Billy Rose

Billy Rose
source
Name	Billy Rose
Caption	Rose in 1932
Birth name	William Samuel Rosenberg
Birth date	06 September 1899
Birth place	New York City, U.S.
Death date	10 February 1966
Death place	Jamaica, New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Theatrical producer, nightclub owner, lyricist, columnist
Spouse	Fanny Brice (m. 1929; div. 1938), Eleanor Holm (m. 1939; div. 1954)
Years active	1920s–1960s

Billy Rose. William Samuel Rosenberg, known professionally, was a flamboyant and prolific American impresario, lyricist, and nightclub owner whose career spanned the Great Depression through the mid-20th century. A master showman, he left an indelible mark on Broadway, popular music, and urban entertainment, creating spectacular revues and operating some of New York City's most famous nightspots. His life was a quintessential American Dream narrative, rising from a Bronx stenographer to a multimillionaire entertainment mogul.

Early life and career

Born to a Jewish immigrant family in New York City, he demonstrated an early aptitude for shorthand, which led to a job as a stenographer for Bernard Baruch on the War Industries Board during World War I. He parlayed this skill into a career as a newspaper columnist and began writing song lyrics, achieving his first major hit with "Barney Google" in 1923 with co-writer Con Conrad. This success led to a prolific period as a Tin Pan Alley lyricist, penning standards like "Me and My Shadow" and "It's Only a Paper Moon" with composers such as Harry Warren and Harold Arlen. His early business ventures included a brief, unsuccessful partnership operating a Manhattan speakeasy, foreshadowing his future in nightlife.

Broadway productions

Rose transitioned to theatrical production in the 1930s, specializing in large-scale, fast-paced revues. His first major success was Crazy Quilt (1931), starring Fanny Brice. He followed this with the colossal Jumbo (1935), a circus-themed spectacle staged at the Hippodrome Theatre with music by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Perhaps his most famous production was Carmen Jones (1943), a groundbreaking all-African-American adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen set during World War II, with a libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II. His later productions included The Seven Lively Arts (1944) and a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Tallulah Bankhead.

Nightclubs and entertainment ventures

Concurrently with his Broadway work, Rose became a legendary nightclub proprietor. He opened the Music Hall in Fort Worth in 1936, but his most iconic venues were in New York City. These included the Diamond Horseshoe, a lavish Basque-themed nightclub in the Paramount Hotel; the Casa Mañana at the 1939 New York World's Fair; and his postwar crown jewel, the Diamond Horseshoe nightclub. He also owned the Ziegfeld Theatre and attempted to establish a permanent aquacade show, having produced a hugely popular one starring Eleanor Holm at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Later life and legacy

In his later years, Rose turned his focus to art collecting and philanthropy. An avid collector, he amassed a significant collection of modern sculpture and paintings, which formed the core of the Billy Rose Art Gallery at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, a gift to the nascent state of Israel. He continued writing a widely syndicated newspaper column, "Pitching Horseshoes," and made appearances on television programs like The Ed Sullivan Show. His legacy is that of a consummate showman who blended vaudeville, burlesque, Broadway, and nightclub entertainment, influencing later producers like Florenz Ziegfeld and Mike Todd. The Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is a major archive of his work and 20th-century theatre history.

Personal life

Rose's personal life was as dramatic as his productions. His first marriage was to celebrated comedienne and singer Fanny Brice in 1929; their tumultuous relationship ended in divorce in 1938. He then married Olympic champion swimmer Eleanor Holm in 1939, a union that garnered constant media attention but also ended in divorce in 1954 after highly publicized acrimony. He had no children. A noted philanthropist, he made substantial donations to various causes, including the State of Israel and the Fight for Sight research foundation. He died in 1966 from lobular pneumonia at his estate in Jamaica, Queens.

Category:American theatrical producers Category:American lyricists Category:American nightclub owners Category:1899 births Category:1966 deaths