Erlanger was born to a
Jewish family in
Buffalo, New York. Erlanger and his partner,
Kentucky lawyer
Marc Klaw, started out as a theatrical booking agency in New York City in 1888. Immensely successful, together they built a large chain of theatres and
vaudeville playhouses. In 1896, they joined with theatre operators
Al Hayman,
Charles Frohman,
Samuel F. Nixon, and
Fred Zimmerman to form the Theatrical Syndicate.
Florenz Ziegfeld joined the Syndicate in 1906 but had produced plays for them before he joined. Their organization, known as "
Klaw & Erlanger", established systemized booking networks throughout the United States and created a
monopoly that controlled every aspect of contracts and bookings until the late 1910s when the
Shubert brothers broke their hold on the industry. of Chicago. The operations of Klaw & Erlanger produced dozens of
Broadway shows during the first three decades of the 20th century, including
Dracula,
Ben-Hur, and
The Jazz Singer. They produced the first
Ziegfeld Follies in 1907 at the rooftop "
Jardin de Paris" in New York City. They also built several of Broadway's most outstanding theaters such as the
Art Nouveau New Amsterdam Theatre in 1903 and in 1927
Erlanger's Theatre (renamed the St. James) plus the new
Erlanger Theatre in
Philadelphia. Also in 1927, he leased a newly built theatre in
Buffalo, New York and applied the Erlanger name to it. In addition to playhouses, he and his partner owned the "Klaw & Erlanger Opera Company" and "Klaw and Erlanger's Costume Company." Erlanger's cold disdain and ruthless tactics helped bring about his own downfall. He made a bitter enemy of the
Shubert brothers after
Sam Shubert died in a train wreck in 1905, when he is said to have refused to abide by any legal agreements "with a dead man." The enraged Shubert brothers Lee and Jacob began an all out campaign to wrestle power in the industry away from the Theatrical Syndicate. In 1910, he drew the ire of New York mayor
William Jay Gaynor when one of his theaters hosted
The Girl with the Whooping Cough, a risque farce that the mayor condemned as indecent. In 1919, after he dismissed out of hand the demands of the
Actors' Equity Association, the
labor union launched a strike that eventually shut down all the theatres in New York City,
Chicago, and
Boston. In the end, Erlanger suffered large financial losses and had no choice but to accede to union demands. The strike spelled the demise of his once powerful organization and the partnership of Klaw & Erlanger produced their last Broadway show in 1919 (
The Velvet Lady). He is interred at Beth El Cemetery in
Ridgewood, New York. Rumor of marriage. Erlanger's brother was lawyer and
New York Supreme Court Justice
Mitchell L. Erlanger, who served as counsel for his brother's company and took it over upon Abraham's death. ==Former theatres==