The passing of Daly's Theatre evokes only sentimental regret, for architecturally the once famous home of musical comedy lags far behind modern requirements and from a practical point of view a cinema will probably administer more efficiently to the present needs of London's seekers after entertainment, How many people remember that a theatre is named after a dramatic critic, for Augustin Daly, the centenary of whose birth will be celebrated on July 20, 1938, began his career as a-dramatic critic for several New York papers. Then, as so often happens, he became a playwright although his output has not stood the test of time and his first success "Under the Gaslight" produced in 1867 is only remembered because of that event. He became Manager of the Fifth Avenue Theatre in 1869. Ten years later he opened in New York the theatre which stil bears his name.
In 1893, having crossed the Atlantic, he built Daly's Theatre in London and thus started it on its career. In New York Daly's Theatre was famous for the company which with Ada Rohan as its leading lady made a great reputation for itself in Shakespearean comedies and foreign plays. Daly did not live long enough to carry on the same tradition in London, although it must be noted that he opened there on June 29, 1893 with "The Taming of the Shrew". Even before his death in 1899 George Edwardes who acquired the theatre devoted it to the later Victorian school of musical comedy. It was at Dalys Theatre that Marie Tempest established her great success as a singer in musical comedy. She reigned there from 1895 to 1900 and in those days of the late naughty nineties the playgoer who had not seen Marie Tempest as O Mimosa San in "The Geisha" or as Maia in "A Greek Slave" could not hold up his head in respectable ly came to Daly's Theatre company. Traged: when it fell into the hands of that remarkable racing adventurer, James White. He attempted to follow the George Edwardes traditions without either the competence or the stability of character which characterized the magnate of the Gaiety Theatre. His spectacular career marked by extraordinary coups in gambling on the Turf and in the City met the: inevitable smash and suicide resulted. So, after 44 years of chequered existence Daly's will be known mo longer to London unless the cinema which is to rise upon its ashes keeps green the memory of Augustin Daly, playwright, book-lover" and theatrical manager.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.