Abraham Lincoln Erlanger (May 4, 1859 – March 7, 1930) was an American

theatrical producer A theatrical producer is a person who oversees all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The producer is responsible for the overall financial and managerial functions of a production or venue, raises or provides financial backing, and hire ...

, director, designer, theater owner, and a leading figure of the

Theatrical Syndicate Starting in 1896, the Theatrical Syndicate was an organisation that in the United States that controlled the majority of bookings in the country's leading theatrical attractions. The six-man group was in charge of theatres and bookings. Beginnin ...

Biography

Erlanger was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

familyJewish Telegraph Agency: "Funeral Services for A. L. Erlanger, Theatrical Magnate"
March 10, 1930 in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. Erlanger and his partner,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

lawyer Marc Klaw, started out as a theatrical booking agency in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1888. Immensely successful, together they built a large chain of theatres and

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

playhouses. In 1896, they joined with theatre operators

Al Hayman Al Hayman, also known as Raphael Hayman, (1847 – February 10, 1917) was the business partner of the better-known Charles Frohman who together with others established the Theatrical Syndicate. In addition to the financial backing, ownership an ...

Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced ''Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter production ...

, Samuel F. Nixon, and Fred Zimmerman to form the Theatrical Syndicate. Their organization, known as "

Klaw & Erlanger Klaw and Erlanger was an entertainment management and production partnership of Marc Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger based in New York City from 1888 through 1919. While running their own considerable and multi-faceted theatrical businesses on ...

", established systemized booking networks throughout the United States and created a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

that controlled every aspect of contracts and bookings until the late 1910s when the

Shubert brothers The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theater industry in the United States. They dominated the legitimate theater and vaudeville in the first half of the 20th cen ...

broke their hold on the industry. The operations of Klaw & Erlanger produced dozens of

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

shows during the first three decades of the 20th century, including '' Dracula'', '' Ben-Hur'', and ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...

''."A.L. Erlanger Broadway Listings"
Internet Broadway Database, accessed December 2, 2011 They produced the first ''

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Ai ...

'' in 1907 at the rooftop " Jardin de Paris" in New York City. They also built several of Broadway's most outstanding theaters such as the art nouveau

New Amsterdam Theatre The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater on 214 West 42nd Street, at the southern end of Times Square, in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City. One of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, the New Amsterdam was built fro ...

in 1903 and in 1927 Erlanger's Theatre (renamed the St. James) plus the new

Erlanger Theatre The Erlanger Theatre was a live-performance theater at the northwest corner of 21st and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1927 by Abraham L. Erlanger, theatrical producer and a founding member of the Theatrical Syndi ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Also in 1927, he leased a newly built theatre in

and applied the Erlanger name to it. In addition to playhouses, he and his partner owned the "Klaw & Erlanger Opera Company" and "Klaw and Erlanger's Costume Company." Erlanger's cold disdain and ruthless tactics helped bring about his own downfall. He made a bitter enemy of the

after Sam Shubert died in a

train wreck A train wreck, train collision, train accident or train crash is a type of disaster involving one or more trains. Train wrecks often occur as a result of miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track; or an acci ...

in 1905, when he is said to have refused to abide by any legal agreements "with a dead man." The enraged Shubert brothers Lee and Jacob began an all out campaign to wrestle power in the industry away from the Theatrical Syndicate. In 1910, he drew the ire of New York mayor

William Jay Gaynor William Jay Gaynor (February 2, 1849 – September 10, 1913) was an American politician from New York City, associated with the Tammany Hall political machine. He served as the 94th mayor of the City of New York from 1910 to 1913, and previously ...

when one of his theaters hosted '' The Girl with the Whooping Cough'', a risque farce that the mayor condemned as indecent. In 1919, after he dismissed out of hand the demands of the

Actors' Equity Association The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a boo ...

, the labor union launched a strike that eventually shut down all the theatres in New York City,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. In the end, Erlanger suffered large financial losses and had no choice but to accede to union demands. The strike spelled the demise of his once powerful organization and the partnership of Klaw & Erlanger produced their last Broadway show in 1919 (''The Velvet Lady''). Erlanger continued to produce on Broadway. He died on March 7, 1930."A.L. Erlanger Dies After Long Illness"
'The New York Times'' (abstract), March 8, 1930 He is interred at Beth El Cemetery in Ridgewood, New York. Erlanger's brother was lawyer and New York Supreme Court Justice Mitchell L. Erlanger, who served as counsel for his brother's company and took it over upon Abraham's death.

Former theatres

Theaters controlled by Erlanger included:

Broadway

Fulton Theatre The Fulton Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 210 West 46th Street in Manhattan, New York City, that was opened in 1911. It was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre in 1955. The theatre was demolished in 1982. Since the former Little Theatre be ...

* Gaiety Theatre * George M. Cohan's Theatre * Knickerbocker Theatre *

Liberty Theatre The Liberty Theatre is a former Broadway theater at 234 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1904, the theater was designed by Herts & Tallant and built for Klaw and Erlanger, the partnersh ...

Henry Miller's Theatre The Stephen Sondheim Theatre, formerly Henry Miller's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 124 West 43rd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Owned by the Durst Organization and managed by the Roundabout Theatre ...

**New Amsterdam Roof

Regional

*Erlanger Theatre (Atlanta) *

Colonial Theatre (Boston) The Colonial Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, opened in 1900, is the oldest continually-operating theatre in the city. It is located at 106 Boylston Street on Boston Common at the former site of the Boston Public Library. It is a pending Boston ...

* Hollis Street Theatre (Boston) * Tremont Theatre (Boston) *Erlanger Theatre (Buffalo) *

Blackstone Theatre The Merle Reskin Theatre is a performing arts venue located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Originally named the Blackstone Theatre it was built in 1910. Renamed the Merle Reskin Theatre in 1992, it is now part of DePaul Univ ...

(Chicago) *Erlanger Theatre (Chicago) *Illinois Theatre (Chicago) *Grand Opera House (Cincinnati) * Biltmore Theatre (Los Angeles) *Mason Theatre (Los Angeles) *Crescent Theatre (New Orleans) *Tulane Theatre (New Orleans) *

(Philadelphia) *Nixon Theatre (Pittsburgh) *Metropolitan Theatre (Seattle) *American Theatre (St. Louis)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erlanger American theatre managers and producers Artists from Buffalo, New York American Jews 1859 births 1930 deaths