Evarts Friedman

Evarts Friedman started out promoting shows in the cheap priced burlesque houses of Chicago in the early 1900’s. Friedman aspired to promote vaudeville and leave the rather crude burlesque world behind him. Friedman got his break when George Castle left his job as manager of the Olympic Theatre, run by George Milddleton and C.E. Kohl. Middleton and Kohl replaced Castle with Friedman, who promoted the ever more popular vaudeville shows.

Due to this popularity, Middleton and Kohl found themselves raking in the cash and leased the Chicago Opera House and the Haymarket and, in turn, Friedman’s career and wealth rocketed, partly thanks to a brief association with New York impresario Willie Hammerstein, which ended in 1906. Vaudeville was big business before the inexorable rise of the movies and Chicago came only second to New York in popularity. Friedman found himself in a position to lease his own venues by 1918, but made a fatal mistake. Desperate to lease one of the largest and most popular theatres, he put every cent he’d ever saved, and borrowed from various sources to take over one of the largest theatres in Chicago, the McVickers.

At first his success seemed certain, but in 1921, the opening of Balaban and Katz’s Chicago Theatre signalled the beginning of the end for Vaudeville. This theatre offered both movies and live entertainment for the same price as the vaudeville only shows. Less than ten years later, crushed by Hollywood, Vaudeville had died and so had Friedman. His fortune lost, Ladybird, his wife, left him to face bailiffs, Mafioso and the Chicago State police on his own. He owed over $500,000. The man who everyone had once wanted to know, was now not recognised by anyone. The stress and strain caused Friedman to develop a rare skin disease which distorted his features, and he became a recluse for the last 20 years of his life.

He died, a John Doe, until George Castle his old colleague, identified him by his personalised wedding ring, which he’d always worn, long after the love and money had gone.