Alice Kauser

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Alice Berta Josephine Kauser (born November 21, 1871 in Budapest , † September 9, 1945 in New York City ) was an American theater and literature agent.

Life

Her father, Joseph Stephan Kauser , was an architect and from 1869 to 1874 American consul in Budapest. Due to the changing places of work of her father, she spent her childhood and youth in Hungary, Greece and France, and grew up multilingual. Her mother, Berta Gerster, a soprano venerated by Franz Liszt , introduced her to the world of theater and opera. Acquaintances from this time were later helpful for her professional career. After the death of his wife, Joseph Stephan Kauser and his three children finally returned to America ( Pensacola , Florida ) in 1888 .

In 1893 Alice Kauser left Pensacola and went to New York, where she initially worked as the secretary of Elizabeth Marbury , the general agent of the Society of French Dramatic Writers. But soon she risked opening her own literary and theater agency. The theater business of those years worked in New York in such a way that the plays were practically forgotten once their Broadway successes wore off. Alice Kauser's business idea was ingeniously simple: she obtained the performance rights to these pieces in order to loan them to other theater ensembles nationwide for a certain period of time. The authors received royalties from her, and she received a commission fee herself. After two or three unsuccessful years, her company began to boom. She soon had offices in London and Paris and traveled several times a year to Europe to establish contacts with new, also unknown playwrights, whom she helped to break through in America (including Lorimer Stoddard , Paul Kester , Longdon Mitchell , Anne Crawford Flexner , George C. Hazelton and Mrs. Burton Harrison ). Henrik Ibsen , Channing Pollock and Edward Childs Carpenter are among the better-known authors whose work has been promoted through Alice Kauser's agency.

During the First World War, Alice Kauser made an outstanding contribution to alleviating the misery of Hungarian children. The European relief Council, founded in 1920, honored her commitment by stating that no one in the world had done more than she did to support children in need in Hungary.

Services

Alice Kauser revolutionized theater in America with her agency.

Works

  • At the White Horse Tavern, New York 1907,
  • The Cowboy and the Lady, New York 1908,
  • The Frisky Mrs Johnson, New York 1908,
  • The Moth and the Flame, New York 1908.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ He was her godfather, s. www: American National Biography Online: Alice Kauser.
  2. ↑ In 1893 she wrote a letter from New York on the city's theatrical life, which was published in Paris in the Revue d'art dramatique 1893, pp. 309-313.
  3. ↑ In Chapter XXIV of her autobiography My Crystal Ball. Reminiscences (New York, 1923) E. Marbury mentions Alice Kauser as a successful rival who took the first steps in her agency.
  4. ^ Gertrude Atherton: The living present - the work of French women in wartime, New York 1917; here: The highly specialized II: Alice Berta Josephine Kauser; s. also: "Alice Kauser" in: The Oxford Companion to American Theater and in: American National Biography.
  5. ^ New York Dramatic Mirror, December 31, 1904.
  6. ↑ In the women's group - Ladies Committee - of this council Alice Kauser was vice-chairman.
  7. ^ The Pittsburgh Press, February 27, 1921.
personal data
SURNAME Kauser, Alice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kauser, Alice Berta Josephine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American literary and theater agent
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest , Hungary
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1945
Place of death New York City , United States