Manuel Klein

Manuel Joachim Klein (6 December 1876 – 1 June 1919) was a London-born composer and book writer who worked primarily in New York City, contributing music and songs to numerous Broadway productions and theatrical spectacles. His father, Herman Klein, had emigrated from Riga, Latvia, and went on to teach foreign languages at King Edward VI Grammar School in Norwich, while his mother, Adelaide, née Soman, taught dance. Klein was one of six brothers, among them Max, a violinist; Charles, a playwright; Herman, a music critic and music teacher; Alfred, an actor; and Philip. The family also included a sister named Adelaide. Klein received his education in London and at Tivoli House Academy in Gravesend, Kent, and was the uncle of producer Philip Klein (1888–1935).

Klein arrived in the United States on 11 April 1896 and became a naturalized American citizen on 9 August 1910. Before establishing himself as a composer, he served as music director for David Belasco's theatre company in New York City and also conducted for producer Charles Frohman. His first Broadway success was the musical Mr. Pickwick, which starred De Wolf Hopper, featured lyrics by Grant Stewart, and a book by his brother Charles. Tin Pan Alley songwriter and publisher Gus Edwards helped Klein secure the position of musical director at the New York Hippodrome in 1905, where he went on to compose songs and scores for a series of large-scale spectacles, each built around its own distinct thematic musical concept. His Broadway credits during this period included A Yankee Circus on Mars, The Battle of Port Arthur, A Society Circus, The Auto Race, and A Trip to Japan, among other productions. Klein also began collaborating with L. Frank Baum on The Tik-Tok Man of Oz starting in 1909, though when the production was finally staged in 1913, Klein's music was not used.

Klein's tenure at the Hippodrome ended in 1915 following a dispute with manager Jacob J. Shubert, who requested that Klein send drums, trumpets, and other instruments to the Winter Garden Theater for a separate production. Klein declined, citing the needs of his own orchestra, and after an argument he submitted his resignation, which Shubert accepted. The Hippodrome company supported Klein's position, and Shubert was subsequently forced to sell his interest in the venue. Klein departed for England that same year and took up the post of music director at the Gaiety Theatre in London. During World War I, a Zeppelin bombing of the theatre caused Klein a trauma from which he never fully recovered.

Klein married his wife Helen, born 16 September 1884 in Cincinnati, Ohio, in approximately 1905. The couple had two children: a daughter, Marjorie, born 28 March 1909, and a son, Gerald, born 18 March 1912. Klein eventually returned to New York and died in Yonkers on 1 June 1919, a consequence of the trauma sustained during the bombing. Following his death, the Klein family brought a lawsuit against the German government for the loss of both Manuel and his brother Charles, who had perished in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania alongside producer Charles Frohman. Because Klein had composed much of his Hippodrome work on a for-hire basis, the music manuscripts were retained by Frohman and later by R. H. Burnside, and they now form part of the Burnside collection of American theater music manuscripts held in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.