Louis De Lange

Louis De Lange (1856 – March 13, 1906), also known as Louis De Lange Moss, was an American actor, playwright, and theatrical manager whose career spanned light opera performance, musical libretto writing, and company management. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he was the adopted son of Isaac M. Moss, a wealthy stationer and prominent figure in Philadelphia's Jewish community. Despite entering the University of Pennsylvania in 1872 to study dentistry and earning a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1876, De Lange abandoned a dental practice he had established at 46 Farnsworth Ave in Philadelphia to pursue a career in the theater, a decision made against his adopted father's wishes. His brother, Alexander De Lange, was a comedian who performed professionally under the name Alexander Clark.

De Lange's earliest and most prominent acting triumph came in 1879, when he portrayed Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B. in a pirated production of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore led by John Philip Sousa, which used Sousa's own orchestrations. The production originated at Philadelphia's Horticultural Hall before transferring to that city's Walnut Street Theatre, then moving to Daly's Theatre on Broadway and continuing on tour throughout 1879. He subsequently spent the 1880s and 1890s touring the United States with various light opera companies, including those of Charles Pyke and Rudolph Aronson. In 1882 he appeared in productions of Patience, Pinafore, and Claude Duval at the Grand Opera House in Chicago. He returned to Broadway in 1885 in a production of Orpheus and Eurydice at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, played Paidagogus in J. Cheever Goodwin's Pippins at the Broadway Theatre in 1890, and starred as Ralli Carr in Walter Slaughter and Basil Hood's Gentleman Joe at the Bijou Theatre in 1896. In 1901 he appeared in productions of The Mikado and Boccaccio at the Columbia Theatre in Boston.

As a dramatist, De Lange wrote books for musicals, frequently collaborating with writer Edgar Smith on projects created for the comedy duo Lew Fields and Joe Weber. He also served as manager for many of Fields and Weber's national touring productions. His first significant play, The Globe Trotter, a farce in three acts, premiered in Philadelphia in May 1894. His Broadway credits as a writer include When the Cat's Away, a farce co-written with Lee Arthur that premiered at the Bijou Theatre on September 1, 1896, and was later retitled The Gay Mr. Lightfoot; Pousse Cafe, Or The Worst Born, a burlesque with a libretto by Smith and De Lange and music by John Stromberg, which opened at the Imperial Music Hall on December 2, 1897; The Wayhighman, a burlesque parody of Reginald De Koven's The Highwayman with a book by Smith and De Lange and music by Stromberg, which premiered at Broadway Music Hall on January 27, 1898; The Little Host, a musical play with book by Smith and De Lange and music by Thomas Chilvers and W. T. Francis, which opened at the Herald Square Theatre on December 26, 1898; Mother Goose, a musical comedy with libretto by Smith and De Lange and music by Fred J. Eustis and Frederick Gagel, which premiered at the Fourteenth Street Theatre on May 1, 1899; and Sweet Anne Page, a comic opera with libretto by De Lange and Smith and music by W. H. Neidlinger, which opened at the Manhattan Theatre on December 3, 1900. Among his other works was a comic opera titled Lafitte, with music by Victor Herbert, for which De Lange wrote the libretto; the work was copyrighted in 1924, after the deaths of both Herbert and De Lange, by Herbert's wife Therese Herbert.

De Lange was married to the Broadway actress Selma Mantell, who appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies among other productions. Their son was the bandleader and lyricist Eddie DeLange, who was two years old at the time of his father's death. On March 13, 1906, De Lange was found dead at the age of fifty in his room at Mock's Hotel in New York City, his throat having been cut. His room had been robbed, and a suspect was in custody, though at the time his obituary appeared in The New York Times, police had not determined whether his death was a murder or a suicide.