Theatre Masque, West 45th Street NYC

The Theatre Masque, now the John Golden Theatre, at 252 West 45th Street, between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, near Times Square, in New York City. Photo is dated 1927, the year this theater opened with the play Puppets of Passion by Italian playwright Rosso Di San Secondo. Photograph from the Shubert Organization collection.

This historic theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in a Spanish style and was built for the Chanin organization, a major construction company in New York at the time.

The Shubert brothers took over the Masque in 1930 but subsequently went into receivership. The producer John Golden (1874-1955) leased the theater in 1936 and renamed the theater after himself in 1937. The Shuberts regained control of the Golden in 1945 and it has mostly remained in legitimate use as theater since then, except from 1946 to 1948, when it was used as a cinema. It has 800 seats across two levels and is operated by the Shubert Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior were designated New York City landmarks in 1987.