{{Short description|American theatre producer (1918–1994)}} '''Arnold Saint-Subber''' (February 18, 1918<ref name="jones">{{cite news |title=A Broadway legend with a loving link to 'Kate': O'Brien's new book stirs Saint-Subber |first=Welton |last=Jones |newspaper=San Diego Union |date=1984-01-15 |page=E1}}</ref> – April 19, 1994), usually known as '''Saint Subber''',<ref name="jones"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Ex-Office Boy with 50 Friends with $7,000 Hits the Jackpot |first=Mark |last=Barron |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The Milwaukee Journal |date=1949-01-10 |page=1, § Green Sheet |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6vQZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9CMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2859,5334113&dq=saint-subber&hl=en}}</ref> was an American theatrical producer.<ref name="holden">{{cite news |title=Saint Subber, Theater Producer and a Neil Simon Partner, 76 |first=Stephen |last=Holden |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1994-04-21 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/21/obituaries/saint-subber-theater-producer-and-a-neil-simon-partner76.html}}</ref>
==Early life== Subber grew up in New York City, where both of his parents were theatre ticket brokers.<ref name="impresario">{{cite news |title=Broadway Impresario Arnold Saint-Subber, 76 |agency=New York Times News Service |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=1994-04-24 |page=6, § Chicagoland}}</ref> He attended New York University.<ref name="impresario"/> He was an assistant stage manager for the revue ''Hellzapoppin''' starring Olsen and Johnson and assistant to producer John Murray Anderson for ''Billy Rose's Aquacade'' at the 1939 New York World's Fair.<ref name="impresario"/>
==Producing career== Subber won a Tony Award as producer of the musical ''Kiss Me, Kate'', which ran on Broadway from 1948 to 1951. Subber has often been described as conceiving of the show while working as a stagehand on a production of ''The Taming of the Shrew'' starring the real-life husband and wife Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and noticing that the couple "quarreled almost as much off stage as they did in the play".<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre |last=Green |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Green (historian)|year=1976 |publisher=Da Capo |isbn=0-306-80113-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/trent_0116403559523/page/237 237] |url=https://archive.org/details/trent_0116403559523 |url-access=registration |quote=saint subber lunt fontanne. |accessdate=2010-05-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Fabulous Lunts |last=Brown |first=Jared |year=2005 |publisher=AuthorHouse |location=Bloomington, Ind. |isbn=1-4208-5470-4 |page=256 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJAEl33hNYUC&dq=%22saint+subber%22+lunt+fontanne&pg=PA256 |accessdate=2010-05-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Prime Cole Porter |first=William |last=Kowinski |newspaper=North Coast Journal |date=2007-06-07 |url=http://www.northcoastjournal.com/arts/2007/06/07/prime-cole-porter/ |accessdate=2010-05-23 }}</ref> (However, a representative of the estate of Samuel and Bella Spewack, who wrote the musical's book, has stated that the backstage conflict plot came purely from the Spewacks' imagination and was not inspired by Lunt and Fontanne's relationship.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/48249-So-in-Love-Kiss-Me-KateCompany-Meets-the-Press-in-Open-Rehearsal |title=So in Love: ''Kiss Me, Kate'' Company Meets the Press in Open Rehearsal |author=Kenneth Jones |date=1999-10-08 |work=Playbill.com |access-date=2010-05-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015143758/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/48249-So-in-Love-Kiss-Me-KateCompany-Meets-the-Press-in-Open-Rehearsal |archive-date=2012-10-15 }}</ref>) However, Subber maintained that his role as the stage manager for Lunt and Fontaine inspired the idea, and he wrote the original book at the insistence of his lifelong friend, Montgomery Clift, who locked him in a hotel room until the work was completed. Book in hand, Clift then introduced Subber to Cole Porter who wrote the music for "Kiss Me Kate" in 10 days.
Subber also received Tony nominations for Best Play as producer of both William Inge's ''The Dark at the Top of the Stairs'' and Paddy Chayefsky's ''The Tenth Man'', each of which also ran for more than a year on Broadway.<ref name="ibdb">{{IBDB name|id=21193|name=Saint Subber}}</ref> He eventually became associated with Neil Simon and produced seven of his plays on Broadway: ''Barefoot in the Park'', ''The Odd Couple'', ''The Star-Spangled Girl'', ''Plaza Suite'', ''Last of the Red Hot Lovers'', ''The Gingerbread Lady'', and ''The Prisoner of Second Avenue''.<ref name="ibdb"/> Of these seven plays, five resulted in Tony nominations for Subber as producer of a Best Play nominee (''Barefoot in the Park'', ''The Odd Couple'', ''Plaza Suite'', ''Last of the Red Hot Lovers'', and ''The Prisoner of Second Avenue''), and ''Barefoot in the Park'' also earned Subber a nomination as Best Producer (Dramatic).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/awardperson.asp?id=21193 |title=IBDB Person Awards |access-date=2010-05-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100113234515/http://ibdb.com/awardperson.asp?id=21193 |archive-date=2010-01-13 }}</ref>
After Subber's run of Neil Simon plays ended, he produced two more musicals on Broadway: ''Gigi'' by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe in 1973, and ''1600 Pennsylvania Avenue'' by Lerner and Leonard Bernstein in 1976.<ref name="ibdb"/> Regarding the latter show, Subber said in a 1980 interview, "I loathed it. It wasn't working out well. I tried desperately to get everyone to abandon it. After many fights, I left the production."<ref name="lawson">{{cite news |title=Saint Subber coming back with Himalayas play starring Sheen |first=Carol |last=Lawson |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1980-10-03 |page=C2}}</ref> Subber moved to Mendocino, California.<ref name="jones"/><ref name="lawson"/> His next return to New York was to sign contracts for his last production, Patrick Meyers' play ''K2'', which was originally scheduled to run on Broadway in 1981<ref name="lawson"/> but finally arrived on Broadway in 1983.<ref name="jones"/><ref name="ibdb"/>
Subber died in 1994 of heart failure at his home “The John Howard Galen House”, a Berkeley landmark, built in 1912, LeRoy Avenue, Berkeley, California.<ref name="holden"/>
==Name== The producer's name was variously punctuated as "Saint-Subber" and "Saint Subber", with and without a hyphen.<ref>Of the six shows Subber produced on Broadway during the 1967-68 season, ''Dr. Cook's Garden'' and ''Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights'' credited him as "Saint Subber", while ''There's a Girl in My Soup'', ''Weekend'', ''The Little Foxes'', and ''Plaza Suite'' credited him as "Saint-Subber". {{cite book |title=The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway |last=Goldman |first=William |authorlink=William Goldman |year=1969 |publisher=Limelight Editions |location=New York |isbn=0-87910-023-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/seasoncandidloo00gold/page/22 22, 54, 154, 262, 316] }}</ref> He was known to those who called him by name as "Saint".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway |last=Goldman |first=William |authorlink=William Goldman |year=1969 |publisher=Limelight Editions |location=New York |isbn=0-87910-023-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/seasoncandidloo00gold/page/24 24] }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=When the Funniest Writer in America Tried to Be Serious |first=Richard |last=Merryman |newspaper=Life |date=1971-05-07 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LUAEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22saint+wants+to+close+it%22&pg=PA75}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IBDB name}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Subber, Saint}} Category:1918 births Category:1994 deaths Category:American theatre managers and producers Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:Businesspeople from New York City Category:People from Mendocino, California Category:Businesspeople from Berkeley, California