Solomon A. Jacobson, 97, press agent

When Philadelphia was a tryout town for Broadway-bound shows along with Boston and New Haven, the Erlanger Theatre at 21st and Market Streets hosted some of the best.

It was there, for instance, that Philadelphians saw the tryout of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, with Ian Holm and Paul Rogers, which won the 1967 Tony for best play.

In the 1930s, it was where Solomon A. Jacobson, as the Erlanger's press agent, got his behind-the-scenes taste of Broadway-bound shows.

On Feb. 17, Mr. Jacobson, 97, of Gwynedd, Montgomery County, a Broadway press agent for decades, died of heart failure at the Lower Key West Medical Center in Florida.

The Web site of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers reported last month that he "held the record for the longest ATPAM membership at 72 years."

In June, the New York Times reported on a gathering of press agents of a certain age who reminisced - well, tattled - about scoundrels for whom they worked.

A month before he turned 97, Mr. Jacobson had some of the best lines.

He recalled that David Merrick, a prominent producer, came up with a publicity gimmick for his 1957 play, Look Back in Anger: He would hire a female audience member to go onstage and slap the star.

Mr. Jacobson said he was the one who exposed the stunt.

"I wouldn't go for these gags," he said. "I phoned Bill Glover, the AP critic, and gave him the story."

Mr. Jacobson also recalled a Tallulah Bankhead story beloved by press agents. The story, not Bankhead.

That's the one, Mr. Jacobson said, in which a press agent saddled with the temperamental actress threw up his hands, saying, "A day away from Tallulah is like a month in the country."

In an interview in October, Mr. Jacobson said, "Every press agent has one big hit in his career, and mine was Fiddler on the Roof."

He said he stayed with the original 1964 Broadway production, then became the agent for its West Coast run as well as for tours from South Africa to Norway.

The interview was published in the Foulkeways Bulletin, a monthly newsletter for residents of Foulkeways at Gwynedd, a retirement community near Lansdale.

Since 2002, Mr. Jacobson and his wife had spent half a year at Foulkeways and half at their home in Key West.

Born in Harrisburg, Mr. Jacobson was president of his graduating class at William Penn High School there.

A daughter, Judith Magee, said he attended Dartmouth College and acted with the Dartmouth Players.

But, she said, he left after his junior year in 1933 to become an actor and press agent at the Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, Delaware County, where he had worked summers since 1931.

In the Foulkeways interview, Mr. Jacobson recalled that during his years at Hedgerow, "we had two great tours across the country in a bus and a truck stuffed with scenery, costumes, and a portable stage."

David A. Long, a Foulkeways neighbor, had been interviewing Mr. Jacobson for his memoir.

Mr. Long said that after Hedgerow, Mr. Jacobson was a press agent for a season at the Erlanger, handled publicity for the American Friends Service Committee, spent a season at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, and worked for Broadway producer George Abbott.

A 1944 article in the Philadelphia Record reported that the 32-year-old Army private had been wounded by shrapnel in the right leg and right hand in France and was recovering in an English hospital.

It identified the New Hope resident, in the days before he joined the Army, as a press agent at the Manhattan firm of Richard Laney, where he represented such stars as Katharine Cornell.

A daughter, Barbara Zimmerman, said that besides his theatrical work, Mr. Jacobson was a clerk of the Wrightstown Friends Meeting for two years in the 1950s.

And, she said, he was a delegate to Friends international conferences in Sweden and Switzerland.

In addition to his daughters Judith and Barbara, Mr. Jacobson is survived by his wife, Barbara Saul Sprogell Jacobson; four stepchildren; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His wife of 37 years, Barbara Scott Jacobson, died in 1972.

A memorial at Foulkeways is planned but no date has been set.