Max Hansen (22 December 1897 â€" 12 November 1961), also known as 'The
Little Caruso', was a Danish singer, cabaret artist, actor, and
comedian.Hansen was born Max Josef Haller in Mannheim, Imperial
Germany as an illegitimate child to the Danish actress Eva Haller and
a Jewish father, by other sources a Swedish Officer Schürer von
Waldheim. He grew up with foster-parents at Munich, where he first
appeared at the Cabaret Simplizissimus at the age of 17. In 1914 he
moved to Vienna and appeared in several smaller theatres as a singer
and comedian.In 1924, Hansen created the tenor role of Baron Kolomán
Zsupán in Gräfin Mariza at Hubert Marischka's Theater an der Wien in
Vienna. This production moved to the Metropoltheater in Berlin after
900 performances. In Berlin he founded the Kabarett der Komiker with
Paul Morgan and Kurt Robitschek. Hansen was engaged by Max Reinhardt
for his revival of Offenbach's La belle Hélène and by Erik Charell
for his production of Lehar's The Merry Widow. Hansen's greatest stage
success was in creating the role of Leopold the waiter in Ralph
Benatzky's operetta-musical The White Horse Inn, a part he also
undertook in Richard Oswald's 1926 silent movie.
Little Caruso', was a Danish singer, cabaret artist, actor, and
comedian.Hansen was born Max Josef Haller in Mannheim, Imperial
Germany as an illegitimate child to the Danish actress Eva Haller and
a Jewish father, by other sources a Swedish Officer Schürer von
Waldheim. He grew up with foster-parents at Munich, where he first
appeared at the Cabaret Simplizissimus at the age of 17. In 1914 he
moved to Vienna and appeared in several smaller theatres as a singer
and comedian.In 1924, Hansen created the tenor role of Baron Kolomán
Zsupán in Gräfin Mariza at Hubert Marischka's Theater an der Wien in
Vienna. This production moved to the Metropoltheater in Berlin after
900 performances. In Berlin he founded the Kabarett der Komiker with
Paul Morgan and Kurt Robitschek. Hansen was engaged by Max Reinhardt
for his revival of Offenbach's La belle Hélène and by Erik Charell
for his production of Lehar's The Merry Widow. Hansen's greatest stage
success was in creating the role of Leopold the waiter in Ralph
Benatzky's operetta-musical The White Horse Inn, a part he also
undertook in Richard Oswald's 1926 silent movie.
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