Avram C. Freedberg
Avram C. Freedberg | |
---|---|
Born |
Avram Chaim Freedberg June 25, 1947 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Spouse(s) | Rhoda Freedberg |
Children |
Jonathan Freedberg Arielle Freedberg |
Avram Chaim Freedberg (born June 25, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York) is a Broadway theatre producer, a direct marketer, and founder of National Collector's Mint. He founded Maximum Entertainment Productions LLC and has produced and invested in a number of Broadway shows. He also is owner of BioLogic Solutions, a line of skincare and cosmetic products.
Biography
Early life
Avram Chaim Freedberg was born in Crown Heights Hospital on Lefferts Blvd. in Brooklyn, New York on June 25, 1947.
Currently President of Maximum Entertainment Productions, LLC, a producer of Broadway theater (Peter and the Starcatcher, Colin Quinn’s Long Story Short, etc.) and theater tours in the U.S., Great Britain and Japan and National Collector’s Mint, Inc., a direct to consumer marketer of coins and bullion collectibles. He owns Biologic Solutions, a direct to consumer marketer of skin care products and is the Managing Member of Everything’s Cricket Racing, a stable of thoroughbred and standard bred race horses.
Maximum Entertainment Productions
In 1981 he was operating Maximum Exposure Advertising and New Body Boutique in New York City.[1][2][3] His Broadway credits include Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Addams Family and Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking. One of his off-Broadway shows, Los Big Names, earned Outer Critic’s Circle and Dram Desk nominations.[4]
In 2005 he bought the rights from Bricmar Manufacturing for the Bedazzler. In 2006 and 2007 Freedberg's company Maximum Entertainment was the sole producer for Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! during the Christmas season.[5] The 2007 production was halted for seven days during the 2007 Broadway stagehand strike and managed to get back into performance by getting a special dispensation. He has invested in several other shows.
Dirty Dick's Dynamite Discount Den
In 1988 he operated Consumer Marketing Group in Stamford, Connecticut and Dirty Dick's Dynamite Discount Den as a distributor of pornographic materials. After being tried for obscenity charges, Freedberg accepted a plea bargain to pay $600,000 and promise to never deal in sexually explicit materials again.[6][7] A United States District Judge ruled that he could not be prosecuted in two states simultaneously on obscenity charges.[8]
National Collectors Mint
In 1991 he founded the National Collectors Mint in Port Chester, New York. The company through its online catalog marketed collectible coins from the United States and around the world. The coins were heavily marketed on television. In 2004, it began selling coins commemorating the September 11 attacks with silver purported to have been recovered from the World Trade Center. The coins which it purports to be legal tender are said to have been issued by the United States territory Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands which can not issue legal tender.[9]
Freedberg founded the company in the hopes of selling rare collectibles. The company is known nationwide for the variety of rare coins it offers, such as genuine Morgan silver dollars, and commemorative items as well.
Personal life
Freedberg was married on Dec. 15, 1974, to a wife named Rhoda. They have two children Jonathan and Arielle.
References
- ↑ "The Belt Was No Cinch". Milwaukee Journal. September 14, 1981. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
The two men who endorsed your canceled check Avram Freedberg and Harvey Fishman ...
- ↑ "Vibrant Sales, Inc. v. New Body Boutique, Inc.". United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
In this action for unfair competition and breach of contract defendants The New Body Boutique, Inc., Maximum Exposure Advertising Inc. ("MEA"), Harvey S. Fishman, and Avram C. Freedberg appeal from a decision of the District Court for the Southern District of New York, entered by Judge Morris E. Lasker after a non-jury trial, holding that defendants, by selling a waist-reducing belt called "Shrink Wrap" in competition with a similar belt already being marketed by plaintiff Vibrant Sales, Inc. ("Vibrant"), under the name "Waist Away," violated § 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), and breached an agreement between Vibrant and defendants Fishman and Freedberg (MEA's assignees), entitling Vibrant to permanent injunctive relief.
- ↑ Bill Thompson and William Thompson (1994). Soft Core: moral crusades against pornography in Britain and America. ISBN 0-304-32793-X.
Avram Freedberg, who faced prosecutions in Connecticut, Mississippi, Indiana, Delaware, and Utah, also sought an injunction, only to find his wife indicted.
- ↑ "Who We Are". Maximum Entertainment Productions. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- ↑ Avram Freedberg - ibndb.com
- ↑ Philip D. Harvey (2001). Government versus erotica. Prometheus Books.
I recall asking Avram Freedberg about this at the time. He said he had been quite surprised that the government did not demand his wife's signature on the agreement as well as his.
- ↑ Dan Barry (reporter) (October 2, 2004). "A Silver Coin, Wrapped in Plain Brown". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
The days of Avram C. Freedberg as a distributor of pornography are well behind him. No longer is he involved with such businesses as the exquisitely alliterative Dirty Dick's Dynamite Discount Den. No longer does he mail out videos and magazines in discreet packages. ...
- ↑ "Porno Prosecutions". Associated Press. November 24, 1993. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
In 1988 US District Judge Thomas Jackson barred the government from simultaneously prosecuting a Stamford, Conn., business owned by Avram Freedberg ...
- ↑ "Five Pieces of Silver". New York Times. October 2, 2004. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
But the president of National Collector's Mint is Avram Freedberg, a prominent businessman in Stamford, Conn., and a donor to Democratic causes. ... Mr. Freedberg's lawyer insists that his client is honoring the dead. He says the company gives $5 from each sale to the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports canine rescue units. ...