Name Edward Albee Spouse Lauretta Smith (m. 1881) | Grandchildren Edward Albee | |
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Born October 8, 1857 ( 1857-10-08 ) Machias, Maine Relatives Edward Franklin Albee III, adopted grandson Died March 11, 1930, Palm Beach, Florida, United States Children Reed A. Albee, Ethel Albee Parents Amanda Higgins Crocker, Nathaniel Smith Albee People also search for Reed A. Albee, Edward Albee, Lauretta Smith, Louise Holmes Williams, Frances Cotter, Ethel Albee | ||
Edward Franklin Albee III was an American playwright
Edward Franklin Albee (October 8, 1857 – March 11, 1930) was a vaudeville impresario, and the adoptive grandfather of Edward Franklin Albee, the playwright.
Contents
- Edward Franklin Albee III was an American playwright
- Early life
- Career
- Anecdotes
- Personal life
- Descendants
- References
Early life
Albee was born on October 8, 1857 in Machias, Maine to Nathaniel Smith Albee and Amanda Higgins Crocker.
Career
He toured with P. T. Barnum as a roustabout, then in 1885 he partnered with Benjamin Franklin Keith in operating the Bijou Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. With the success of their business, it grew into the Keith-Albee theatre circuit of vaudeville theatres. Albee gradually took managerial control of Keith's theatrical circuit. They were the first to introduce moving pictures in the United States.
In 1900, Pat Shea of Buffalo proposed to Keith and Albee that they should set up a shared booking arrangement for vaudeville similar to the Theatrical Syndicate. They called a meeting in May 1900 in Boston of most of the major vaudeville managers, including Weber & Fields, Tony Pastor, Hyde & Behman of Brooklyn, Kohl & Castle, Colonel J.D. Hopkins, and Meyerfield & Beck of the Orpheum Circuit of the western United STates. They did not invite Frederick Freeman Proctor, Keith's main competitor, but the other managers objected to this and insisted on a meeting in New York where Proctor was invited. The Vaudeville Managers Association (VMA) was founded at the New York meeting. Keith and Albee dominated the new organization. Albee was president of the VMA's United Bookings Office from its formation in 1906. Albee had most of the major vaudeville circuits give him control of their theatrical bookings where he charged acts a 5% commission.
When performers tried to form a union, he set up National Vaudeville Artists and made membership in it a requirement for booking through his company. His partner Keith died in Palm Beach, Florida in 1914.
He formed the Keith-Albee-Orpheum corporation on January 28, 1928 with Joseph P. Kennedy. Radio Corporation of America bought his company and formed RKO Pictures ("Radio-Keith-Orpheum") and turned the Orpheum vaudeville circuit into a chain of movie theaters.
Anecdotes
Many entertainers considered Albee's tactics tyrannical. Groucho Marx referred to the United Bookings Office as "Albee's Gestapo".
Joe Frisco summed up the impression of power Albee made; exiting Albee's office into a street under construction, his agent wondered why the street was being torn up and Frisco quipped, "Albee's kid lost his ball."
Albee appears as a minor character in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy and in the 1968 Broadway musical, George M!.
Personal life
Albee married Lauretta Frances Smith (1861–1960), with whom he had:
On March 11, 1930, Albee died at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. He was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. In his will, his estate was valued in excess of $2,000,000 (equivalent to $28,673,300 in 2017) and he left his wife $1,000,000 (equivalent to $14,336,700 in 2017), among many charitable donations that supported The Actors' Fund, Percy Williams Home, Variety Artists' Benevolent Fund and Institution.
Descendants
His grandson was Edward Albee (1928–2016), the playwright, who was adopted by his son, Reed.