Bijou Theatre (Manhattan, 1878)

The Bijou Theatre that opened in eighteen seventy-eight at twelve thirty-nine Broadway began as a disreputable drinking and gambling saloon. Its transformation into a legitimate stage was complete and sudden when it reopened in eighteen eighty as a modern opera house. This version of the Bijou quickly became a fashionable destination for light opera and gained local fame for featuring the star performer Lillian Russell in the early eighteen eighties. The venue was never large, and its inability to generate sufficient profits led to it being torn down in nineteen fifteen to make room for an office building.