Max Rabinoff, Jewish impressario who developed popular-priced opera presentations in the United States, collapsed of a heart attack yesterday and died at the age of 87. He was born in Moghilev, Russia and came to the United States at 13 and he landed a job as a tobacco stripper in Chicago. Later he studied chemistry at the University of IIIinois. Subsequently he became a highly successful piano salesman. While in that work he organized a series of Sunday concerts in the Chicago auditorium.
In 1915 he bought the Boston Opera Company and combined it with the Pavolova Ballet Russe which he sent on a 35-week, 12, 000-mile tour. A linguist in seven languages, he was a volunteer worker for the U.S. Government in World War I. His proposal to convert the old Mecca Temple in Manhattan into a cultural center resulted in establishment of the New York City Center, one of the city’s major centers of theater, opera and concerts.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
