Edward Franklin Albee was born on October 8, 1857 in Machias, Maine, United States and came of a family that had settled near Massachusetts Bay early in the seventeenth century. For three generations a branch of the family had lived in Machias, Maine. He was the son of Nathan Smith and Amanda (Crocker) Albee. His father was a shipwright. When Edward was four years old his parents moved with him to Boston and there the boy grew up.
Edward had such schooling as the public schools of Boston of the period afforded. At the age of twelve, however, his formal education was practically ended.
Albee tried his hand at a variety of odd jobs during his adolescent years but at length succumbed, at nineteen, to the perennial lure of the traveling circus. For seven successive seasons he was on the road with Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth" and with that experience absorbed a knowledge of nineteenth-century showmanship.
For nearly half a century his active career was to be primarily concerned with one form or another of public entertainment. In the fall of 1885 Albee became associated with B. F. Keith, who was running a "variety" show in a small Boston theatre and thought his failure to win generous support was due to the ill repute attached to the "varieties" of that period. He sought Albee's aid in producing a show that would attract respectable Bostonians on its merits. Albee proposed a daring venture--nothing less than to assemble a cast, chorus, and orchestra and to give five performances a day of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado" for an admission fee of ten cents a seat. Albee's intuitions were justified in the outcome, both from the box-office standpoint and in the broader social aspects. Boston learned that good entertainment at popular prices was feasible when properly directed. Other cities, beginning with Providence and Philadelphia, were soon to learn it. Keith and Albee expanded their operations until audiences in scores of cities were within their circuit. New York itself was included in 1893.
Several years were spent on planning and construction of suitable theatres, of which there had been a notable lack everywhere. The Keith theatre in Boston, opened in 1894, was nearly a year in building under Albee's direction. Its cost was $600, 000, at that time regarded as a huge investment for such a purpose. It was the first of a series of beautiful and commodious playhouses erected in the leading cities of the East and Middle West.
As Keith's chief of staff Albee also became interested in the working conditions of the actors under his management. The growing prosperity of the vaudeville circuits soon made possible a marked increase in performers' pay, and Albee in planning new theatres made provision for better dressing rooms and other conveniences. Within a few years the lot of the vaudeville "artist" was greatly bettered. A booking agency, also headed by Albee, facilitated the engagement of actors and other entertainers.
With the decline of the legitimate stage many capable actors were available for vaudeville programs. The film was now a factor of growing importance in vaudeville.
After Keith's death in 1914, half of his estate passed to his son and half to Albee. On the son's death, four years later, all of his holdings were added to Albee's. Thus by 1920 Barnum's tent boy of an earlier day was recognized as one of the leading producers in the amusement field.
Albee died at Palm Beach, Florida, following a heart attack.
As the general manager of the Keith-Albee theatre circuit, Albee was the most influential person in vaudeville in the United States. He planned and constructed suitable theatres and organized a union, the National Vaudeville Artists, thus gaining a near monopoly on both talent and production in United States vaudeville. The vaudeville circuit under his control numbered seventy theatres and the old Keith-Albee Exchange represented more than three hundred houses scattered over the continent.
Albee was an active member of the Episcopal church and made generous donations to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and to St. Stephens College.
Albee was president of the United Bookings Office from its formation in 1900.
Albee was married, on May 13, 1881, to Lauretta Frances Smith of Boston. His wife and two children, Ethel and Reed, survived him.
