Sam H. Harris

Sam H. Harris 1909

Sam H. Harris (February 3, 1872 – July 3, 1941) was a Broadway producer and theater owner.

Career

After a stint as a cough drop salesman and boxing manager, Harris's first production was Theodore Kremer's The Evil That Men Do, which he co-produced with Al Woods in 1903. Harris found success in 1904 as the producing partner of George M. Cohan, with whom he produced eighteen Broadway musicals, fifteen of which were Cohan's own. From 1916 to 1919, most of these productions were in the Chandler Theater on 42nd street, renamed the Cohan and Harris Theater in 1916.[1]

Harris separated from Cohan after a 1919 actors strike, and renamed the theater the Sam H. Harris Theatre. He sold it in 1926 to the Shubert Organization, but it continued to operate under the Harris name until 1933 when it was converted to a movie house.

He proposed a musical revue to his friend Irving Berlin in 1919, and with him built the Music Box Theatre in 1921, specially for Berlin's Music Box Revue. His estate held an interest in the theater through 1960. On Harris's death, most shares in the theater were sold to Berlin and to the Shubert Organization.

Harris produced over 130 shows, including several of the biggest hits of the 1920s and 1930s. He was known for fairness to actors and writers amid the generally harsh treatment prevailing in the industry.

Harris was portrayed by Richard Whorf in the Academy Award winning biopic, Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1942.

Weakened by an appendectomy Harris died of pneumonia on July 3, 1941. He was buried next to Cohan in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.[2]

Productions

Notable productions include:

References

  1. ↑ The Broadway League. Sam H. Harris. Internet Broadway Database website.
  2. ↑ Sam Harris at Find a Grave
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