William B. Friedlander
| William Barr Friedlander | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 January 1884 |
| Died | January 1968 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Songwriter and theater producer |
| Known for | Separate Rooms (1940–41) |
William Barr Friedlander (12 January 1884 – January 1968) was an American songwriter and theater producer who staged many Broadway shows in the 1920s and 1930s. Most of them were musical comedies. Early successes included Moonlight (1924) and Mercenary Mary (1925). Later productions received mixed reception. His longest-running production was the comedy Separate Rooms, which ran from March 1940 to September 1941.
William Barr Friedlander was born in 1884. He would become a librettist, composer, producer, director, author and manager. An early example of his work is the 1905 The Man with the Jingle, a song for which Friedlander wrote the lyrics to music by Charles E. Mullen. He wrote the lyrics to My lovin' Henry (1905), music by Terry Sherman.
Friedlander married the Russian-born Nan Halperin, a vaudeville performer, and composed all the songs she used in her act. During the 1910s and 1920s he produced a number of tabloid shows for vaudeville. The Suffragettes was a very successful tab show featuring Nan Halperin. In 1916 W.B. Friedlander Inc. produced Salamander Sallies by Will M. Hough (1882–1962) and Friedlander, The Night Clerk headed by Frank Ellis, The Four Husbands with Howard Burkholder and George W. Jenks, among others. The shows were booked through vaudeville houses. The company said it planned to produce a new revue called the Friedlander Show with seven complete stage settings and 34 people.
Friedlander wrote the music and lyrics for Frivolities of 1920, a musical review that opened at the 44th Street Theatre on 8 January 1920, produced by G.M. Anderson. The show got poor reviews for its lack of wit and music, but stayed open for seven weeks. Friedlander's musical Pitter Patter was staged at the Longacre Theatre in 1920. The cast included James Cagney, the future film star.Pitter Patter opened at the Longacre on 28 September 1920 and ran for fourteen weeks.
In 1921 Freidlander and L. Lawrence Weber were in partnership to present dramatic, musical and vaudeville attractions at the Longacre on Broadway. In 1924 the Longacre staged the small musical Moonlight, with a score by Con Conrad and Friedlander.Moonlight opened at the Longacre on 30 January 1924. The critics called it tuneful fun. The show ran for 174 performances and then toured successfully. The next year Conrad and Friedlander's musical comedy Mercenary Mary was presented at the Longacre. It was based on the 1923 farce What's Your Wife Doing?. Although the music was weak the cast was strong, and included Allen Kearns. It opened at the Longacre on 13 April 1925 and ran for more than four months. Marion Wightman's The Dagger opened at the Longacre on 9 September 1925, directed by Friedlander. It was panned by the critics.
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