Above right: By February 1907 Robert W. Strauss was appearing in the theatrical production The Matchmakers with Dan Sully.

Robert W. Strauss was born in March 28. 1879 in Chattanooga, Tennessee as youngest of 4 children to Samuel (a bookkeeper and son to a German immigrant) and Tennessee B. Browning aka Tennie (daughter of Squire I. J. Browning and Clara Everett aka Caroline Crouch).

Bobby attended Second District school, City High and Chattanooga's Baylor's University school. While in school, young Strauss directed and had leading roles in The Guilded Fool, and in Charlie's Aunt, both of which were extremely popular. He went on on to Lehigh university (Class of '04) to study mining engineering. Robert aka "Shorty" was not only member of the dramatic club but also the Mandolin Club (playing first mandolin) and soon became too interested in theatricals instead of rocks and minerals. He once was employee in the Southern Express company's local office in Chattanooga.

After he left Lehigh he went to New York in 1903, studying the drama under Rachel Crothers and John Mason. His first New York appearance was as an extra in Camille (Harlem Opera House - Garrick Theatre - Hudson Theatre, Apr 18. - May 1904), starring Henry Miller and Margaret Anglin.

As of 1906 (into 1907) Robert W. Strauss was appearing in the theatrical production The Matchmaker with the Dan Sully Co. He also appeared with such well known actors as Louis Mann and James Young.

When the graduation took place in Baylor's University school (corner of Vine and Palmetto streets) on May 27. 1907 several alumni were invited. Robert W. Strauss, who by then had made quite a name in the theatrical world, gave a recitation.

It was with James Young he made his first professional appearance in Chattanooga in Brown of Harvard during the 1908 season. It was at the really fine Eleventh Street Theater that at first bore the name of Schubert.

After three years of theatrical work he turned to vaudeville. As early as May 1909 Robert was active in the circuit. Together with Catherine Calvert he supported James Young, who appeared in a college farce called When Love Is Young, by James' first wife Rida Johnson Young (Grand Opera House, Pittsburg, Pa., May 3. 1909). She reused the three main characters from her previous play Brown of Harvard.

"The best work in the piece is done by Strauss as the bogus sister, although a very thin man in an extremely low-cut gown hinges on vulgarity." (Variety, Review -When Love is Young, May 1909)

 "James Young in 'Wanted—a Sister', appeared on Fifth Avenue. Mr. Young was billed alone for this vaudeville skit, but in justice to the others it would be better to bill the three names. Clara Kimball* as the sweetheart showed a refreshing personality and acted quite naturally. Robert Strauss, as the roommate, showed up the best in the act. His actions and manner of speaking lines being very funny."  (The New York Dramatic Mirror, Jan 22. 1910). There are confirmed performances as late as August 1912.

In March 1910 famous French-born American actress Valérie Bergère performed in The Lion Tamer, by Edward Weitzel, and Robert Strauss, Theodore Doucet, Lawrence Morten, Emma Campbell and several supported her. Strauss famed for his work with James Young was promptly hired by Bergère to play the call boy. A special scenic costume and prop production was made, which promised to be one of the biggest acts of it's kind in vaudeville.

Wanted - A Sister was performed by James Young and Company (Fifth Avenue, Mar 19. 1910) and was described as a silly, far-fetched piece that was poorly developed and almost as badly acted. When a college student flirts with a girl in a restaurant, he is caught by his girlfriend, Evelyn (Alice Riker). In order to give his roommate Tom Brown an alibi, Robert Strauss, as "Bunch" Andrews, dresses up as the "sister". Strauss plays the part too well for the comfort of the jealous girlfriend. In the end he exposes the whole thing by losing his blond wig and is chased into the street where he is arrested for impersonating a woman.

In Chicago, the latter part of August 1910 Robert engaged James Ross and Lawrence Sparks for his new vaudeville sketch Wanted, a Cook, which opened on the interstate circuit.

Robert Strauss and company (Lawrence Sparks and Jack/John Keane) toured the sketch Landing a Contract (Proctor's Fifty-Eight Street, Oct 12. 1912) (Colonial, Richmond,  Nov 5. 1912), (Orpheum Birmingham, Dec 1. 1912).

Landing a Contract was given an ovation at Garrick Theatre, Wilmington, Roberts hometown, on Oct 28. 1912.

On May 10. 1913 his father Samuel Strauss died in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Julia Neville organized as stock company to play at the Lyric Theatre in Chattanooga under the name of the Julia Neville Players. Bobby Strauss was a member. Their opening play was The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary (January 1914).

Martin J. Dixon leased the Hart's Family theater, Philadelphia for 10 weeks to install a stock company with both Bob Strauss and Julia Neville in the cast. For it's opening play on Oct. 18 1914 "the home of sensational melodramas" brought The Game of Life, which was followed the next week by The Eleventh Hour.

His mother passed away on March 17. 1919 in Chattanooga.

He did not see his native land again until 1919 when he became engaged for Rachel Crothers' comedy The Little Journey (Majestic Theatre, Dec 1. 1919), with Fritz Leiber.

Lieutenant Bobby Strauss revived his old comedy sketch, Landing the (sic) Contract, which he had performed seven years earlier (Feb 1920).

In a Chautauqua play called Nothing but the Truth he played Wilkie Collins' old role and in The Merchant of Venice (Dec 1920) Leiber played Shylock while Strauss was Launcelot.

The beginning of a long collaboration for the Shakespeare company Fritz Leiber & Co. Fritz Leiber Sr. who had played for a long time played in support of Shakespearean actor Robert Mantell, surrounded himself with a cast highly experienced in Shakespeare's work. This enabled them on tour to stage many different Shakespeare plays within a week. On one day, they often performed different productions during the afternoon and evening shows.

An example of such a schedule at the Shubert-Garrick theater in Washington D.C. :

Macbeth (Dec 13. & 16. 1920),
Hamlet (Dec 14. & 18. 1920),
The Merchant of Venice (Dec 15. 1920),
Romeo and Juliet (Dec 16. 1920),
Julius Caesar (Dec 17. 1920),
Richard III (Dec 18. 1920).

The company included Fritz Leiber, Louis Leon Hall, John C. Hickey, John Burke, Wallis Roberts, Joseph Singer, Arthur Row, Sidney Elliott, Robert Strauss, James Hendrickson, Katherine Sayre, Harold Rand, Irby Marshall, Virginia Bronson (Fritz Leiber Sr.'s wife) and Pauline Crell.

It's reported they played to over 40 000 people when the company played Broadway in the Lexington Theater (Dec 1920 - Jan 1921) after which they took back to the road:

Minor changes to the company which in Broadway included Fritz Leiber, Louis Leon Hall, John C. Hickey, John Burke, Wallis Roberts, Joseph Singer, Arthur Row, Sidney Elliott, Robert Strauss, Frederick Drake, H. Portercliffe, James Hendrickson, Katherine Sayre, Harold Rand, Irby Marshall and Virginia Bronson (Fritz Leiber Sr.'s wife).

Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth (Washington Theatre, Richmond, April 13. & 14. 1921)...

During the summer of 1921 Strauss rejoined Fritz Leiber to head back home afterwards.

In the fall Fritz Leiber took his company, under management of George Ford, on a journey through the principal cities of the South:

Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III  (Court Theater Wheeling, WV, Sep 15. - 17. 1921),
The Merchant of Venice (Rylander theater, Americus, GA. Nov 23. 1921),
The Merchant of Venice (City Auditorium Hickory, Nov 29. 1921).

After which during the Holidays the company entered New York City to open their annual engagement at the Lexington Theater. Now a permanent member, Robert played a series of Shakespeare plays:

Macbeth (Dec 26. 1921 - Jan 6. 1922, 3 x) as a drunken porter,
Romeo and Juliet (Dec 26. - Dec 29. 1921, 3 x) as Peter,
Hamlet (Dec. 27. 1921 - Jan. 4. 1922, 2 x) as a gravedigger,
The Taming of the Shrew (Dec 28. 1921 - Jan 4. 1922, 2 x) as Grumio (Petrucio's servant),
Julius Caesar (Dec 30. 1921 - Jan 7. 1922, 2 x) as first citizen,
The Merchant of Venice (Dec 31. 1921 - Jan 2. 1922, 2 x) as Lancelot Gobbo,
Richard III (Dec 31. 1921, 1 x) as Lord Mayor of London,
Othello (Jan 2. - Jan 5. 1922, 2 x) as Gratiano, brother to Brabantio,
Five Acts from Five Plays (Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Macbeth and Julius Caesar) (Jan 2. 1922, 1 x).

Bobbie Strauss was known to play the mandolin backstage. With the same identical cast as in it's New York run Fritz Leiber went on tour. The full sequence of plays (see above) was repeated in the Montauk Theater starting on January 9. 1922 with Macbeth. At one time a 1922 advertisement boasted that after the transcontinental tour they intended to go to London, Continental Europe and the Orient.

The company now included Fritz Leiber, Olive Oliver, Virginia Bronson  (Fritz Leiber Sr.'s wife), Louis Leon Hall, John Burke, Robert Strauss, James Hendrickson, Richard Allen, Caroline Kohl, Constance Kingsley, Philllip D. Quinn, Frank Howard, W. Leonard Gordon, Justin Adams, Waldron Smith, Blanche Chapman, Alma Lind, and others.

After which, the company took to the road again:

The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Julia, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Othello (The Grand Opera House Cincinnati, Jan 29. - Feb 4. 1922),
The Taming of the Shrew (Opera House, Feb 14. 1922),
The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice (Jefferson Theatre Birmingham, Dec 11. - 16. 1922)
Macbeth (Broadway Theater Denver, Jan 14. - 16. 1923),
Macbeth (Empress Theater Fort Collins, Jan 23. 1923),
The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet (Sterling theater Greeley, Jan 24. 1923),
Macbeth (Empress Theater Laramie, Jan 26. 1923),
Taming of the Shrew (Strand Theatre Rawlins, Jan 27. 1923),
Hamlet, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar (Columbia Theatre San Francisco, Feb 19. - 24. 1923),
The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Julius Caesar (Metropolitan Theater Seattle, Mar 4. - 10. 1923),
Hamlet, Macbeth,  Julius Caesar, The Three Musketeers !! (Brandels Theater Omaha, Dec 1. -3. 1924),
The Three Musketeers, Hamlet, The Taming of The Shrew, Macbeth (Heilig Theatre Portland Oregon, Jan 1. - 3. 1925),
The Three Musketeers, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet (Metropolitan Seattle, Jan 4. - 8. 1925),
The Three Musketeers, Hamlet, The Taming of The Shrew, Macbeth, Julius Caesar (Columbia Theatre San Francisco, Jan 12. - 16. 1925).

In Roseanne (Greenwich Village Theatre, Dec 29. 1923 - Feb 1. 1924) all the characters were "colored folk", Strauss played Alec Gray.

Back home in 1924 he played a production on the Chautauqua circuit with Dorothy Ellen Cole.

Ethel Bennett produced several traveling companies for the Redpath Circuit. One company, which included Robert Strauss, played Six Cylinder Love they opened April 23. 1924 in Dalton, Ga. and played seventeen weeks. 

The Book of Charm aka Charm (Comedy Theater New York, Sep 3. - Oct 1. 1925) had Strauss playing Doctor Garfield.

John Kirkpatrick's play Charm (Shubert-Belasco, Washington D.C. , Feb 22. 1926) with Elizabeth Patterson, Maidel Turner, Kenneth Dana & Robert Strauss was about a girl who wants to leave her small home town to go to New York. After careful considerations the parents and the local boy who loves her decide that the best thing to do is to keep her at home and to bring the metropolitan customs to the small town.

Comedy roles in a number of successes followed, but also Shakespearian roles.

He initially joined the company of that other great Shakespeare interpreter Robert B. Mantell. Which worked and performed in pretty much the same way as Fritz Lieber did.

The company consisted of: Robert Mantell, Genevieve Hamper, Sarah Alexander, Mark Glover, John Burke, Bruce Adams, John Alexander, Frederic W. Hile, Robert Strauss, John C. Hickey, Edwin Foss, John Forrest, James Hendrickson, Robert Fulton, James Betterton, Charles Kent, Gilbert Sens, Abraham Ivory, Olga Leeds, Mary Glover, Claire Bruce, Lillian Remer, and Glen Waters.

The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, As You like it and Macbeth (Utica theater, Oct 18.- 20. 1926),
King Lear, Hamlet, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice (Washington Auditorium, D.C., Nov 1. - 6. 1926).

In the end he found he way back to the Fritz Leiber & Co.:

Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (Arlington Theatre Boston, Oct 10 - 12. 1927),
Macbeth (Auditorium Washington D.C.,  Nov 8. 1927).

Robert Strauss related that one night while playing in Chicago, the press representative of the company strolled back on the stage and greeted him with the usual, “Well what do you know?”
Strauss replied he had one accomplishment no other actor had, that he could speak the Comanche language, having spent all his early boyhood days on the Comanche reservation in Oklahoma.
The press agent made a note of it, and it appeared in a Chicago paper the next day. The following Sunday Strauss picked up a paper and read this paragraph: “Robert Strauss, at the Playhouse, claims to be the only actor who can speak Comanche. We have often wondered what language most of the other actors are speaking" ("He told story and got a rebound", The Washington Times, Nov 5. 1927)

In March 1928 Strauss re-appeared "completely pleasing" in The Merchant of Venice (Shubert Theatre) again as Launcelot Gobbo and that same year he was remarked for his creation of a "cobbler" in Julius Caesar.

Hamlet, Macbeth (Strauss as porter and third Witch), Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew (Indianapolis, Feb 1929),

Chicago Civic Shakespeare Society started on Nov 11. 1929 with Leiber in the title role of Hamlet in Chicago.
Chicago Civic Shakespeare Society: Fritz Leiber Sr., Virginia Bronson (Fritz Leiber Sr.'s wife), Marie Carroll, Vera Allen, Kathryn Collier, Virginia Stevens, John Burke, Louis Leon Hall, Philip Quin, Lawrence H. Cecil, Robert Strauss and Thayer Roberts.

Hamlet, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Othello, King Lear, As You Like It, Julius Caesar (Shubert Alvin Theatre Pittsburgh, Feb 3. - 9. 1930),

Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Richard III (Poli's, Washington D.C., Feb 15. - 21. 1930),

A two week "Gala Repertoire of Shakespearean Plays" including King Lear, with Strauss as "old man", (Shubert Wilbur Theatre Boston, Mar 17. 1930).

Moving on to New York where they presented a series of Shakespearean plays at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre. Fritz Leiber headed the company which also included William Courtleigh, John Burke, Robert Strauss and others:

Hamlet (Mar 24. - Apr 12. 1930) as gravedigger,
As You Like It (Mar 24. 1930),
The Merchant of Venice  (Mar 25. 1930) as Gobbo,
Macbeth (Mar 25. 1930),
...

The company performed another New York series at the end of that year but this time at the Ambassador Theatre:

King Lear (Dec 25/27 & 31. 1930) as old man,
Hamlet (Dec 26. 1930/Jan 1.,7. & 10. 1931),
The Merchant of Venice  (Dec 27. 1930 & Jan 6. 1931) as Gobbo,
Julius Caesar (Dec 29. 1930/ Jan 3. & 9. 1931),
Macbeth (Dec 30.1930/ Jan 2./5.& 10. 1931),
As You Like It (Dec 31. 1930 & Jan 7. 1931),
Richard III (Jan 3. & 8. 1931),

The Chicago Civic Shakespeare Society then went on tour, appearing, amongst others, in Chicago and Washington, D.C. (Poli’s Theatre), ... By now Robert Strauss, however, was trying out a different field...

An early radio enthusiast, he entered that field and was soon writing his own skits and appearing in sustaining programs. Strauss was a familiar voice in quiet a few radio dramas from the 1930s amongst them Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (CBS), ... .

In 1932 he took the part of "Inchy Spencer" in The Stebbins Boys sketches on the radio. Parker Fennelly and Arthur Allen played their familiar roles of cantankerous old-timers with hearts of gold beating beneath grim exteriors. The cast was as follows: Esley Stebbins (Arthur Allen), John Stebbins (Parker Fennelly), Hobble Stevens (Harry Humphrey), Virginia Pennypacker (Adeline Thomason), and Inchy Spencer (Robert W. Strauss).