Frank Vance Strauss

Frank Vance Strauss was an Ohio businessman who was the first to specialize in printing the theatre programme in New York City.

He was born on 04 Jan 1863 in Columbus, Ohio, to Nathan Strauss and Hanna Strauss nee Heilberg. He later changed his name to Frank Vance Storrs. He married Amanda Mayer on 18 Sep 1906 in Cleveland, Ohio. They had two daughters, Carolyn Mayer Storrs and Anne Mayer Storrs. He died on 09 Mar 1939 at age 66 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Strauss began by collecting ads for the Madison Square Theatre and transformed the programme from a four-page leaflet into a magazine playbill that included advertisements and the credits. Strauss began his work in 1884 and a year later recruited companies like Caswell Massey, Runkel Brothers Cocoa, and Schirmer Pianos to be advertised in his programs. In 1891, Strauss merged with his main competitor and, by 1905, standardized the "design and layout of the programs so that the makeup would be easier and the sizes of advertising space uniform." In 1918, Strauss sold the company to his nephew, Richard M. Huber. Under Huber, the company's name changed to The Magazine Theater Program, and by 1924, it was printing 16,000,000 playbills for over 60 theatres. This began Huber's monopoly over program printing for Broadway theatres.

In 1956, after 70 years as a family company, Huber sold The Playbill to producer and real estate magnate Roger L. Stevens.