Daniel Frohman

Frohman, Daniel (1851–1940), producer. Like his younger brother, Charles Frohman, he was born in Sandusky, Ohio, and came to New York, where he served in various capacities on several newspapers, including the Tribune, the Standard, and the Daily Graphic, before becoming an advance man for the Georgia Minstrels from 1874 to 1879. With Charles and his other brother, Gustave, he then helped manage Steele MacKaye's Madison Square Theatre, also assisting in sending out road companies of the theatre's hits. In 1885 he took over the old Lyceum Theatre and opened it with In Spite of All. Employing an excellent stock company that he developed there, Frohman quickly mounted such successes as The Highest Bidder (1887), The Wife (1887), Lord Chumley (1888), and The Charity Ball (1889). The performances of E. H. Sothern in two of these helped start that actor on his career as a major figure. An important later success was The Prisoner of Zenda (1895). He also produced several plays by Henry Arthur Jones and Arthur Wing Pinero, offering the American premieres of such plays as The Case of Rebellious Susan (1894) and Trelawny of the Wells (1898). For a time in 1899, after Daly's death, he managed Daly's Theatre. After the Lyceum was demolished in 1902, he built a new (and current) Lyceum a year later. With time he gradually abandoned producing but remained active in theatrical affairs. From 1904 until his death he served as president of the Actors' Fund of America. He found time as well to write several books, including two volumes of reminiscences, Memories of a Manager (1911) and Daniel Frohman Presents (1935), and a collection of essays on theatrical history, Encore (1937). Unlike his squat, clean‐shaven brother Charles, he was a wiry, balding man with a closely cropped beard and moustache.

Daniel Frohman
Frohman, October 19, 1907 (aged 56)
Born	August 22, 1851(1851-08-22) Sandusky, Ohio
Died	December 26, 1940 (aged 89)
Occupation	American theatrical producer and early film producer

Daniel Frohman (August 22, 1851 - December 26, 1940) was a Jewish American theatrical producer and manager, and an early film producer.

Daniel Frohman Lyceum Theatre Co.
Lithograph - 1897
Library of Congress Collection

Frohman was born in Sandusky, Ohio. With his brothers Charles and Gustave Frohman, he helped to develop a system of road companies that would tour the nation while the show also played in New York City. He was the producer-manager of the Lyceum Theatre and its stock company from 1887 to 1909. During this period he launched careers for such actors as E. H. Sothern, Henry Miller, William Faversham, Maude Adams, Richard Mansfield and James Keteltas Hackett.

Frohman became involved in the motion picture business as a partner and producer with Adolph Zukor in the Famous Players Film Company. He worked from offices on West 26th Street in New York City, between 1913 and 1917 he was part of the production of more than seventy films.

On his passing in 1940, Frohman was buried in the Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, New York near his brother Charles who had died in 1915 in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. Daniel Frohman was at one time, 1903-1909, married to Broadway actress Margaret Illington. Margaret later married Major Edward Bowes.

External links

• Daniel Frohman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Daniel Frohman at the Internet Movie Database
• Daniel Frohman at Find a Grave

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