Silver Saunders Friedman, who ran the New York Improv until it closed in 1992, has died. No details on the cause were immediately available. Her death comes less than a month after the passing of her ex-husband, Budd Friedman, who cofounded the New York club and later ran the L.A. Improv.
The New York Improv opened in 1963 as a late night coffee shop, opened by Budd Friedman and his future wife, Silver Saunders. It was located in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on West 44th near 9th Avenue. Saunders was i the Broadway show “How To Succeed in Business,” She complained to her boyfriend that there was no place for the younger and underpaid cast members to eat and unwind in the Theater District. The Improv was created to fill that need, also offering an open mic where singers and comedians could do impromptu performances and try out new material.
The New York Improv opened in 1963 as a late night coffee shop, opened by Budd Friedman and his future wife, Silver Saunders. It was located in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on West 44th near 9th Avenue. Saunders was i the Broadway show “How To Succeed in Business,” She complained to her boyfriend that there was no place for the younger and underpaid cast members to eat and unwind in the Theater District. The Improv was created to fill that need, also offering an open mic where singers and comedians could do impromptu performances and try out new material.
- 12/4/2022
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Budd Friedman, the comedy club pioneer who founded the original Improv in New York in 1963 and gave early career breaks to the likes of Jay Leno, Robert Klein, Bette Midler, Richard Pryor and Andy Kaufman, has died. He was 90.
Friedman died Saturday of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife, Alix, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Three years after Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show departed Manhattan for Burbank, Friedman opened a Hollywood outpost of the Improv on Melrose Avenue in 1975 in his first expansion of the brand.
There were 22 Improvs across 12 states in February 2018 when Friedman and partner Mark Lonow sold the company to Levity Entertainment Group, whose investors included Irving Azoff.
At his flagship New York hotspot, located at West 44th Street and Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, Friedman also employed Rodney Dangerfield as an Mc, Elayne Boosler...
Friedman died Saturday of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife, Alix, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Three years after Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show departed Manhattan for Burbank, Friedman opened a Hollywood outpost of the Improv on Melrose Avenue in 1975 in his first expansion of the brand.
There were 22 Improvs across 12 states in February 2018 when Friedman and partner Mark Lonow sold the company to Levity Entertainment Group, whose investors included Irving Azoff.
At his flagship New York hotspot, located at West 44th Street and Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, Friedman also employed Rodney Dangerfield as an Mc, Elayne Boosler...
- 11/13/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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