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The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty: The Extraordinary Rise and Fall of Actor M. B. Curtis
Richard Schwartz, author
Adult; Lit Crit, Lit Bio, Essay, Film; (Market)
In his latest endeavor, The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty: The Extraordinary Rise and Fall of Actor M.B. Curtis (RSB Books, April 2017, $29.95 HC, Distributed by Heyday Books), author and historian Richard Schwartz delivers the fascinating life story of Jewish immigrant actor M.B. Curtis.
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As the Statue of Liberty stood unlit and unloved by American politicians in 1886, one of her saviors was creating a theatrical sensation at New York’s Fourteenth Street Theatre. Actor M. B. Curtis, who had achieved overnight success in Sam’l of Posen, a groundbreaking play that transcended the common stereotypes of Jewish characters at the time, was basking in public accolades at every curtain call when he came to Lady Liberty’s aid. Curtis, the immigrant, jumped up to become the only private citizen in our nation’s history to pay for lighting the Statue of Liberty’s torch while Congress dodged the funding issue and international embarrassment.
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Curtis’s rise to the top of his profession and his resulting fall from grace is a dramatic arc that rivals anything created for the stage. Actor, producer, real estate developer, promoter, hotelier, benefactor, and murder suspect, M. B. Curtis’s life encompassed the highs of celebrity and fame as well as the lows of failure, illness, and a faltering career.
The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty rescues M. B. Curtis’s story from the dusty archives of forgotten history and reexamines an actor whose creativity and cultural influence still resonate invisibly today.
Reviews
In this well-researched, in-depth biography, historian Schwartz (Berkeley 1900) traces the meteoric rise and slow fall of M.B. Curtis, a Hungarian Jewish actor who thrived on American stages from the 1870s to 1890s, then sank into obscurity. Curtis came to America as a boy in 1856 and got his first, and last, big break with his stage character “Sam’l of Posen,” a Jewish immigrant traveling salesman who was astoundingly different from anything audiences had previously seen. He became one of the most famous actors of his time, repeatedly reinventing this character and engaging in outlandish publicity stunts, such as paying to light the torch of the newly constructed Statue of Liberty and giving away real estate with ticket sales. When the popularity of Sam’l waned, Curtis turned to investing in failed real estate and managing failed theaters, hotels, and acting troupes. He remained encumbered with financial debt throughout his life. For being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Curtis was later accused of the murder of a police officer, and the ensuing high-profile trial led to bankruptcy and alcoholism in his fading last years. Schwartz’s intriguing portrayal of celebrity, status, and desperation illuminates the underbelly of an exciting, rapidly changing time. (BookLife)
