Lee Shubert

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Lee Shubert (actually Levi Shubert) (born March 25, 1871 in Neustadt in Poland or in the Russian Empire , † December 25, 1953 in Manhattan ) was an American theater manager.

Life

Lee Shubert was a son of David Szemanski / Schubart and Katrina Helwitz. The Jewish family immigrated to the USA in 1882 and moved to Syracuse (New York) . The alcoholic father failed to gain a foothold there, so Lee Shubert, who had four sisters and two brothers, had to earn money at the age of ten. He first sold newspapers in front of a local theater. This led to the first contact with the theater, when Lee's younger brother Samuel got a small role there under the director David Belasco and continued to work in theaters from then on. Lee Shubert became an accountant for the Bastable Theater and for Wieting. The Shubert brothers developed independent activities with the acquisition of the tour rights to A Texas Steer for New England. A little later they set up their first own theater, the Baker in Rochester. Then Samuel and Lee took over the Grand Opera House in Syracuse.

The brothers Lee, Samuel S., and Jacob J. Shubert ran a number of theaters in cities like Buffalo , Rochester, and Albany before Sam Shubert made the move to New York City in 1900 . There he took over the Herald Square Theater . A little later, Lee Shubert also settled in New York. From their collaboration developed in the course of a few years the largest company that brought out theater productions in the USA and owned theaters. However, Sam Shubert only partially witnessed this ascent, as he was killed in a railroad accident in 1905. His brothers gradually became operators of nearly 1,000 theaters in the United States.

By the turn of the century, the brothers were already managing five theaters in New York State; in 1904 there were ten. At this point in time the so-called syndicate was already bothering them, which, under the direction of Abe Erlanger, controlled three quarters of the theaters in the country. However, Lee and Jacob J. Shubert eventually succeeded in ousting this organization. Among other things, their skillful public relations work, in which they also claimed to be on the side of the theater workers, led to this goal. Furthermore, if they were forced out of a city, they moved their performances into tents, which also had the advantage that they could offer more seats there. The farewell tour for Sarah Bernhardt , organized by Lee and Jacob J. Shubert, also proved to be effective in advertising.

Lee Shubert, who had also sympathized with the cinema before the First World War , was also a member of the MGM management team in the 1920s . In 1913, the New York Dramatic Mirror announced that one of the Shubert theaters would be converted into a Kinoplastikon cinema. The Kinoplastikon rights for his country had been secured for him by Frank Joseph Goldsoll , who at the same time tried to build up a cinema empire in Europe and Russia together with AH Woods. In 1920 both were involved in the restructuring of the Capitol Theater on Broadway in New York; Shubert, both representing the interests of his family business and one of the directors of the Goldwyn Picture Corporation , Goldsoll as another Goldwyn director, and as Goldwyn negotiator for the theater, which would get 15 new directors, eight of them from Goldwyn's side .

Although Shubert wrote a play himself, he saw himself primarily as a businessman. He married the showgirl Marcella Swanson in 1936. The marriage was divorced in 1948 and reunited in 1949. The widow survived Lee Shubert by 20 years. Lee Shubert was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery, Brooklyn . The Museum of the City of New York houses Shubert's portrait by Erno Bakos, created in 1928 .

Productions and further development

The Shubert brothers brought Americana (1932), Artists and Models , At Home Abroad (1935), Greenwich Village Follies , Hellzapoppin ' (1938), Hooray for What! (1937), Laffin 'Room Only (1943), Life Begins at 8:40 (1934), The Passing Shows , Priorities of 1942 , The Show is On (1937), Sons o' Fun (1941), Straw Hat Revue ( 1939), The Streets of Paris (1939) and Ziegfeld Follies on stage. The operettas Blossom Time (1921) and The Student Prince from 1924 were also very successful. Ten theater companies toured North America simultaneously with the latter piece. The Shubert brothers also brought musicals such as Belle of Bond Street (1914), A Chinese Honeymoon (1902), Countess Maritza (1926), Earl and the Girl (1905), Emerald Isle (1902), Fantana (1905), Happyland ( 1905), Honeymoon Express (1913), Love o 'Mike (1917), Maytime (1917), My Romance (1948), Nina Rosa (1930), Oh, I Say (1913), The Red Petticoat (1912), Robinson Crusoe, Jr. (1916), Runaways (1903), Sally, Irene and Mary (1922), Sinbad (1918), The Wonder Bar (1931) and You Never Know (1938).

JJ Shubert's son John later took over the management of the company and continued to run it until his death in 1962, followed by his cousin Lawrence Shubert Lawrence, Jr. for a decade. In 1973 the family business became the Shubert Organization under Gerald Schoenfeld and Bernard B. Jacobs. It still exists; Chairman is now Philip J. Smith, President Robert E. Wankel.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ As stated on britannica.com.
  2. ↑ a b Lee Shubert in the Notable Names Database (English)
  3. ↑ Information on ibdb.com
  4. ↑ The New York Dramatic Mirror , June 4, 1913, p. 18 (PDF; 533 kB)
  5. ↑ Moving Pictures 1920, p. 36 (PDF; 634 kB)
  6. ↑ Careers of the Shubert Brothers on pbs.org
  7. ↑ Erno Bakos' portrait
  8. ^ Shubert Foundation
  9. ^ The Shubert Organization
personal data
SURNAME Shubert, Lee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shubert, Levi (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American theater manager
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Neustadt, Poland or Neustadt, Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1953
Place of death Manhattan