Sixty Theatres Now Beguile New York
In 1924, New York Times Magazine noted, two new theaters were constructed in NYC that year alone, for a total of 60. That number would peak a few years later, then plummet due to a combo of the Great Depression plus movies with sound.
H.I. Brock wrote for NYT Mag in 1924:
"Of the threescore [60] which now conspire to encumber Broadway... with a seething mob every weeknight, few were in existence even twenty years ago. As a matter of fact, that whole region could muster less than a score [20] of regular playhouses in 1900."
Completely unrelated side note, but clearly people were still occasionally using the word "score" to mean "20" then? As in Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address opening "Four score and seven years ago." According to Google Books Ngram Viewer, such usage had plummeted to near-zero even by 1924:
Unbeknownst to Brock or to New Yorkers in general, the fall of local theaters was right around the corner, according to the New York Preservation Archive Project (NYPAP):
"The years 1927 and 1928 signaled the height of theater popularity in Times Square with 70 theaters and 250 shows, but the area faced hard times after the stock market crash of 1929 and the popularization of 'talkies' and ticket sales plunged, causing theater owners like the Shuberts to file for bankruptcy. The Great Depression deeply affected the area, causing many theaters to shut down."
Today, the Broadway League counts 41 theaters.
Sixty Theatres Now Beguile New York: New Streets of Playhouse Are in Embryo – Two Additions Made This Year
Published: Sunday, November 9, 1924