Abe Erlanger

Abraham Lincoln Erlanger (May 4, 1859 – March 7, 1930) was an American theatrical producer, director, designer, theatre owner, and a leading figure of the Theatrical Syndicate.

Born in Buffalo, New York, Erlanger and his partner, Kentucky lawyer Marc Klaw, started out as a theatrical booking agency in New York City in 1886. Immensely successful, together they built a large chain of theatres and vaudeville playhouses. In 1896 they joined with theatre operators Al Hayman, Charles Frohman, Samuel F. Nixon, and Fred Zimmerman to form the Theatrical Syndicate. Their organization, known as "Klaw & Erlanger", established systemized booking networks throughout the United States and created a monopoly that controlled every aspect of contracts and bookings until the late 1910s when the Shubert brothers broke their hold on the industry.

The operations of Klaw & Erlanger produced dozens of Broadway shows during the first three decades of the 20th century, including Dracula, Ben-Hur, and The Jazz Singer. They produced the first Ziegfeld Follies 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 in 1903 and in 1927 Erlanger's Theatre (renamed the St. James) plus the new Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia. Also in 1927, he leased a newly built theatre in Buffalo, New York 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."

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