His father's alcoholism kept the family in difficult financial circumstances, and Lee Shubert went to work selling newspapers on a street corner.

With borrowed money, he and younger brothers Sam and Jacob eventually embarked on a business venture that led to them to become the successful operators of several theaters in upstate New York.

[4][5] The Shubert brothers decided to expand to the huge market in New York City, and at the end of March 1900 they leased the Herald Square Theatre at the corner of Broadway and 35th Street in Manhattan.

[10] Nonetheless, he recognized the need to attract some of the top stage actors from the long-established European theatres (as Gaby Deslys) to perform at the new Broadway houses.

After a disastrous production of Hamlet in 1901 at a competitor's theatre, French megastar Sarah Bernhardt vowed never to return to America [citation needed] until Lee Shubert convinced her to perform for his company in 1905.