{{short description|Theatrical production and management 1898-1914}} {{Infobox company | name = Liebler & Company | logo = | logo_caption = | logo_upright = <!-- default: 1 --> | logo_alt = | type = Partnership | industry = Entertainment | predecessor = The Liebler Company (Incorporated 1897) | founded = {{Start date and age|1898|11|18}} | founder = T. A. Liebler and George C. Tyler | defunct = {{End date|1914|12|04}} | fate = Receivership | hq_location_city = New York City | area_served = North America and England | key_people = Hugh Ford | products = Theatrical productions and management | owner = T. A. Liebler and George C. Tyler | num_employees = | num_employees_year = | parent = | subsid = The Liebler Company (Purchased after 1899) }}
'''Liebler & Company''' was a partnership that produced stage plays and managed theatrical stars and troupes from 1898 through 1914. During this time it produced 97 original plays on Broadway, and a score of revivals. Among its most successful productions was ''The Christian'' (1898), ''Sag Harbor'' (1900), ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' (1903), ''Merely Mary Ann'' (1903), ''Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman'' (1903), ''The Squaw Man'' (1905), ''Salomy Jane'' (1907), ''The Man from Home'' (1908), ''Alias Jimmy Valentine'', ''The Melting Pot'' (1909), ''Disraeli'' (1911), and ''Joseph and His Brethren'' (1913). It sponsored American tours by Mrs Patrick Campbell, George Arliss, Eleonora Duse, and the Abbey Players. Its production of ''Children of the Ghetto'' in 1899 sparked controversy, while the American debut of ''The Playboy of the Western World'' in 1911 provoked a riot in a Broadway theater. The advent of World War I in Europe and tightening fiscal conditions in America led to a cash-flow crisis in December 1914, causing the company to be placed into receivership.
==Founding== left|thumb|upright=0.59|T. A. Liebler, Jr. (1909) [[File:George C. Tyler 1907.png|thumb|upright=0.60|George C. Tyler 1907]] Theodore August Liebler Jr (1852-1941)<ref name="wd042341">{{cite news |title=Old Theatrical Producer Dies |work=The Waterbury Democrat |date=April 23, 1941 |location=Waterbury, Connecticut |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="nyprob">Theodore A Liebler in the New York, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1659-1999, retrieved from Ancestry.com</ref> owned lithography firm Liebler & Maas, which had been co-founded by his father. On August 22, 1891, a noontime explosion and fire in the Taylor building at 70 Park Place in Manhattan, killed several employees and wrecked the firm's offices.<ref name="ew082291">{{cite news |title=EXTRA. MANY KILLED. An Explosion Destroys a Big Building on Park Place |work=The Evening World |date=August 22, 1891 |location=New York, New York |page=1 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> The company struggled to recover over the next few years, but eventually the Park Place disaster forced it into bankruptcy<ref name="GrauP130">Grau, p.130.</ref> during December 1896.<ref name="dc121896">{{cite news |title=Failure of Lithographers |work=Democrat and Chronicle |date=December 18, 1896 |location=Rochester, New York |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Liebler then joined up with producer George C. Tyler and theatrical manager John A. Reed in October 1897 to form The Liebler Company,<ref name="cj112098">{{cite news |title=The Theaters |work=The Courier-Journal |date=November 20, 1898 |location=Louisville, Kentucky |page=18 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> which was incorporated in New Jersey.<ref name="sg010599">{{cite news |title=Plays and Players |work=Star-Gazette |date=January 5, 1899 |location=Elmira, New York |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Liebler supplied the financing for their first venture, sponsoring Charles Francis Coghlan in ''The Royal Box''.<ref>Tyler and Furnas, pp. 134</ref> Though a popular success, the tour was financially hampered due to Coghlan's outstanding debts.<ref>Tyler and Furnas, pp.135, 138-139</ref>{{refn|A published excerpt from Liebler's diary said upon first meeting Coghlan, the actor borrowed fifty dollars to get his coat out of hock, then offered to take Liebler and Tyler to dinner if they would lend him another ten dollars.<ref name="gb0912">{{cite magazine |last=Liebler |first=Theodore A. |title=The House of Liebler |magazine=The Green Book Magazine |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The Story-Press Corporation |date=September 1912 |page=464}}</ref>|group=fn}}
Tyler and Liebler decided to back Viola Allen in a new play, ''The Christian'' by Hall Caine. Allen persuaded Hall Caine to come over from England to help with the premiere.<ref>Tyler and Furnas, pp.141-142</ref> The production also had financial help from Klaw and Erlanger, who took a half interest in it, but not Allen's contract.<ref name="sg010599" /> Reed thought it too risky,<ref name="sg010599" /> so Liebler and Tyler sold him their shares in The Liebler Company and formed a partnership called Liebler & Company.<ref name="cj112098" /> Liebler & Company then bought out Reed's interest in Allen's contract and ''The Christian''.<ref name="sg010599" /> While Reid continued to manage Coghlan, Liebler & Company took over Viola Allen's contract and the production of ''The Christian''.<ref name="cj112098" />
''The Christian'' proved an enormous success, ensuring the financial viability of Liebler & Co.<ref>Tyler and Furnas, pp. 143-145</ref>, while Reed's stewardship of Coghlan foundered on April 17, 1899, when the latter refused to go on stage unless he was paid.<ref name="ct041899">{{cite news |title=Charles Coghlan Refuses to Play Unless Paid |work=Chicago Tribune |date=April 18, 1899 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Tyler's memoir is explicit about Coghlan's profligacy, how the theater box office, if not attached by a deputy sheriff on behalf of Coghlan's creditors, would be raided by the actor himself for walking-around money.<ref>Tyler and Furnas, pp.138-140</ref> Eventually the partners were able to buy back The Liebler Company. The subsidiary corporation was then used to manage proven properties and road companies, while the owning partnership took on new productions and star contracts.
==Growth== left|thumb|upright=0.60 Liebler & Co. cast James O'Neill to appear in an adaptation of Dumas' ''The Three Musketeers'' by Sydney Grundy called simply ''The Musketeers''. It didn't do well in America, so O'Neill was shifted to a revival of Charles Fechter's adaptation of ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' which was more successful. Liebler & Co. then signed James A. Herne to a management contract, and agreed to produce his ''Sag Harbor'' if he would stage Israel Zangwill's ''Children of the Ghetto''.<ref name="tfp149">Tyler and Furnas, pp.149-151</ref> ''Sag Harbor'' did well, but ''Children of the Ghetto'' ran into opposition on Broadway from both drama critics{{refn|Author Zangwill's 1898 lecture tour on the failings of dramatic criticism was remembered with pique by the reviewer for the ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle''.<ref name="bde101799">{{cite news |title=The Zangwill Play |work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=October 17, 1899 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>|group=fn}} and the local Jewish community, who felt it trivialized sacred matters.<ref name="nyt101899">{{cite news |title=Topics of the Times |work=The New York Times |date=October 18, 1899 |location=New York, New York |page=6 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref>
Tyler signed Mrs. Patrick Campbell for an American tour in January 1902. Liebler wrote that she was not only a great actress but also a master of "self-advertisement", charming reporters by allowing them to interview her pet dog and throwing pretty fits of temperament. She had demanded to bring her own choice of actors with her, and was given a salary allowance that went much further in England than it would have in America. Thus she brought with her George Arliss,<ref name="gb1012">{{cite magazine |last=Liebler |first=Theodore A. |title=The Romantic Story of the House of Liebler |magazine=The Green Book Magazine |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The Story-Press Corporation |date=October 1912 |pages=706-707}}</ref> who would become a star for Liebler & Company when they produced ''Disraeli'' in 1911.<ref name="nyt091911">{{cite news |title=Arliss As 'Disraeli' In A Parker Romance |work=The New York Times |date=19 September 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref>
thumb|upright=0.60A financially less successful but artistically more important tour was sponsored by Liebler & Company in the latter part of 1902, when they brought Eleonora Duse and her company to America. A ground-breaking actress, Duse insisted on performing only in plays by Gabriele D'Annunzio, which proved too morbid and advanced for commercial audiences in the United States. Despite losing $60,000 on the tour, T. A. Liebler thought it worthwhile for American stage producers to experience the "semi-impressionistic" innovations of ''Francesca da Rimini''.<ref name="gb1012" /> Liebler & Company more than made up for the loss with three very successful plays that premiered in 1903. ''Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman'' was an adaption of two E. W. Hornung stories, which starred Kyrle Bellew. Co-written with the author by Liebler & Company's stage director, Eugene Presbrey,<ref name="nyt102803">{{cite news |title=Raffles and Redwood |work=The New York Times |date=October 28, 1903 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> it played well on Broadway<ref name="nyt110103">{{cite news |title=Plays That Hold |work=The New York Times |date=November 1, 1903 |location=New York, New York |page=24 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> until forced to close by prior scheduling.<ref name="ts032904">{{cite news |title="The Two Orphans" Played |work=The Sun |date=March 29, 1904 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> It then had an exceptionally long run in London's West End.<ref>'Long Runs in London to 1939', ''Who's Who in the Theatre'', London, 1972</ref>
Despite having lost money on Israel Zangwill in 1899, Liebler & Company produced his ''Merely Mary Ann'', starring Tyler's discovery Eleanor Robson.{{refn|Tyler had found her playing a small role in ''Arizona'' in Chicago during 1899, and quickly signed her to a contract.<ref name="gb0912b">{{cite magazine |last=Liebler |first=Theodore A. |title=The House of Liebler |magazine=The Green Book Magazine |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The Story-Press Corporation |date=September 1912 |page=471}}</ref> Years later, another Tyler discovery, Helen Hayes, would lament his endless recollections of Eleanor Robson.<ref name="hhp130">Hayes and Dody, p.130</ref>|group=fn}} It was a popular success,<ref name="nyt022903">{{cite news |title="Merely Mary Ann" |work=The New York Times |date=December 29, 1903 |location=New York, New York |page=5 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> and Eleanor Robson's performance inspired George Bernard Shaw to write ''Major Barbara'' for her.<ref name="tf172-4">Tyler and Furnas, pp.172-174</ref> That same year, J. M. Barrie suggested to Tyler that he investigate the books of Alice Hegan Rice. Tyler did, and immediately commissioned the dramatization of ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' by Anne Crawford Flexner.<ref name="tf187-189">Tyler and Furnas, pp.187-189</ref> A mild success on Broadway,<ref name="bc090404">{{cite news |title="Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" at the Savoy |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=September 4, 1904 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> it had a years-long run on tour and became Liebler & Company's most rewarding production.<ref name="tf187-189" />
==Heyday== left|thumb|upright=0.55 ''The Squaw Man'', written and staged by Edwin Milton Royle, was still a running success for Liebler & Company in Chicago during October 1905, when they suddenly moved the production to Broadway. ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' reported the precipitous switch "was designed to forestall David Belasco and ''The Girl of the Golden West''".<ref name="bdt102205">{{cite news |title=In Manhattan |work=The Brooklyn Daily Times |date=October 22, 1905 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=44 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> The western melodrama had good critical reviews,<ref name="nyt102405">{{cite news |title=How The Squaw Man Is Not The Shawman |work=The New York Times |date=October 24, 1905 |location=New York, New York |page=6 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref><ref name="tr102405">{{cite news |title='The Squaw Man' |work=New-York Tribune |date=October 24, 1905 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> and proved a popular success, running for six months on Broadway.<ref name="bdt033106">{{cite news |title=Gossip of the Stage |work=The Brooklyn Daily Times |date=March 31, 1906 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Liebler & Company hired Hugh Ford to stage plays in 1905,<ref name="bs082805">{{cite news |title='The Prodigal Son' Tonight |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=August 28, 1905 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> and within six months he had become their general stage director.<ref name="hc010306">{{cite news |title='The Vanderbilt Cup' |work=The Hartford Courant |date=January 3, 1906 |location=Hartford, Connecticut |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Ford was a prodigious worker, directing and sometimes rewriting dozens of plays per season.<ref name="ct010828">{{cite news |last=Donaghy |first=Frederick |title=This Thing and That Thing of the Theater |work=Chicago Tribune |date=January 8, 1928 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=40 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> He drew praise from English author Louis N. Parker for his work on Liebler & Company productions of ''Pomander Walk'' (1907) and ''Disraeli'',<ref name="gboct1911">{{cite magazine |last=Parker |first=Louis N. |date=October 1911 |title=How I Came to Write "Pomander Walk" |magazine=Green Book |location=New York City |publisher= |publication-date= |volume= |issue= |pages=860–864 }}</ref>, and survived three collaborations, ''Salomy Jane'' (1907),<ref name="bc012107">{{cite news |title=Bret Harte Melodrama |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=January 21, 1907 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> ''Alias Jimmy Valentine'' (1909),<ref name="bdt012210">{{cite news |date=January 22, 1910 |title=H. B. Warner A Star |work=Brooklyn Daily Times |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and ''The Deep Purple'' (1910),<ref name="nyt011011">{{cite news |title=New Play Of Crooks Seen At The Lyric |work=The New York Times |date=January 10, 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=4 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> with the volatile American playwright Paul Armstrong.{{refn|Armstrong, whom H. L. Mencken said looked like a train robber,<ref name="bp111908">{{cite news |title=About Paul Armstrong |work=The Binghamton Press |date=November 19, 1908 |location=Binghamton, New York |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> had been arrested on three different occasions for assault.<ref name="tr083115">{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong Dies Suddenly |work=New-York Tribune |date=August 31, 1915 |location=New York, New York |pages=1, 7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="ew100302">{{cite news |title=Rialto Row Ends In Police Court |work=The Evening World |date=October 3, 1902 |location=New York, New York |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="ec1212110">{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong Sued |work=The Evening Capital |date=December 12, 1910 |location=Annapolis, Maryland |page=1 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>|group=fn}} Ford's enthusiasm for the stage failed to win over O. Henry, however, who drew a gun on him when he made suggestions for changes in a play commissioned by Liebler & Company.<ref name="tf195">Tyler and Furnas, pp.195-196.</ref>
thumb|upright=0.58 William Hodge had played characters in Liebler & Company's ''Sag Harbor'' and ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch''. A discovery of James A. Herne, he became a star as the title role in ''The Man from Home'' during 1908. Booth Tarkington co-wrote the play with Harry Leon Wilson; the latter told George C. Tyler that the play was written with Hodge in mind.<ref name="pi051907">{{cite news |title=Footlight Flashes |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=May 19, 1907 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |page=11 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> This was revenge on Tarkington's part, for Hodge bore a marked resemblance to fellow Hoosier author and rival, George Ade, who had once put Tarkington into a play.<ref name="nyt081608">{{cite news |title=Mr. Tarkington's Revenge |work=The New York Times |date=August 16, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=54 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> ''The Man from Home'' proved very successful on Broadway for Liebler & Company,<ref name="su081808">{{cite news |title="The Man From Home" At The Astor |work=The Standard Union |date=August 18, 1908 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> running for well over a year.<ref name="ts110609">{{cite news |title=Astor (ad) |work=The Sun |date=November 6, 1909 |location=New York, New York |page=14 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Liebler & Company had another popular play from Israel Zangwill in October 1908, with ''The Melting Pot''. A metaphor for the process of immigration to America, Zangwill clarified in a 1914 essay that the end product was not uniform assimilation, but enrichment.<ref name="nashon_p213">{{cite book |author=Edna Nashon |title=From the Ghetto to the Melting Pot: Israel Zangwill's Jewish Plays |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=2006 |page=213 |isbn=978-0-8143-2955-9 }}</ref> The play was praised by President Theodore Roosevelt upon its initial performance in Washington, D.C.,<ref name="es100608">{{cite news |title=The Theater |work=The Evening Star |date=October 6, 1908 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=20 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> but was panned by ''The New York Times'' reviewer when it reached Broadway on September 6, 1909.<ref name="nyt090709">{{cite news |title=New Zangwill Play Cheap And Tawdry |work=The New York Times |date=September 7, 1909 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> Broadway audiences ignored the criticism, and ''The Melting Pot'' had a respectable run through to January 1, 1910.<ref name="nyh010110">{{cite news |title=News of Plays and Players |work=The New York Herald |date=January 1, 1910 |location=New York, New York |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
By January 1911, Liebler & Company had five productions running on Broadway at the same time,{{refn|These were ''Mary Magdalene'' at The New Theatre, ''Pomander Walk'' at Wallack's Theatre, ''Daddy Dufard'' at the Hackett Theater, ''Marriage a la Carte'' at the Casino Theatre, and ''The Silent Call'' at the Broadway Theatre.<ref name="bc122810">{{cite news |title=Manhattan Stage Notes |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=December 28, 1910 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>|group=fn}} while during 1912 ''The Green Book Magazine'' reported that the partnership "now controls almost one sixth of the legitimate dramatic attractions in the United States".<ref name="gb0912c">{{cite magazine |last=Liebler |first=Theodore A. |title=The House of Liebler |magazine=The Green Book Magazine |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The Story-Press Corporation |date=September 1912 |page=462}}</ref>
==The Abbey Players== [[File:Allgood-Kerrigan 1911.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.60|Sara Allgood and J. M. Kerrigan in Playboy of the Western World]] {{quote box|width=28em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=90%|salign=center|quote= "It took me quite a while to get my breath back when I learned that $750 a week would cover the salary guarantee for the whole troupe... But they didn't give a hoot about money-- that was one thing you had to learn at the Abbey-- and they enjoyed their work more than any other actors I ever saw in my life. They were that rare phenomenon, a real troupe, not just an accidental grouping of performers." —George C. Tyler on the Abbey Players<ref name="tfp244">Tyler and Furnas, p.244</ref>}} Liebler & Co. brought the Abbey Players{{refn|In America at this time they were known as the Irish Players.<ref name="bet091311">{{cite news |title=The Irish Players |work=Boston Evening Transcript |date=September 18, 1911 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=13 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>|group=fn}} over from Dublin in September 1911 for their first North American tour. Lady Gregory, Lennox Robinson, and W. B. Yeats accompanied the Players.<ref name="bet090211">{{cite news |title=The Plymouth Theatre's Opening |work=Boston Evening Transcript |date=September 2, 1911 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=19 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> George C. Tyler was aware of trouble looming with the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) over the Players' featured work, ''The Playboy of the Western World'' by John Millington Synge. This play had caused disturbances in Dublin when first presented there in January 1907. To forestall the same in Boston, the tour's first stop, Tyler had Mayor John F. Fitzgerald give an opening curtain speech, while the Players presented "safe" works{{refn|Among these were ''The Shadow of the Glen'' and ''The Well of the Saints'' by Synge; ''Kathleen ni Hoolihan'' by W. B. Yeats; ''The Harvest'' and ''The Crossroads'' by Lennox Robinson; ''Birthright'' by T. C. Murray; ''Hyacinth Halvey'', ''The Rising of the Moon'', ''The Jail Gate'', and ''Spreading the News'' by Lady Gregory.<ref name="bet103011">{{cite news |author=K. M. |title=Plays and Players |work=Boston Evening Transcript |date=October 30, 1911 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=13 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>|group=fn}} for their first three weeks.<ref name="tf244">Tyler and Furnas, pp.244-245.</ref> When ''The Playboy'' was finally presented in October, local opposition in Boston was confined to a few hisses in the Plymouth Theatre and some newspaper editorials.<ref name="bg101711">{{cite news |title=Representative Boston Men Criticize "The Playboy of the Western World" |work=The Boston Globe |date=October 17, 1911 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
However, the United Irish-American Societies had met and voted to prevent production of ''The Playboy of the Western World'' in New York City, suggesting they might resort to "drastic measures".<ref name="tr100911">{{cite news |title=Irish Societies Oppose Play |work=New-York Daily Tribune |date=October 9, 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Liebler & Company brought the Abbey Players to Maxine Elliott's Theatre in November 1911, following the same strategy as in Boston of performing less controversial works for the first week. All went well until November 27, 1911, when ''The Playboy'' was finally presented.<ref name="nyt112811">{{cite news |title=Riot In Theatre Over An Irish Play |work=The New York Times |date=November 28, 1911 |location=New York, New York |pages=1,3 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> George C. Tyler had hired dozens of off-duty plainclothesmen, headed up by Charles Becker, who were scattered around the theater.<ref name="tf246">Tyler and Furnas, pp.246-248.</ref> When Fred O'Donovan as the playboy boasted to Margaret Flaherty (actress Eithne MaGee) that he'd killed his own father, the rioting began. Instigators in the audience, both male and female, hissed, stood on their seats, and threw vegetables and stink-bombs at the actors.<ref name="nyt112811" /> When the critic for ''The Sun'' offered to press charges, Becker's plainclothesmen started hustling offenders out of the theatre.<ref name="tf246" /> They didn't go quietly; Lady Gregory later told ''The New York Times'' that the violence was worse than anything the Players had seen in Dublin.<ref name="nyt112811" /> The actors on stage paused the play as they dodged projectiles, and even brought out cups of tea to sip. Stage manager J. M. Kerrigan reassured Tyler the curtain would stay open, while "the actors took their tea and looked on at the fun as connoisseurs". After the rioters were removed, the play was restarted from Act I for the remaining audience.<ref name="tf246" />
==The Century Theatre== left|thumb|upright=0.60|Tyler in Morocco The partnership took a managerial lease on the massive Century Theatre in 1911 for their spectacle ''The Garden of Allah''.<ref name="bde032011">{{cite news |title=Theater Topics |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=March 20, 1911 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=10 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> George C. Tyler, with director Hugh Ford and set designer Edward A. Morange, met English playwright Robert Hichens in Biskra, Algeria during April 1911.<ref>{{cite news |title=News of Plays and Players |work=The Sun |date=March 29, 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> They visited the real locales that inspired Hichens, collected material for use in the production, and recruited inhabitants of the area as performers.<ref name="nyt061311">{{cite news |title=Return from Desert |work=The New York Times |date=June 13, 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> The play was a commercial success,<ref name="qct102611">{{cite news |title="Garden of Allah" A Great Success |work=Quad City Times |date=October 26, 1911 |location=Davenport, Iowa |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> celebrated for its large numbers of authentic Algerian people, live animals, and complex set designs and effects.<ref name="ewcd102311">{{cite news |last=Darnton |first=Charles |title=The New Plays |work=The Evening World |date=October 23, 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=15 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Reviewers though said it was merely episodic and lacked dramatic appeal.<ref name="ewcd102311" /><ref name="bcad102211">{{cite news |last=Dale |first=Alan |title=Garden of Allah Wonderful Picture Says Alan Dale |work=Buffalo Courier |date=October 22, 1911 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=35 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="bl102811">{{cite news |title=The Garden of Allah |work=Brooklyn Life |date=October 28, 1911 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=18 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Over 375,000 people saw it during the eight-month Broadway run, the largest viewership of any play up to that time.<ref name="bc051812">{{cite news |title=Plays and Players |work=The Buffalo Commercial |date=May 18, 1912 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
thumb|upright=0.65 ''The Garden of Allah'' had proved a long-running success for Liebler & Company. Their second spectacle at the Century, ''The Daughter of Heaven'' (''La fille du ciel'') by Pierre Loti and Judith Gautier,<ref name="tf232">Tyler and Furnas, p.232.</ref> however, was not well received. The Century, with its huge stage and numerous floors of dressing rooms served by elevators, was an expensive venue to keep running. Liebler & Company were happy to produce Louis N. Parker's spectacle ''Joseph and His Brethren'', as it made back the money lost on ''The Daughter of Heaven''.<ref name="tf237">Tyler and Furnas, p.237.</ref> The partnership then received an offer from the Angelini-Gattini Opera Company of Milan to take over the lease of the Century, which they were glad to accept, given the expense of running it.<ref name="bc042013">{{cite news |title="Joseph and His Brethren" |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=April 20, 1913 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=17 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="tf240">Tyler and Furnas, pp.240,241.</ref>
==Demise== After disposing of the Century Theater lease, Liebler & Co. avoided spectacles until a play by Edward Sheldon came their way in 1914. Taken from Hans Christian Andersen, it was called ''The Garden of Paradise'', even though it was based on ''The Little Mermaid'' rather than Andersen's ''The Garden of Paradise''. There were four acts and nine unique settings, designed by Joseph Urban. The Park Theatre had undergone expansion and upgrades in order to present the work. Some idea of its intricate mechanics may be discerned from a newspaper account which said the first scene took place under the sea, and not one of the twenty-five principal players in it ever touched the stage.<ref name="dc112914">{{cite news |title=Musical Mention |work=Democrat and Chronicle |date=November 29, 1914 |location=Rochester, New York |page=23 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> Mechanical difficulties caused repeated postponements; finally, ''The Garden of Paradise'' opened at the Park Theatre on Saturday, November 28, 1914.
The extravagant costs for mounting ''The Garden of Paradise'' drained Liebler & Co.'s cash reserves. The recent advent of war in Europe had lenders holding onto their cash at the time, while films were eating away the profits of Liebler's road companies. The company was placed into involuntary receivership on December 4, 1914,<ref name="ew120414">{{cite news |title=Expensive Show Forces Receiver For Liebler Firm |work=The Evening World |date=December 4, 1914 |location=New York, New York |page=1 |via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> with ''The Garden of Paradise'' being shut down on December 8, 1914.<ref name="nyt120914">{{cite news |title='Garden of Paradise' Ends |work=The New York Times |date=December 9, 1914 |location=New York, New York |page=13 |via = NYTimes.com}}</ref> Among the creditors insisting on the receivership was Gates & Morange, the longtime set designers for Liebler & Company productions.<ref name="ew120414" /> One result of Liebler & Company's demise was the nascent Actors' Equity Association was able to successfully argue that the actors employed by the company were "privileged creditors", and entitled to compensation for unpaid wages.<ref>Harding, p.24.</ref>
==Notes== {{reflist|group=fn}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * Robert Grau. ''Forty Years Observation of Music and the Drama''. Broadway Publishing Company, 1909. * Alfred Harding. ''The Revolt of the Actors''. William Morrow & Company, 1929. * George C. Tyler and J. C. Furnas. ''Whatever Goes Up''. Bobbs Merrill, 1934. * Helen Hayes and Sandford Dody. ''On Reflection: An Autobiography''. M. Evans and Company, 1968. * Edna Nahshon, ''From the Ghetto to the Melting Pot: Israel Zangwill's Jewish Plays'' (Wayne State University Press), 2006. {{ISBN |978-0-8143-2955-9}}
==External links== * [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-organization/liebler-co-20491/ IBDb List of Liebler & Co. productions]
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Category:American theatre managers and producers Category:Broadway theatre people Category:Defunct theatre companies in New York City