Lou Anger

Lou Anger was born Louis Anger on February 12, 1878, in Philadelphia, the youngest of six children in a poor immigrant family. His father, Hermann Anger, had emigrated from Prussia to the United States on June 1, 1854, and worked as a peddler across the Eastern United States before settling in Philadelphia. His mother, Lena Adler, was originally from Bavaria.

Anger began his career in show business through burlesque before transitioning to vaudeville, where he partnered with Henry Dixon in a comedy act built around broad German character stereotypes. By 1908 he had separated from Dixon and developed a solo monologue titled "The German Soldier." Variety noted that he was a skilled dialectician who used stories about military life and famous battles as the foundation of his material, while the Los Angeles Times described the act as excellent and the Duluth Herald called him one of the best comedians to have performed in dialect. When World War I began in 1914, Anger retooled the act under the new title "The Neutral Soldier," reframing the material around a postwar scenario in which leaders claim glory while the common soldier is left to chop wood for a prosthetic leg. In 1915, Anger and his wife Sophye Barnard, whom he had met while performing in the 1910 stage musical The Gay Hussars and married on June 22 of that year at his sister Adeline's home in Chicago, appeared together in a revue called Safety First, which combined a fictional film-production storyline, a burlesque battlefield sequence, chorus numbers, and songs for Barnard. Philadelphia's Evening Public Ledger reported that audiences responded enthusiastically and called for multiple curtain calls.

Anger's Broadway credit came in 1913, when he appeared in the musical The Honeymoon Express at the Winter Garden Theatre. He was third on the bill, following Gaby Deslys and Al Jolson, with Fanny Brice also among the cast. The New York Times reported that audiences responded wildly to the production, which ran for 156 performances.

By 1916, Anger had shifted from performing to the business side of the entertainment industry. After working at the Reelcraft Film Corporation, where he oversaw the Cincinnati and Indianapolis offices, he was hired by movie executive Joseph Schenck. Acting on Schenck's behalf, Anger gained access to a New Jersey film set where comedian Fatty Arbuckle was shooting and presented him with an offer to form the Comique Film Corporation. The terms included full script and cast control, a weekly salary of five thousand dollars, a share of profits, and a signing bonus of a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost touring car, making Arbuckle the highest-paid film comedian in the country at the time. Anger directed the Comique Film Corporation autonomously, without interference from Schenck or a board of directors, overseeing the production of a two-reel comedy every five to seven weeks.

In March 1917, Anger encountered Buster Keaton in New York, an acquaintance from his vaudeville years, and brought him to Schenck's studio on the Lower East Side. Arbuckle invited Keaton to perform in a scene during that visit, and the encounter launched Keaton's film career. Keaton began working for the Comique Film Corporation at forty dollars per week and eventually appeared in fourteen Arbuckle films. Within two years, Keaton had his own production company and had become an international star. Anger became president of Buster Keaton Studios in 1920 and served as best man at Keaton's wedding to Natalie Talmadge in 1921. He was credited with contributing significantly to Keaton's success by assembling a knowledgeable team around him, and he hired Virginia Fox to appear alongside Keaton in several films, selecting her on the basis that she was small enough to stand under Keaton's arm and also agile, beautiful, and youthful.

Anger also advised Schenck to acquire the Balboa Studio and relocate the Comique Film Corporation to Long Beach, California, and continued to serve as Arbuckle's business manager. Arbuckle's wife, Minta Durfee, characterized Anger's influence over Arbuckle as controlling, claiming he managed Arbuckle's career entirely while also attempting to interfere in their marriage. During the 1921 scandal in which Arbuckle was charged with the manslaughter of Virginia Rappe, Anger visited him in jail. Following Arbuckle's acquittal across a series of trials, Anger was named trustee of Arbuckle's estate as possessions were sold to cover legal expenses. Anger and his wife subsequently rented Arbuckle's home and permitted Arbuckle to live there as well.

In 1923, Anger formed Lou Anger Productions under the United Artists banner with a capitalization of one million dollars to produce two-reel comedies. He resigned from United Artists in 1928 to join a private real estate firm but later returned to the company, eventually becoming vice president of its theatre chain. In that capacity he represented Joe Schenck's interests in ventures including the Roosevelt Hotel, the United Artists theatre at Broadway and Wilshire, and the Talmadge Apartment house, where Anger and his wife lived. He also independently acquired theatres across the country, among them the 636-seat Barnum Theatre in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Lou Anger died on May 21, 1946.