Questions about who gets remembered often reveal as much as the history itself. In Harry Altman: Buffalo’s Master Showman, Susan Fenster examines the life of a man connected to major entertainment venues, crowded performances, and an era that was constantly reinventing itself.

Synopsis

For decades, Harry Altman helped shape a fast-moving entertainment world filled with live music, major performances, and packed venues that drew audiences night after night. His casinos became central gathering places where performers and crowds collided in an atmosphere built around spectacle and momentum.

Yet visibility did not guarantee permanence. The business behind the entertainment demanded constant adaptation, and the systems supporting that success eventually began to break apart. Economic pressures, changing public habits, and the evolution of the industry slowly pushed Altman’s world toward decline.

Susan Fenster pieces together this forgotten history through surviving advertisements, newspaper archives, and scattered records that reveal both the scale of Altman’s influence and how easily public memory can disappear. The story moves beyond glamour to examine what existed behind the scenes, where ambition, instability, and reinvention shaped every part of the business.

Harry Altman: Buffalo’s Master Showman explores the fragile line between being visible in the moment and being remembered afterward.

Amazon

Excerpt

CHAPTER 5—SERIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP (1925-1935)

Driven by sheer ambition, Harry Altman was a powerhouse of activity, spending up to 18 hours a day juggling multiple business ventures.

No sooner had one business contract been finalized than Altman would show up at his lawyer’s office with another, proudly waving a document he proclaimed was “The Best Idea Yet!”

Several of the early enterprises persisted for a few years, but the majority were attempted and subsequently discontinued within months, or even weeks. Old newspaper ads and musty business filings serve as the only evidence of the many projects that ran hot out of the gate before turning to ash.

Harry’s approach to business was that of a serial entrepreneur. If the monthly receipts did not prove financially viable, the business was cast aside or, more likely, recast to suit the needs of the latest trend in entertainment. Altman favored leasing buildings with large, open floor plans that could easily be converted into a dance hall or a roller rink or a restaurant/nightclub—whatever Harry thought would pay the bills and attract the money of business partners who could fill the coffers.

For much of this era, he would hopscotch along Main Street in downtown Buffalo, leasing different commercial buildings, sometimes for only a year, to accommodate his various business ventures. He had a small group of investors that he mixed and matched according to the scale of the project and the financial risk each investor was willing to take.

In the early 1920s, Harry shifted his focus to ballroom dancing, capitalizing on its popularity as an affordable form of entertainment during Prohibition and the Depression. Patrons eagerly embraced dancing as a cost-effective way to enjoy themselves during these economically challenging times. The music of the era went far beyond staid waltzes to include lively, upbeat rhythms that celebrated the peace and stability following the victory of a brutal world war.

About the Author

Susan Fenster is a nonfiction author and historian whose work focuses on New York State and the evolving cultural life of the region.

With degrees in history and journalism from Buffalo State University, she brings together long-form research and narrative storytelling to examine how people, businesses, and communities shaped their time. Her work draws extensively from archival sources, including newspapers, business records, and local collections.

Website