It may have the most theatrical name of all the theaters in Times Square, but the Broadway Theatre was actually created to be a movie house. Built in 1924 by a movie theater chain owner, it was originally named B.S. Moss's Colony Theatre. Not long after, in 1930, Moss decided to convert the theater into a legitimate house, and the Broadway Theatre officially opened with Cole Porter and Herbert Fields' The New Yorkers. In its early years, the Broadway's stage saw such stars as Milton Berle, Alfred Drake, Zero Mostel, Mae West, Eartha Kitt, Vivien Leigh, and Jose Ferrer, and works by great songwriters like Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Noel Coward, and even Duke Ellington. During the Golden Age, many of the more notable shows to play at the Broadway Theatre were popular productions that transferred from other theaters, such as South Pacific, Funny Girl, The Music Man, Cabaret, Mame, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Wiz. [more information]