Willie Hammerstein big draw. Oscar Hammerstein went bankrupt in 1898. The Olympia theater was sold in an auction. Hammerstein managed to raise enough money to build the Victoria Theatre, which opened as a legitimate theater on 3 March 1899. On 26 June 1899 he opened a partially enclosed roof garden theater, the Venetian Terrace Garden, with an outdoor promenade that was attached to the roof garden of Hammerstein's Theatre Republic in 1900. Hammerstein enlarged the roof garden theater and reopened it in May 1901 as the Paradise Roof Garden. In February 1904 Willie Hammerstein took over management of his father's Victoria Theatre.
Willie Hammerstein rather jaded and cynical atmosphere, the stage slang and black humor. Acts could afford to include more sexual innuendo than in other houses. To keep costs and prices down, a typical Hammerstein bill would feature a few well-paid stars and a large number of lower-priced novelty acts. Hammerstein made the Victoria the most popular venue for vaudeville in New York. The Victoria was a grand building, and played some high-quality acts. As of 1905 the theater owners who booked through the William Morris Agency seemed likely to become dominant in the vaudeville industry. They included Hammerstein, Frederick Freeman Proctor, Timothy