{{Short description|Music Conductor}}{{Infobox musical artist | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | name = Franz Allers | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1905|03|11}} | birth_place = Prague, Austria-Hungary | death_date = {{death date and age|1995|01|26|1905|03|11}} | death_place = Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. | genre = Classical, Broadway, Operetta | occupation = Conductor | instrument = Violin, Conducting | years_active = 1920s–1990s | awards = Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director (1957, 1961) }} [[File:Frederic Franklin and Franz Allers, Ghost Town, cropped.jpg|thumb|Allers (right) with dancer Frederic Franklin at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo performance of ''Ghost Town'', Los Angeles, 1940]] '''Franz Allers''' (August 6, 1905 - January 26, 1995) was an Austrian and American conductor of ballet, opera, Broadway musicals, film scores, and symphony orchestras.

==Early life== Franz Allers was born in Carlsbad, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) in 1905. He started playing the violin at the age of 7. In 1920, he moved to Berlin, where he became a violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic. He had a distinguished career in Europe as an opera and symphonic conductor.<ref name=":0">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/28/obituaries/franz-allers-89-a-conductor-and-broadway-musical-director.html|title=Franz Allers, 89, a Conductor And Broadway Musical Director|date=January 28, 1995|work=The New York Times}}</ref>

==Career== In 1947, Allers conducted the original Broadway production of ''Brigadoon''. He conducted the original 1951 Broadway production of ''Paint Your Wagon''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/franz-allers-78659/#broadway|title=Franz Allers – Broadway Cast & Staff &#124; IBDB|website=ibdb.com}}</ref> He was the music director for ''My Darlin' Aida'' the following year, and in 1954 he conducted the score for the animated film ''Hansel & Gretel''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0021248/|title=Franz Allers|website=IMDb }}</ref> Allers conducted the score to the original Broadway production of ''My Fair Lady'' in 1957, and would go on to win the Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director.

Allers received a nomination at the 1960 Grammy Awards in the category of Best Recording for Children for the film soundtrack of ''Hansel & Gretel''.<ref name="awardsandshows.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.awardsandshows.com/features/grammy-awards-1959-239.html|title=Grammy Award Nominees 1959 - Grammy Award Winners 1959}}</ref> However, Allers lost out to Peter Ustinov's ''Peter & the Wolf'' (with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra).

In 1961, Allers conducted the original Broadway production of ''Camelot'', which won him a second Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director. On October 1, 1961, a German translation of ''My Fair Lady'' opened at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, conducted by Allers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.welt.de/print-welt/article232500/Karin-Huebner-1936-2006.html |title=Karin Hübner (1936-2006) |author=Peter E. Müller |date=July 31, 2006 |work=Die Welt (The World) |accessdate=February 11, 2017}} {{in lang|de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Birgit Walter |date=October 22, 2011 |title=Theater des Westens Ein Million für diese Lady |trans-title=Theater of the West – A Million For This Lady |url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/kultur-vergnuegen/theater-des-westens-ein-million-fuer-diese-lady-li.33570 |work=Berliner Zeitung}} {{in lang|de}}</ref>

== Personal life == Allers moved to the United States in 1938. He met his first wife, singer Carolyn Shaffer, in Chicago in 1939. While working on Broadway, Allers, his wife and their daughter, Carol, lived in Riverdale, New York. In later life, he moved back to Germany and lived in Munich with his second wife, German actress/playwright Janne Furch-Allers (née Ertel).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Franz Allers |url=http://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/franz-allers/}}</ref> She died in 1992 at the age of 76.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Janne Furch |website=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0298835/}}</ref>

In 1995, Allers died from complications from pneumonia at the Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada while traveling to California. He was 89.<ref name=":0" />

According to his ''New York Times'' obituary, "Allers, along with the conductor Maurice Abravanel, 'completely revised the standards of Broadway pit work,' demanding the highest quality from both the orchestra players and the singers."<ref name=":0" />

==Awards and nominations== * 1957 Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director – ''My Fair Lady'' * 1960 Grammy Award nomination for Best Recording for Children – ''Hansel & Gretel''<ref name="awardsandshows.com" /> * 1961 Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director – ''Camelot''

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|0021248}} *{{IBDB name}}

{{TonyAward ConductorMusicalDirector}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Allers, Franz}} Category:American male conductors (music) Category:Tony Award winners Category:1905 births Category:1995 deaths Category:20th-century American conductors (music) Category:20th-century American male musicians Category:Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States