Max Liebman (August 2, 1902 – July 21, 1981) was a

Broadway theater Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the List of ...

and TV producer-director sometimes called the "Ziegfeld of TV", who helped establish early television's comedy vocabulary with ''

Your Show of Shows ''Your Show of Shows'' is a live 90-minute variety show that was broadcast weekly in the United States on NBC from February 25, 1950, through June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howar ...

''. He additionally helped bring

improvisational comedy Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...

into the mainstream with his 1961 Broadway revue ''From the Second City''.

Biography

Max Liebman was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria, and emigrated to the United States during childhood. He attended

Boys High School Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. where his extracurricular activities included the debating society and school theater, including shows with classmate

Arthur Schwartz Arthur Schwartz (November 25, 1900 – September 3, 1984) was an American composer and film producer, widely noted for his songwriting collaborations with Howard Dietz. Biography Early life Schwartz was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on Novem ...

, the future Broadway composer. In 1920, Liebman entered

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

as a comedy sketch-writer, and in 1924 or 1925 became social director at Camp Log Cabin or the Log Tavern in Pennsylvania. In 1932 or 1933 he was named theater director at

Tamiment Tamiment, first known as Camp Tamiment, was an American resort located in the Pocono Mountains of Pike County, Pennsylvania, which existed from 1921 through 2005. Originally established by the Rand School of Social Science in New York City as a ...

, a

Pocono Mountains The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos , are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the north, W ...

resort, where he would remain for 15 years. Concurrently, he made his Broadway debut as a sketch writer, alongside others including ''

The Little King ''The Little King'' is a 1930-1975 American gag-a-day comic strip created by Otto Soglow, telling its stories in a style using images and very few words, as in pantomime. Publication history Soglow's character first appeared on June 7, 1930, in ...

comic-strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Otto Soglow Otto Soglow (December 23, 1900 – April 3, 1975) was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip ''The Little King''. Born in Yorkville, Manhattan, Soglow grew up in New York City, where he held various jobs as a teenager and made an ...

, of the musical revue ''The Illustrators' Show''. It ran five performances, from January 22–25, 1936, at the 48th Street Theatre. Undaunted by the short run, he went on to co-write, with

Allen Boretz Allen Boretz (1900–1985), was an American songwriter, playwright and screenwriter. The great success of his and John Murray's Broadway hit ''Room Service'' (1937) led to offers from Hollywood, and he wrote and co-wrote screenplays from the la ...

, the comedy play ''Off to Buffalo'', featuring

Hume Cronyn Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. OC (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian-American actor and writer. Early life Cronyn, one of five children, was born in London, Ontario, Canada. His father, Hume Blake Cronyn, Sr., was a businessman and ...

. This ran seven performances beginning February 21, 1939, at the

Ethel Barrymore Theatre The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Broadway theater at 241 West 47th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1928, it was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the Elizabethan, Mediterranean, and Adam styles ...

. Back at the Tamiment Playhouse, Liebman recalled, "I was doing all the writing myself" until 1938, when he began working with Sylvia Fine. Fine introduced Liebman to her future husband, comedian

Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...

, whose talent Liebman immediately realized. He placed Kaye and comedian

Imogene Coca Imogene Coca (born Emogeane Coca; November 18, 1908 – June 2, 2001) was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on ''Your Show of Shows''. Starting out in vaudeville as a child acrobat, she studied ballet and wishe ...

in a Tamiment musical, ''

The Straw Hat Revue ''The Straw Hat Revue'' is a musical comedy revue with sketches mostly by Max Liebman and Samuel Locke, and music and lyrics by Sylvia Fine and James Shelton. It was produced on Broadway in 1939. Production ''The Straw Hat Revue'' started life a ...

'', which moved to Broadway's Ambassador Theatre on September 29, 1939, where it ran 75 performances through December 2. Liebman wrote the musical's book and is credited directorially under "staging". The cast included Coca, Kaye and

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

. In 1948, he directed the sketches for the

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

, ''

Make Mine Manhattan ''Make Mine Manhattan'' is a 1948 Broadway revue with music by Richard Lewine, lyrics by Hassard Short, and sketches by Arnold Horwitt and produced by Joseph Hyman. Production ''Make Mine Manhattan'' premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Thea ...

'', starring Sid Caesar in his

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

debut and later the star of Liebman's, "Your Show of Shows." Liebman also introduced to Broadway such Poconos performers as

Betty Garrett Betty Garrett (May 23, 1919 – February 12, 2011) was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer. She originally performed on Broadway, and was then signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She appeared in several musical film ...

and

Jules Munshin Jules Munshin (February 22, 1915 – February 19, 1970) was an American actor, comedian and singer who had made his name on Broadway when he starred in ''Call Me Mister''. His additional Broadway credits include ''The Gay Life'' and ''Barefoot ...

, and the

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

Lee Sherman Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

, with whom he worked on "Make Mine Manhattan."

References

External links

Max Liebman papers, 1903–1981
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebman, Max 1902 births 1981 deaths Television producers from New York City Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States Boys High School (Brooklyn) alumni