Frank Pixley

Frank Pixley was born in Richfield, Ohio on November 21, 186. and attended Buchtel College in Akron and Ohio State University.  He was an Akron newspaper editor and later a professor of English and history at Buchtel College before he moved to Chicago to become editor of the Times-Herald.  In Chicago he met Gustav Luders and they collaborated The Burgomaster (1900).   Pixley and Luders became the “Rodgers and Hammerstein” of the 1900s, collaborating on 6 successful works from 1900-1913including King Dodo (1902), Woodland (1904), and The Grand Mogul (1907), the biggest hit being The Prince of Pilsen in 1903. Pixley also revised Owen Hall’s book of Florodora for the 1900 American premiere at the Casino Theatre.  In mid-December 1919, Pixley was on a steamship when he suffered a fall. Complications set in and he died suddenly.