From the magazine’s first issue (1901)
THE THEATRE, recently known as Our Players’ Gallery, starts on its career with good will to all; prejudice against none.
Its purpose is to put before the public in an attractive form all that is going on in the sister worlds of Drama and Music, the text being profusely illustrated with fine reproductions of photographs of scenes from plays and operas, and of artistes.
THE THEATRE is not intended only to appeal to the relatively small class directly interested in the stage, but it has the broader aim of winning favor among the great general public — always interested in the doings of the theatre and its people — who will see in this periodical the most complete and elaborately illustrated chronicle of the stage ever issued in this country.
In THE THEATRE will be found pictures from the principal scenes of every play produced in the United States and from many of those produced abroad.
There will be also published in each issue many portraits of actors, actresses, and singers, which will have been posed specially and exclusively for THE THEATRE. Its cover, printed in six colors, will be maintained at the high artistic standard of the present number.
The policy of THE THEATRE will be to approve and encourage everything that tends to elevate the tone of the stage and add to the dignity of the profession of the artiste.
It will praise good work, by whomsoever done — playwright, actor, manager, scene-painter — and censure fearlessly where Art has been trampled upon and debased.
The general plan and programme of THE THEATRE having been communicated to some of those prominently connected with the stage, their expressions of approval and good will are appended below.
75 vintage stage actors & actresses on covers of Theater Magazine (1901-1922)
Miss Viola Allen (1902)
Miss Mary Mannering (1902)
Mrs Fiske (1902)
Miss Margaret Anglin (1902)
Miss Grace George (1902)
Miss Mabelle Gilman (1903)
Miss Blanche Ring (1903)
Miss Irene Bentle (1903)
Miss Edna Wallace Hopper (1903)
Miss Anna Held (1903)
Miss Lillian Russell
Miss Cecelia Loftus (1903)
Miss Blanche Walsh
Miss Annie Russell
Miss Blanche Bates
Miss Maude Folly
Miss Viola Allen
Soprano Louise Gunning
Miss Blanche Bates (1912)
Miss Julia Sanderson (1914)
Miss Billie Burke (1915)
Miss Mary Fuller (1915)
Miss Marguerite Leslie (1916)
Miss Edith Wynne Mathison (1916)
Miss Mary Pickford (1916)
Stage actress Miss Marjorie Rambeau
Miss Hazel Dawn
Miss Lenore Ulric
Miss Faye Marbe (1920)
Theatre magazines from 1921
Theatre magazine covers from 1922
The mirrors of stageland (1922)
ALSO SEE: Have a seat! Seating charts for classic theatres in New York City (1922)
More about the magazine (1907)
Says the Chicago Inter-Ocean: “It is the Abou Ben Adhem of the magazines, for it leads all the rest in merit, typographical appearance and contents.”
The Theater Magazine is edited by Arthur Hornblow, and publishes every month impartial and authoritative criticisms of all the leading plays, liberally illustrated, and reproductions of striking scenes from plays, portraits in black and white of prominent players, and one sumptuous colored full-page portrait done so artistically that they are eagerly sought for by collectors, and are alone worth the price of the magazine. – The Pittsburgh Press (April 18, 1907)