Barney Balaban — president with roots in the Russian Empire
Barney Balaban was born in Chicago on 8 June 1887, the eldest of the seven sons of Israel Balaban, from Tiraspol, and Augusta "Goldie" Balaban, née Mandebursky, from Odessa. Both towns lay in the Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire; the family is often described as Bessarabian, Tiraspol standing on the Dniester opposite Bessarabia. The couple had reached Chicago by 1882 and opened a grocery and fish shop on Maxwell Street, raising their children in rooms behind the store.
Barney worked in the cold-storage business as a young man and went into film exhibition with his brother Abe in the days of the nickelodeon. In 1917, together with Sam Katz, who married their only sister, Ida, the brothers opened the Central Park Theatre in Chicago, the first link in what became the Balaban and Katz chain.
Balaban and Katz built some of the grandest picture palaces in the country and were the first exhibitors to cool their auditoriums in summer with mechanical refrigeration, a practice that changed how and when Americans went to the cinema. The chain grew into the largest in the Midwest, with more than a hundred theatres. In 1926 it was sold to Paramount for about ten million dollars in stock, which left Barney the company's largest shareholder after Adolph Zukor.
In 1936 Paramount's directors made him president of the company, a post he held until 1964. His tenure covered the studio's mature years, including films such as Sunset Boulevard and Rear Window, the federal antitrust case that separated the studios from their cinema chains after the Supreme Court's ruling of 1948, and the arrival of television. He was active in Jewish community affairs, helped found the Arlington Park race track and the Chicago Riding Club, and bought one of the original manuscript copies of the Bill of Rights, which he presented to the nation.
He married Tillie Urkov; their children were the producer and director Burt Balaban, the jazz musician Leonard "Red" Balaban and the writer Judy Balaban. The actor and director Bob Balaban is his nephew. He died in Byram, Connecticut, on 7 March 1971, aged eighty-three.
"Tiraspol and Odessa to Chicago, by 1882 (parents)"
Migration storyTracing the roots — Tiraspol and Odessa (Kherson Governorate)
His father, Israel Balaban, came from Tiraspol and his mother, Goldie Mandebursky, from Odessa, both in the Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire; they had reached Chicago by 1882.
Son of Israel Balaban (1862–1931) of Tiraspol and Augusta 'Goldie' Mandebursky (1868–1936) of Odessa, both towns in the Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire; they had reached Chicago by 1882.
.svg?width=900)
Tiraspol and Odessa (Kherson Governorate). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.