Henry B. Harris

Henry Birkhardt Harris (December 1, 1866 – April 15, 1912) was a Broadway producer and theatre owner who died in the sinking of the . His wife was the future producer Renee Harris, who survived the sinking and lived until 1969.

Life Harris was the son of William Harris Sr., a founder of the Theatrical Syndicate in the 1890s and Rachel Harris (née) Freefield. He had a younger brother, William Harris Jr. Harris was born in St. Louis in 1866 and was a young boy when the family moved to Boston. He began his career selling song books in the theater lobby as a young man in St. Louis. When the family moved to Boston, young Harris began selling song books in the lobby of the Howard Athenaeum.

Harris worked for his father in the theatrical business in Boston for a number of years before starting out on his own producing plays in 1901. He managed such stars as Amelia Bingham and Robert Edeson. He leased and managed the Hudson Theatre in New York The Folies Bergère was an attempt to emulate the success of its Parisian namesake. By September 1911 it had failed swiftly and heavily: Harris lost a reported $100,000 on the venture.

By April 1912 he was in London, arranging future performances of Maggie Pepper by Charles Klein with his star artiste Rose Stahl and the original American cast from the Harris Theatre.

Harris was one of the nearly 1,500 who died in Titanics sinking on April 15, 1912. His body was lost at sea. If it was recovered and brought to Halifax by one of the cable ships sent out to look for bodies, it was never identified as such.

Portrayals Robert Henderson (1958) - A Night to Remember Ed Bishop (1979) - SOS Titanic

Selected productions

Soldiers of Fortune (1901) Strongheart (1905) The Lion and the Mouse (1905) The Chorus Lady (1906) (*made star of Rose Stahl) The Struggle Everlasting (1907) The Traveling Salesman (1908) Pierre of the Plains (1908) The Third Degree (1909) (*made star of Helen Ware) Such a Little Queen (1909) (*made star of Elsie Ferguson) A Skylark (1910) (with May de Sousa) The Arab (1911) The Fight (1912); *Estate of Henry B.Harris Strongheart (1914)