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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. Frohman produced over 700 shows, and among his biggest hits was Peter Pan, both in London and the US.
- Humble Beginnings
- The Producer and The Star System
- A Private Man
- The 1915 Playmarket
- “I Am only Afraid of The I.O.U.S”
- “The Most Beautiful Adventure”
- Strange Sighting at The Empire Theater
- Memorials
- Media Portrayal
- Footnote
Charles Frohman, 58, was born on 15 July 1856 in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Charles had an older brother by four years, Daniel, and another brother Gustave. When Charles was 14, the Frohmans moved to New York City, and Charles took a job as night clerk for the New York Graphic. The Graphic sent him to sell the paper in Philadephia in 1876 at th...
By 1915 Charles had produced more than 700 shows, in the USA, Britain, and France and employed an average of 700 actors a year, paying salaries totalling $25,000 a week. At the height of his power, Charles controlled five theatres in London, six in New York City, and over two hundred throughout the rest of the United States. His offices were in the...
Charles lived a very private life for his very public profession and encouraged his actors to do the same. His two main characteristics were his wit and his shyness. Despite his sweet tooth, he rarely dined at fashionable restaurants, and no one knew when he went to bed. He was known as “the great unphotographed,” paraphrasing a Victorian expressio...
In 1915 Charles’ playmarket was severely curtailed in England because of the war and also because his health was still not good. He was uncertain what to do about the London Stage. Many theatres were either closed or having difficulties during the early period of the war. Although things did settle down in London as the war continued because the pu...
Charles was dismissive of their fears, but he took the precaution of dictating his program for the next season before sailing, something that was unprecedented for him.Early in 1915 a warning was published in leading US newspapers by the German Embassy in Washington. Having seen the warning and knowing that the Lusitania was a British ship, several...
At lunch the next day, Friday, 7th May, Charles sat with his theatrical friends at the dining room’s center table. Afterwards, he, George Vernon, and Captain Alick Scott were on the port side Boat Deck, chatting by the Verandah Café, when the torpedo hit. The following events were reported by Rita Jolivet, both in subsequent interview and in her ev...
There has been more than one apocryphal tale to appear following Charles’ death. The following is perhaps the strangest, leaving the reader to make of it what they will; as no reference to it appears in Daniel Frohman’s biography of his brother. The night of the sinking, John Ryland, one of Charles’ office staff at the Empire Theater in New York, w...
The shock to his family and friends of Charles’ loss can not be overstated and he has never been forgotten. There are many examples of affectionate references to him. When Maude Adams, preparing for a performance of Barrie’s Quality Street, heard of Charles’ death, she collapsed. The management was prepared to call off the show, but Maude insisted ...
Harry Hayden portrayed Charles Frohman in the 1946 film Till the Clouds Roll By, a biographical film of composer Jerome Kern. In the movie Lusitaniais shown as a two-funnel ship and the U.S. declares war immediately after the ship is sunk. William Hootkins played Frohman in the 1978 BBC mini-series The Lost Boys. Nehemiah Persoff played him in Zieg...
Editor’s note: When I was in undergrad, I met a distant relative of Charles Frohman’s. His family had known little of the Lusitaniadisaster and the Broadway side of their family, but had unintentionally and coincidentally named him and his brother “Charles” and “Daniel” respectively. Contributors: Rob Betz Peter Kelly, Ireland Michael Poirier, USA ...
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- 7 May 1915 (age 58)RMS LusitaniaAt sea
A darling of both the West End and Broadway, she became one of the first people ever to play Peter Pan on stage in Frohman's original production. After being accused of lunacy by theatre bosses, JM Barrie took his script, then known as Peter and Wendy, to his friend Frohman in April 1904.
May 14, 2018 · Charles Frohman. An American theatrical producer, Charles Frohman (1860-1915) saw the theater make its transition from stock companies to the star system. Primarily a pillar of "show business" rather than an artistic theatrical innovator, Frohman illuminated the theater with a bright gallery of stars under his personal management.
Many people today know the names of George M. Cohan and Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., but Charles Frohman, though lesser known, reigned supreme in the theatrical world for over a generation. From a young age Frohman's heart and soul belonged in the theatre. His lower-middle-class family moved from Sandusky, Ohio, to New York City in 1874 and he landed ...
- July 15, 1856
- May 7, 1915
Mar 26, 2017 · Today Frohman is best remembered as the producer of J. M. Barrie’s original play Peter Pan (1904 London, 1905 New York) and as a founding member in 1896 of the formidable Theatrical Syndicate, the ruthless turn-of-the-century monopoly on American theatrical tours originally intended as a well-meaning simplification and centralization of theatric...
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Nov 27, 2019 · This anthology, meticulously edited by Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman, navigates the complex narrative of Charles Frohmans impact on the arts, showcasing the breadth and depth of...
