6. Halsey Theater, 928 Halsey Street
In happier times, Herb Gleason took his young son to the Halsey Theater on Saturday afternoons to watch silent comedies and vaudeville acts. “I was five years old and my father took me to the old Halsey Theater,” Gleason told People magazine, “I thought it was sensational. When the lights went on for intermission I got up, turned around, and faced the audience. That was even greater than watching the guy on stage.”
At 15, Gleason won an amateur contest at the Halsey with an act he put together with one of his buddies. Gleason later replaced a friend, Sammy Birch, as the Halsey’s master of ceremonies. Gleason was once suspected of releasing a snake in the orchestra pit.
Gleason’s mother Mae disapproved of her son’s first job as an entertainer. “She hated me to tell jokes or have anything else to do with show business. When I became the emcee at the Halsey years later, she said, ‘You look silly up there.’ I knew she liked it, though she’d never admit it.” The theater closed around 1945 and was demolished. Saratoga Square housing for seniors now occupies the site.
