Trolleys, horse-drawn wagons, men with straw hats and women in long dresses are part of the street scene of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, looking northwest, in Times Square in 1908. Inside Hammerstein's Theatre at the corner, Gertrude Hoffman was raising eyebrows at night with her suggestive dance style in "The Vision of Salome." At many theatre houses around the country, her scant costumes led to her arrest by local police.

Several curtain calls, but no arrests were reported in The Times when the show opened with a "brevity of costumes" July 14, 1908, at Hammerstein's. The Times critic wrote, "The dance was done in a subdued light. Miss Hoffman wore adornments of jeweled design above the waist and a transparent black skirt, embroidered in gold around the edges. The skirt disclosed with unmistakable exactness the extent of the rest of her costume... The audience applauded vigorously."