Rose, Billy |
| IMPRESARIO, PRODUCER, LYRICIST (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) |
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BORN 6 Sep 1899, New York City, New York: The Bronx - DIED 10 Feb 1966, New York City, New York BIRTH NAME Rosenberg, William Samuel GRAVE LOCATION Hastings-on-Hudson, New York: Westchester Hills Cemetery, 400 Saw Mill River Road |
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Billy Rose was born as William Rosenberg into a Jewish family. During the First World War he worked as a stenographic clerk for Bernard Baruch. After that he became a lyricist, mosly writing his songs together with others. In 1929 he married Fanny Brice, a singer from Ziegfield's Follies. In 1934 he started The Billy Rose Music Hall where the original Benny Goodman Orchestra played. He produced the musical "Jumbo" at the Hippodrome Theatre on 6th Avenue in 1935. In 1938 he opened a nightclub on Times Square named Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe. There he employed Gene Kelly. In 1938 he divorced Fanny and in 1939 he married Eleanor Holm, a former swimmer who had played Jane in a Tarzan movie. The marriage lasted until 1954. In 1943 he was the producer of "Carmen Jones", based on Bizet's opera. From 1949 to 1955 he was the owner and the manager of the Ziegfield Theatre and from 1959 until his death he managed the Billy Rose Theatre (now the Nederlander Theatre). He was a rich man when he died in 1966. |
| Images |
 The mausoleum of Billy Rose at Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson. Picture by Androom (13 Apr 2010) |
Sources • Find-A-Grave • Billy Rose - Wikipedia |
