Jacob J. Rosenthal, also known as J.J. Rosenthal or Jake Rosenthal, was a theater manager best known for managing

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Bronx Opera House The Bronx Opera House is a former theater, part of the Subway Circuit, now converted into a boutique hotel in the Bronx, New York It was designed by George M. Keister and built in 1913 at 436 East 149th Street on the site of Frederick Schnaufe ...

. He was married to actress Kathryn Osterman with whom he had a son, the comedian Jack Osterman. He died July 12, 1923.

Early career

He had been working as a police reporter for the ''Cincinnati Enquirer'' for two years when he decided to embark in the theatrical business as a press agent for theater managers John H. Havlin of the Havlin Theatre and Robert E.J. Miles of the Grand Opera House both in Cincinnati. In a brazen move that will become a trademark throughout his professional career, he secured an ad in red ink on the first page of the Cincinnati Enquirer announcing the coming of

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. John R. McLean, the owner of the ''Enquirer'', had publicly boasted that nobody had enough money to buy an ad on the first page of his newspaper. Somehow Jake had managed to not only get the ad for free but in red, infuriating McLean, who asked his employers to dismiss him. Out of a job, he moved to

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and quickly started working for the likes of

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and other theatrical producers. On June 9, 1898, he married actress Kathryn Osterman in New York at the home of Kathryn's sister, actress Anna Belmont. Three years later, having moved to Toledo Ohio, they had a son, Jack, who became a comedian in vaudeville and movies under his mother's last name.

J.J. Rosenthal subsequently worked for

A.H. Woods Albert Herman Woods (born Aladore Herman; January 3, 1870 – April 24, 1951) was a Hungarian-born theatrical producer who spent much of his life in the USA. He produced over 140 plays on Broadway theatre, Broadway, including some of the m ...

and is credited with bringing

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to prominence and catapulting

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to stardom. He then managed his wife's tour for three seasons before becoming the manager of the Gaiety Theatre in San Francisco. According to reports, in January 1914, he arranged for

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tocome to the Gaiety when a contract had been signed for the showing of white-slave films (a popular genre in early cinema) at the house at the same time. A cash bond of $1,500, that had been put up as guarantee that the films would be put on at the time specified in the contract, was forfeited by the Gaiety's owner George M. Anderson. Jake Rosenthal was first fired verbally by Thomas O. Day of the Anderson executive forces, but because he was refusing to recognize his authority, Anderson himself had to later dismiss him by mail. Rosenthal sued the Anderson Company for $11,850 asking that an accounting be made for additional percentage per terms of contract. He attached the Gaiety receipts, but the management put up a bond and lifted it. In 1915, citing that he was tired of being on the road, he accepted

' offer to manage the

Bronx Opera House

Jacob J. Rosenthal took over the

at the beginning of its third season following the departure of Richard Madden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenthal, Jacob J. Place of birth missing Year of birth missing 19th-century births 1923 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American male writers American male journalists American theatre managers and producers Businesspeople from the Bronx Businesspeople from Cincinnati Businesspeople from San Francisco Businesspeople from Toledo, Ohio The Cincinnati Enquirer people Journalists from the Bronx Journalists from Ohio Journalists from San Francisco Writers from Cincinnati Writers from Toledo, Ohio