A. L. Erlanger
Abraham Lincoln Erlanger (May 4, 1859 – March 7, 1930) was an American theatrical producer, director, designer, theater owner, and a leading figure of the Theatrical Syndicate. Biography 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. 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