Jacob J. Shubert (August 29, 1879 – December 26, 1963) was an American theatre owner/operator and producer, the youngest brother of the notable Shubert family.

Biography

Born in 1879 in Vladislavov, in the Suwałki Governorate of Congress Poland, a part of the Russian Empire (present-day Kudirkos Naumiestis, Lithuania), he was the sixth child and third son of Duvvid Schubart and Katrina Helwitz, a Jewish couple. Jacob was still a small child when the family emigrated in 1881 to the United States, settling in Syracuse, New York, where a number of Jewish families from their hometown were already living.

His father's alcoholism kept the family in difficult financial circumstances and both he and his older brothers received little in the way of education and had no choice but to go to work at a young age. With borrowed money, he and brothers Sam and Lee Shubert eventually embarked on a business venture that led to them becoming the successful operators of several theatre houses in upstate New York. He apparently was not made aware of his son's death. He was interred in the family plot in the Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Jacob Shubert left a substantial portion of his assets to the Shubert Foundation, and by 1972, the assets of his estate totalled $60 million .

Notes

References

Further reading

  • The Shubert Brothers: A Brief History at shubertfoundation.org via Wayback Machine
  • Jacob Shubert biography at Musicals101.com