Rose was born to a
Jewish family in
New York City. He attended Public School 44, where he was the 50-yard dash champion. Rose was diminutive in stature. When he attended a show, his practice was to book four seats: one for himself, one for his date, and the two in front of those so he would have an unobstructed view. In 1929, he married Fanny Brice, who went on to star in the 1931 Broadway production of ''Billy Rose's Crazy Quilt''. The marriage ended in divorce in 1938. In 1938, he opened
Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe, a nightclub in New York City's
Times Square in the basement of the
Paramount Hotel. It initially opened with a version of his Fort Worth show. The Diamond Horseshoe operated under that name until 1951. At the
1939 New York World's Fair, ''
Billy Rose's Aquacade This led to a syndicated column, Pitching Horseshoes'', that Rose produced until December, 1950. At its height, it reached 2,000 newspapers. Rose and Holm divorced in 1954. On July 2, 1956, he married showgirl
Joyce Mathews (1919–1999), and they divorced July 23, 1959. They then remarried on December 29, 1961, only to divorce again on February 10, 1964, exactly two years before he died. Later in 1964, Rose married Doris Ruth Vidor (née Warner; 1912–1978), who was the widow of film director
Charles Vidor. Rose founded the Billy Rose Sculpture Garden at the
Israel Museum in
Jerusalem,
Israel. His legendary pragmatism is illustrated by a seeming minor event at the sculpture garden opening ceremony, which Rose attended personally. When asked by one of the many distinguished guests what, in the event of war, Rose would have Israel do with these artworks, many of which were modern, steel abstracts, Rose unsmilingly replied, "Melt them down for bullets." From 1949 until 1955, Rose was the owner-operator of the
Ziegfeld Theatre. During that time, the theater housed four
musicals and five plays. In 1965, he sold the theater to be demolished to make way for a new skyscraper, the
Fisher Brothers'
Burlington House. Rose was a board member of
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). ASCAP often slandered rock-and-roll songs. Because rock-and-roll performers increasingly wrote the music and lyrics themselves, professional songwriters lost their dominance in the music industry. As an ASCAP member, Billy Rose labeled rock-and-roll songs "junk" and was quoted as saying, "in many cases they are obscene junk much on the level with dirty comic magazines." ==Later years and death==