John Golden

John Lionel Golden was born in New York City on June 27, 1874, and grew up in Wauseon, Ohio before returning to New York at the age of fourteen. He briefly studied law at New York University and spent thirteen years working at a chemical manufacturing firm before pursuing a career in the theater. He died on June 17, 1955, of a heart attack at his home.

Golden began his theatrical career as a lyricist and composer. Among his earliest credits was Miss Prinnt, a musical farce starring Marie Dressler that opened in New York in late 1900. He contributed lyrics to The Hoyden, a Charles Dillingham production that ran from October 19, 1907, to February 1, 1908. His Broadway credits as composer and book writer include the musical Over the River, which Florenz Ziegfeld produced in 1912 with co-production by Dillingham, and which was notable as the first Broadway production to feature ballroom dancing on the legitimate stage. Dillingham subsequently hired Golden to work on Hip-Hip-Hooray, which opened at the Hippodrome on September 30, 1915, and ran for 425 performances to strong reviews. Golden wrote lyrics for four consecutive R. H. Burnside productions at the Hippodrome between 1909 and 1921.

The song for which Golden is most widely remembered, "Poor Butterfly," emerged from his Hippodrome work. In the summer of 1916, while collaborating with composer John Raymond Hubbell on a Japanese-style number for a Hippodrome production, the two retreated to the building's basement elephant pens to escape the heat. There Hubbell played the melody and Golden wrote the lyrics. The song, drawn from the story of Madame Butterfly, was performed by Haru Onuki in The Big Show, which ran for 425 performances at the Hippodrome from August 13, 1916, through September 1917, and became a major popular hit. Golden recalled the song's creation in his 1930 autobiography, Stagestruck. Another well-known Golden song was "Goodbye, Girls, I'm Through." His Broadway writing credits also include the plays After Tomorrow, A Divine Drudge, and Eva the Fifth.

Using earnings from his songwriting, Golden transitioned into theatrical producing, where he built a substantial record of commercial success. His first production as a producer was Turn to the Right in 1916, which was a hit, and eight of his next eleven shows also succeeded. His second production, Lightnin', co-written by Frank Bacon and Winchell Smith and first staged in February 1918, ran for 1,291 performances on Broadway, a record at the time. President Woodrow Wilson attended a performance and personally praised the play to Golden. When the show closed, its cast paraded down Broadway to Pennsylvania Station, led by Mayor John Francis Hylan and Commissioner Grover Whalen, before embarking on a national tour. Additional hits Golden produced included Three Wise Fools, Seventh Heaven, The First Year, Claudia, Guy Bolton's Chicken Feed at the Little Theatre in 1923, Pigs at the Little Theatre in 1924, and Phoebe and Henry Ephron's Three's a Family at the Longacre Theatre in 1943, which was his last major hit.

Golden also produced four films. The Saphead, a 1920 film starring Buster Keaton, was presented by Golden and Winchell Smith in conjunction with Marcus Loew, based on The New Henrietta, a 1913 stage production for which Golden and Smith had been responsible. In 1925 Golden produced Thank You, directed by John Ford and starring George O'Brien, adapted from a play by Winchell Smith and Tom Cushing. The film adaptation of Lightnin' appeared on October 31, 1930, and in 1932 Golden co-produced Those We Love, starring Mary Astor, Kenneth MacKenna, and Lilyan Tashman.

As a theater operator, Golden was associated with three New York venues bearing his name. The first John Golden Theater, designed by Harrison G. Wiseman, opened on November 1, 1926, at 202 West 58th Street and was later renamed the 58th Street Theater in 1935. Golden subsequently leased the Royale Theater at 242 West 45th Street, renaming it the Golden Theater and operating it from 1934 to 1936, with Norma Krasna's Small Miracle as its first production, before the Shubert brothers reclaimed it. In 1937 he purchased the Masque Theatre at 252 West 45th Street, originally designed in 1927 by Herbert J. Krapp for Irwin and Henry Chanin, and renamed it the John Golden Theatre. Its first success under that name was Shadow and Substance in 1938, starring Julie Haydon and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

Beyond his work as a writer, composer, and producer, Golden was active in the broader theatrical community and in civic life. He was a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, serving as its first treasurer and as a director from 1914 to 1915. In 1919 he organized a meeting with producers including Fred Zimmerman, Archibald Selwyn, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Winchell Smith, and L. Lawrence Weber that led to the formation of the Producing Managers' Association. The organization's formation contributed to conditions that prompted actors to organize through the Actors' Equity Association, which subsequently launched a strike. After a month of disruption involving 37 closed productions and 16 stopped openings, the strike was settled on September 6, 1919, at a meeting at the St. Regis Hotel in which Golden participated, resulting in a five-year contract recognizing Equity. Golden was a founder of the Stage Door Canteen and the Stage Relief Fund, organized free ticket programs for servicemen during both World War I and World War II, and served as Shepherd of the Lambs club from 1942 to 1944. He was one of the first board members of the City Center of Music and Drama and was appointed New York City Chairman for United Nations Day in 1954. He was also the author of the United Nations All Faith Prayer for Peace.

Golden married Margaret Hesterich in 1909, and the couple moved to the Bayside neighborhood of New York City in 1920, where they purchased a fifteen-room house on a twenty-acre estate and donated nine acres for use as baseball diamonds and a children's play center. Golden left the Bayside estate to the City of New York as a park for community use upon his death.