William Harris (theatrical producer)

William Harris or Bill Harris (1844 – November 1916) was a Prussian-born American theatre producer and vaudevillian performer. He performed as a blackface comedian in vaudeville with John Bowman from 1866-1873, and with William Carroll, 1873-1879. In the 1880s Harris oversaw the Howard Athenaeum in Boston, Massachusetts. As a theatre producer he worked in partnership with Isaac B. Rich, Klaw & Erlanger and Charles Frohman. By 1916 he had ownership in several theatres in the United States: the "Hudson, Fulton, Knickerbocker, Lyceum, Liberty, and New York Theatres" [in New York City]; the Hollis Street, Colonial, Boston and Tremont Theatres in Boston; and the Colonial Illinois, Blackstone, and Powers Theatres in Chicago." His children included Henry B. Harris (1866-1912) and William Harris Jr. (1884-1946), both theatre producers.

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