Henry Birkhardt Harris

Henry B. Harris (December 1, 1866 - April 15, 1912); Henry Birkhardt Harris, born in St. Louis, was a Broadway producer and theatre owner who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. His wife was actress Rene Harris (born Irene Wallach) married 1898, who was injured in a fall on the staircase of the Titanic, but survived the sinking and lived until 1969.

Links

• Reference: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25740961/henry-birkhardt-harris
• Reference: Wikipedia: English

Henry Birkhardt Harris (December 1, 1866 – April 15, 1912) was a Broadway producer and theatre owner who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. His wife was future producer Renee Harris, who was injured in a fall on the aft grand staircase of Titanic. She survived the sinking and lived until 1969.

Harris was the son of William Harris Sr., a founder of the Theatrical Syndicate in the 1890s and Rachel Harris (née) Freefield. He had a younger brother, William Harris Jr. Harris was born in St. Louis in 1866 and was a young boy when the family moved to Boston. He began his career selling song books in the theater lobby as a young man in St. Louis. When the family moved to Boston, young Harris began selling song books in the lobby of the Howard Athenaeum.[6] He married Irene (Renee) Wallach, a legal secretary from Washington, D. C. with an interest in the theater on October 22, 1899.

Harris worked for his father in the theatrical business in Boston for a number of years before starting out on his own producing plays in 1901. He managed such stars as Amelia Bingham and Robert Edeson. In 1906, Harris became the owner of the Hackett Theatre on 42nd Street. The theater was later renamed the Harris Theatre, to honor William Harris Sr. He leased and managed the Hudson Theatre in New York and in 1911 built the Folies Bergère Theatre.The Folies Bergère was an attempt to emulate the success of its Parisian namesake. By September 1911 it had failed swiftly and heavily: Harris lost a reported $100,000 on the venture.

By April 1912 he was in London, arranging future performances of Maggie Pepper by Charles Klein with his star artiste Rose Stahl and the original American cast from the Harris Theatre. The play was made into a 1919 film of the same name. Harris also acquired an option on the US rights to The Miracle, the world's first full-color narrative feature film that would later show at the Royal Opera House

Although she had broken her right arm near the elbow in a fall on Titanic's aft grand staircase earlier in the day, Renee Harris had refused to be parted from her husband. Mrs. Harris was rescued by the ship RMS Carpathia. She cabled the Hudson Theatre from the ship, saying that her husband was not among those on board, but hoped he had been saved by another rescue vessel. A story was circulated that Harris had been rescued by another ship and had wired his New York office to that effect, but this proved to be untrue.[19] His body was lost at sea. If it was recovered and brought to Halifax by one of the cable ships sent out to look for bodies, it was never identified as such

See Encyclopedia Titanica (2020) Henry Burkhardt Harris (ref: #149, last updated: 13th June 2020, accessed 27th September 2023 07:02:51 AM)
URL : https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/henry-birkhard...

Titanic Passenger Summary

Name: Mr Henry Burkhardt Harris
Titanic Victim
Born: Saturday 1st December 1866 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Age: 45 years 4 months and 14 days (Male)
Nationality: American
Marital Status: Married to Irene Wallach
Last Residence: in New York City, New York, United States
Occupation: Theatre Manager
1st Class Passengers
Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 36973, £83 9s 6d
Cabin No. C83
Died in the Titanic disaster (15th April 1912)
Body Not Identified

Encyclopedia Titanica

• Residence: 1910 - Manhattan Ward 22, New York, New York, United States
  • Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Nov 7 2019, 20:48:18 UTC

He perished in the sinking of Titanic. If his body was recovered, it was never identified.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 7 2019, 20:54:28 UTC