Sparkle, sparkle!

Random factoid of the day.  I have a fondness for PBS programming, especially when it concerns music and the performing arts.  On a recent program about the history of Broadway music and theatre, there was a reference to Broadway as "The Great White Way." Why is it called that?  What's up with the nickname?

Like any good Zombie, I researched it.

Broadway is a 12 block stretch in New York City.  It is bound between W 41st and W 53rd streets.  Four theatres are on the street proper, with many other theatres are situated east or west of Broadway.  This is the current configuration.  Theatres have been in this area since 1810, and the parameters of this entertainment district have changed a bit over the decades.

Lost of things have changed since then, actually.  Electricity had a huge impact on the district, so much so that the area looked completely different by the turn of the century with the hundreds of lights and shining marquees surrounding the playhouses.  All of these lights and sparkling billboard displays inspired a journalistic nickname of the "Great White Way."

So now you know that it has nothing to do with a large aquatic predator or racial disparity.  On with the show!