S. Jay Kaufman (1886-1957) was a playwright, a director, and a respected newspaper columnist. He wrote for the New York Globe, the New York World, and the New York Telegram.
Kaufman was elected to The Lambs in 1932 as a professional member. He contributed many stories and articles to The Script (The Lambs’ members newsletter), Gambol programs, and more.
He was born Feb. 15, 1886, in tiny Ridgway, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Elk County.
Kaufman was an active public relations consultant and an arbitrator on theatrical matters for the American Arbitration Association. Post World War One, Kaufman was a leading figure in the Green Room Club, The Lambs, and the Actor’s Fund. He wrote more than 60 one-act plays. He was often associated with luminaries Max Reinhardt, Samuel Roxy Rothafel, and the Shuberts. He was also associated at one time with Paramount Pictures.
Kaufman was an associate of Lamb John Golden and director of the John Golden Talent Auditions, which sought to discover new theatrical talent. Kaufman was a former assistant manager of the Roxy and Century Theaters, and Radio City Music Hall.
A veteran traveler who visited Europe more than 25 times, he served as director of the Hungarian division of the American Relief Administration after World War I and raised $1.1 million for its work. In recognition he was awarded the Royal Cross, Hungary’s highest honor.
Books:
* ”Dance Madness: A Story of Love’s Final Conquest” (1926)
* ”Highlowbrow and Other Sketches” (1943)
* ”How to Arrange a Public Function, Large or Small” (1953)
He was a promoter of the Green Room Club, a New York fraternal organization founded in 1902, for men involved in the dramatic arts. Its members included actors, managers, singers, composers, librettists, dramatists. It was a more literary-focused club than the Lambs or the Players. It folded in 1928.
Kaufman married 18-year-old Hungarian actress Eva Barczay in Budapest in 1925. She became a naturalized American citizen two years later. Then the couple split. Kaufman married his second wife in 1945, Florence Aquino Kaufman, stage name Florence Anglin.
Kaufman died June 20, 1957, in The Bronx, New York. He was 71. His death was noted in Variety, Newsweek, and all New York papers, often noted as a loss for journalism. He is interred in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Queens, New York.
The Lambs Foundation owns a portrait of Kaufman created by Lamb James Montgomery Flagg. It was donated by Katherine A. Mazzaferri, Kaufman’s niece by his second marriage to Florence Anglin. The portrait hung in Anglin’s living room until her passing in 1993.