Jacob J. Shubert
Jacob J. Shubert (c. 1879 – December 26, 1963) was naturalized American theatre owner/operator and producer and a member of the famous theatrical Shubert family.
Biography
Born in Vladislavov, in the Suwałki Governorate of Congress Poland, a part of the Russian Empire (present-day Kudirkos Naumiestis, Lithuania), (according to this obituary, he was born in Syracuse
) 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 1882 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.
