Earl Carroll built himself the Earl Carroll Theatre in 1923, funded by Texas oilman Colonel William Edrington, located at 735 Seventh Avenue and designed by architect George Keister. Eddie Cantor鈥檚 Kid Boots received a production here in 1923, and notable playwright Eugene O鈥橬eill premiered Desire Under the Elms two years later. The theatre was mainly used, however, to present Carroll鈥檚 Vanities each year, a series similar to Ziegfeld鈥檚 Follies, featuring songs, sketches, and elaborate dance numbers with scores of scantily clad women. In 1930, Carroll and Edrington demolished the original and built in its place an elaborate second Earl Carroll Theatre. Just six months later, the Depression led to the theatre鈥檚 foreclosure. After numerous name changes as various nightclubs, the building was converted into a Woolworth鈥檚, and the former theatre was demolished in 1990.
