Alexander H. Cohen - Other Work

Other Work

As well as producing, Cohen participated in the operation of a number of legitimate theaters, including the Morris Mechanic in Baltimore after its renovation, and the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto when it opened in 1960.

He was responsible for drawing the performing arts community into the popular and highly successful I Love New York television ad campaign. In 1976, he converted the bankrupt and vacant Manhattan Plaza on Manhattan's West 43rd Street into an apartment complex providing subsidized housing for low-income performers.

Cohen was also an active fund-raiser for the Actors Fund of America. He put together several television spectaculars, Night of 100 Stars and Parade of Stars which raised $3 million to build the fund's extended-care nursing facility in Englewood, N.J. Behind the scenes, however, there was controversy, some claiming that Cohen's lavish producing style accommodated his own lavish needs better than the fund's.

Cohen made one appearance as an actor when he appeared onscreen in Woody Allen's film The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), portraying Raoul Hirsch, a fictional Hollywood producer in the 1930s. His final act, putting it all together, was in 1999 when he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his off-Broadway one-man show, Star Billing, in which he reminisced about his hits, flops, and famous feuds. The New York Times reviewer stated that he had many a kind word for his friends and an arsenal of well-honed, acid-tipped barbs for those he loathed, among them rival producer David Merrick, Marlene Dietrich and Jerry Lewis.