovation (through money from Disney and the 42nd Street Redevelopment Project) is documented in The New Amsterdam: The Biography of a Broadway Theatre by Mary Henderson. 282 illustrations, 142 in color.

FROM THE PUBLISHER