The Vanderbilt Theatre opened in 1918, located at 148 W. 48th Street. Architect Eugene De Rosa designed the venue under the management of Lyle Andrews. Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie opened here in 1921, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart contributed music and lyrics for successful musical productions of The Girl Friend, Peggy Ann, and A Connecticut Yankee. Poet Langston Hughes received a 1935 premiere here with his play Mulatto. By the end of the 1930s, the Vanderbilt Theatre could no longer compete with its 48th Street neighbors. It was used by NBC, then ABC, as a broadcast studio, and it ultimately was demolished in June 1954 to make way for a parking garage.