In 1900, Sam, Lee and Jake Shubert descended on Manhattan to lease the Herald Square Theater. They had come down from Syracuse to fight the Klaw & Erlanger syndicate's dominance of the U.S. stage. Broadway, chafing at the syndicate's ironfisted control of 1,250 theaters, whooped the young rebels on. But when, after some 20 years of skirmishes and pitched battle, Jake & Lee* won their war, many producers began to wonder if they had not swapped one tyranny for another. "Instead of Klaw & Erlanger," gagged one, "we've now got tooth &...
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