Ethel Barrymore Theatre, West 47th Street NYC

The Ethel Barrymore Theatre, located at 243 West 47th Street in the Theater District, Midtown Manhattan. The Barrymore Theatre, designed by Herbert J. Krapp, opened on December 20, 1928. Photograph from the Shubert Organization collection.

The Barrymore is named after actress Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959). The Barrymore has been used continuously as a legitimate theater and has never been sold or renamed since its opening.

It is operated by the Shubert Organization. Both the façade and the auditorium interior were designated New York City landmarks in 1987.

The Barrymore shows Melo, with Edna Best and Basil Rathbone, a 1929 play by Henri Bernstein which premiered in the United States in 1931 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

This photo comes with a label (bottom right) of the Strauss & Co. and Claude Neon Tubes. The Strauss Signs was founded in 1897 by artisan Benjamin Strauss. By the 1910s Strauss Signs had become one of the main builders of theater marquees and entertainment displays in New York. It seems that Strauss & Co. built the Barrymore signs using the Claude neon tubes. Georges Claude (1870-1960) received the U.S. patent for the neon light in January 1915.