Jack Singer

Who was Jack Singer?

Jack Singer was a Canadian real estate developer. In addition to owning properties across Canada, he also owned the Hollywood Center Studio in Los Angeles. The Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary is named after him.

Jack Singer was born in Calgary in 1917. Singer's mother was Polish immigrant who had begun buying and operating rooming houses in the early 1900s. By the age of 11, Jack was helping with the books and, at the age of 17, he bought his first building in Calgary.

In 1981, Singer took a friend up on an offer to visit Francis Ford Coppola's studio where One from the Heart was being filmed. When the movie flopped, Coppola's studio went into receivership; Singer subsequently purchased the studio during a bank auction in which he placed the only bid.

In October 2011, the Los Angeles city council created a special resolution honouring Singer for his "vital role in the revitalization of the District of Hollywood" and for his work in establishing the Hollywood Center Studio as a "world-class resource for feature film and commercial production."

Singer died on February 2, 2013.