Frank Vance Strauss
Frank Vance Strauss was an Ohio businessman who pioneered printing theatre programs in New York City. He was born January 4, 1863, in Columbus, Ohio, to Nathan and Hanna Strauss. He later changed his name to Frank Vance Storrs. He married Amanda Mayer on September 18, 1906, in Cleveland, and they had two daughters, Carolyn and Anne.
Strauss began in 1884 by collecting ads for the Madison Square Theatre and turned the program from a four-page leaflet into a small magazine that included ads and credits. A year later he recruited advertisers such as Caswell Massey, Runkel Brothers Cocoa, and Schirmer Pianos. In 1891 he merged with a main rival, and by 1905 standardized the design and layout so advertising space was uniform. The higher quality programs became keepsakes, so publishers began making albums and leather-bound volumes to collect them.
In 1918 Strauss sold the company to his nephew, Richard M. Huber. Under Huber, the business was renamed The Magazine Theater Program, and by 1924 it printed 16 million playbills for over sixty theatres, giving Huber a near monopoly. Strauss is credited with starting the idea for Playbill, while Huber’s company, the New York Theater Program Corporation, launched The Playbill in 1934–35. The magazine’s pages varied by show; bigger hits had more pages, and ads could be tied to a specific production. Playbills also included short articles, fashion notes, jokes, and more.
In 1956 the Playbill was sold to Roger L. Stevens, who changed the cover design to a plainer look. Public outcry led to restoring a colorful top band with the show’s information, a style that evolved into the yellow strip seen today.
Playbills are valuable cultural artifacts, helping researchers understand theatre history. Today, archives collect samples of many issues, though a fire destroyed all theatre listings before 1924. Frank Vance Strauss died March 9, 1939, at age 66 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:05 (CET).