18 Facts About Maurice Curtis

Maurice Curtis, stage name M B Curtis, was an American stage actor, producer, and real estate developer, at one point tried and acquitted of a policeman's murder.

Maurice Curtis achieved fame in the title role of George H Jessop's 1881 play Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer.

Maurice Curtis was born to a Jewish family in Nagy Selmetz, a Hungarian town that is in Slovakia outside of Ruzomberok.

Maurice Curtis came to the United States in 1856 as a six year old with his family.

Maurice Curtis tried to join the Union Army as a drummer boy, but was refused due to extreme youth.

Maurice Curtis held various jobs in Detroit and then Chicago but was very drawn to the theatre.

Maurice Curtis eventually got a job at McVickers Theatre in Chicago and began a stage career.

Maurice Curtis performed in over 200 roles from low comedy to Shakespeare and always received great praise in newspaper reviews.

Maurice Curtis cut his teeth in San Francisco and Montreal in the 1870s.

Maurice Curtis was best known for starring as Samuel Plastrick, the lead character in the comic melodrama Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer by George H Jessop.

In 1883, Maurice Curtis purchased the copyright of the play from Jessop and continued using the Plastrick character into the 1890s.

Maurice Curtis was the only private citizen to ever pay to keep the Statue of Liberty lit.

Maurice Curtis used some of his income to invest in developing real estate in Berkeley, California.

Maurice Curtis began building the Peralta Park Hotel in 1888; the structure, with its sixty rooms and twenty baths, opened in 1891.

The arresting officer, Alexander Grant, was shot and killed and, though Maurice Curtis denied responsibility, he was indicted for murder.

Maurice Curtis attempted one performance in London on July 4,1895, and one historian noted the "puzzling afternoon" was "beyond the grasp" of the audience, who expected to laugh at the Jewish character rather than with him.

In 1899, Curtis founded the M B Curtis Afro-American Minstrel Company, which began a world tour specifically to compete with a similar troupe overseen by Orpheus McAdoo.

Once in Australia, Maurice Curtis abandoned the group and Ernest Hogan stepped up as manager in his place.