The Cooper Foundation

History

JOE COOPER

Joseph CooperJoseph H. Cooper was one of a number of children born to Wolf and Brina (called Bertha in his will) Coopersmith in 1885. We do not know where Wolf was born, but Bertha was born in Vilna, Russia. Joe suffered from myopia, which made reading a wearisome process physically and mentally, and was self-educated.

He found opportunity in the era of silent films...a time when it seemed almost any theatre that could get films, made money. Eventually he leased a small theatre in Missouri, gradually upgraded the property and made enough money to buy and lease several more theatres. He discovered that a "pool" of theatres, as they were called, had greater film buying power than a single theatre. So he began assembling several theatre interests in partnership with other individual theatre owners, and with two behemoths of the industry, Paramount Publix Theatres, and Warner Theatres. He eventually operated (owned or managed) 23 theatres in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Grand Junction, Colorado; Wichita, Kansas and in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Colonel Barney Oldfield had ushered at the Lincoln Theatre while attending the University of Nebraska in the early 30's. He later worked as a reporter for the Lincoln Star where he often wrote reviews and stories of theatre openings and became acquainted with Joe Cooper. Barney, said of Joe Cooper in a January 14, 1981 Variety article:

"...He was nearly blind, wore glasses as thick as the bottoms of Coca Cola bottles for distance, and took them off to look at menus or contracts which he literally held against his eyeballs in order to read...
"...he bought the pictures at the right, or bottom, price, so if the public was not entranced enough to come in droves, it had to be the fault of the city manager in residence...
"...The ordeal of the city manager working for Joe Cooper was not pretty to watch. The ritual was nightly, and wherever Joe Cooper was, he knew when the box offices closed and that a half hour later the counts would be toted...The city manager would sit at his desk and wait for Cooper's inevitable call which came from any time zone in which he happened to be. He would want the figures--not the weather, the competition, general state of business--just the figures, and few were the times that he was happy with them, even when business was good."

Professor H.P. Davis, who was chair of the Dairy Husbandry Department at the University of Nebraska, recalled Joe Cooper in a 1978 interview with George Round, professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska.

He was "…probably about 5' 3" tall and not "…too heavy. I wrote him a letter. Told him about it. No answer. By that time I was getting a little bit perturbed and I went to Sam Waugh who I believe at that time was the Secretary of the Cooper Foundation. He said: 'Well you don't ever write a letter to Mr. Cooper.' I said, well how do you get in touch with him? He said: 'You call him up long distance…Mr. Cooper puts letters in the wastebasket.
…I've been at his place there at Verbank (New York) when the mail came in, and when he looked at anything, he took off his glasses. He wore glasses. Why, I don't know. And he would put the letter right up close to his face and if it wasn't from one of his staff, it wasn't even opened; it went into the wastebasket…And Mr. Cooper's habit was to wander around that place at night. He was a night owl, as you probably know, and, of course, having poor vision didn't make any difference whether it was day or night. He could get around just as well."

George Round said of Joe Cooper:

"I met him when he came to Lincoln several times. He always worked at night. Even then, he was very much interested in youth, and that's how I got to know him, because of his interest in 4-H and youth…"

Joe Cooper and Gertrude J. Gillespie, the daughter of Thomas and Julia Gillespie, married on July 21, 1925 in New York City. They had one child, Joseph William Cooper, born on February 22, 1929. H.P. said of young Joe: "…He was a nice looking boy. His father…let him do anything he wanted to and gave him everything." Although they never divorced, the Coopers separated on March 10, 1936 and until he died, Joe Cooper continued to support Gertrude and young Joe.

Mr. Cooper located his theatre management office in Lincoln in the 1930s when he purchased Eli Shire's half of the Lincoln Theatre partnership with Paramount Publix Theatres. Eli, who was also president of Mayer Brothers Clothing Company, placed two conditions on the sale of the Lincoln Theatre. First, that he could maintain his office on the mezzanine, and second, that his nephew Charlie Shire, would have a job in the Lincoln theatres as long as he wished. Charlie Shire and his wife had been accountants for Joe Cooper prior to the Lincoln Theatre transaction. Charlie became city manager and was one of the signers of the papers of incorporation for the Cooper Foundation. After Joe Cooper's death Charlie managed the Nebraska Theatre until retirement.

Although the management office was in Lincoln, Joe Cooper maintained two residences, both in New York State. He conducted theatre business, especially film booking, from a luxury apartment high on Central Park South in New York City. And he spent leisure time at his summer residence near Verbank in Dutchess County, New York. That one-story rambling home, now the site of Camp Young Judea on Sprout Lake, lies in a wooded area along a stream bank. Today the youth camp is sponsored by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.

Joe Cooper created the Cooper Foundation on December 14, 1934. The minutes of a board meeting held on June 2, 1937 illuminate his thoughts about its purpose. Joe Cooper told the original trustees:

"...he had originally intended for the Foundation to purchase and build homes in which worthy boys could be housed and provided for, but the more he thought about the plan, the more he realized that this was not as feasible nor would it care for as many boys as it would if the Foundation worked through some local organizations which provide homes for boys where they not only have the conveniences and environment of home life but the direction of individuals who are interested in their future...The Foundation would then be more flexible and the Trustees could determine from time to time what they thought best for the Foundation to undertake."

We do not know much of Joe Cooper's family. On the date of his will in 1930, his mother lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he listed three sisters and four brothers. They were: Jack Coopersmith, Charles Coopersmith, David Coopersmith, Saul Coopersmith, Etta Coopersmith Cohen, Bessie Coopersmith Cohen, and Anna Coopersmith Girsh. Anna married Joseph Girsh, and lived in Havertown and later Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although none of Joe Cooper's family was ever involved directly in the affairs of the Foundation, his sister, Anna, did play a continuing role in grants, and one of Joe Cooper's nephew's, Harold Cohen of Wyncote, Pennsylvania, worked at the Criterion Theatre in Lincoln in the 1920's.

Joe Cooper funded certain charities through the Foundation as early as 1942. From his death in 1946 until hers on October 27, 1978, the Foundation sent checks to Anna, who would forward them to the charities. The charities included: Uptown Ladies Home for the Aged, Philadelphia; Deborah Tuberculosis Sanatorium and Hospital, Browns Mills, New Jersey; Yeshiva University, New York City; Congregation Tifereth Israel of Parkside, Philadelphia; Yeshiva Torah Vodaath Mesivta, Brooklyn, New York; and Queen Chapter 259 O.E.S., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.