Remembering Daniel B. Meltzer, upper west side writer and advocate

Milestones

By Marguerite Ward

Daniel Barry Meltzer, a journalist, playwright, activist and longtime New Yorker, was best known for leading the successful battle to save the Upper West Side’s historic Beacon Theatre. Meltzer died on Nov. 6 at the age of 74 due to complications from prostate cancer, according to his partner, Nina Felshin.

Meltzer leaves behind a legacy of teaching, writing and community engagement on the Upper West Side, where he lived for nearly 30 years.

“You couldn’t really separate Dan’s beliefs from Dan. He valued things, he valued people, and he also valued the old New York. He was a real New Yorker. But not only did he value the traditions of New York, many of us do. He worked to preserve them,” said Meltzer’s longtime friend Maggie Staiger, a writer and artist who goes professionally by the name of Maggie Dubris.

In the mid-1980s, discotheque and nightclub owner Olivier Coquelin announced his plans to convert the Beacon Theatre, a beautiful three-tiered theater built in 1929 and historic landmark, into a club. Meltzer rallied the neighborhood to fight the plans and formed The Committee to Save the Beacon Theatre. The committee filed suit against the Coquelin’s group, and won.

In 1987, Acting Justice Jacqueline W. Silbermann of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan blocked Coquelin’s plans.

‘’Clearly, the conversion is not appropriate,’’ Silbermann wrote. “Conversion to a discotheque will not safeguard or enhance the city’s historic aesthetic and cultural heritage.’’

After a long and expensive renovation, the Beacon reopened in 2009 as a revitalized landmark medium-sized venue for a broad range of concerts, including comedy, jazz, classic, doo-wop and hip-hop, along with its well-known “in residence” performance series by venerable rock groups such as The Allman Brothers and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Beyond saving the Beacon Theatre, Meltzer was an active community member in the Upper West Side. He served on Community Board Seven, which covers the area. He wrote for The Westsider and was a former editor at The Chelsea Clinton News, both now owned by Straus News.

In his spare time, he often got writers together to eat and mingle.

“Dan set up dinners for writers in the city, with large groups of writers meeting at a Chinese restaurant. Most of us only knew a few people in the group at first, while Dan pretty much knew everybody. It was just a real sense of community that he had,” Dubris said.

Meltzer was born in East Flatbush, Brooklyn on Oct. 24, 1940 to Jack Meltzer and Kitty Talber. He married and divorced twice. His brother, George Meltzer, predeceased him.

Professionally, Meltzer had worked as a broadcast journalist at news outlets including ABC News, CBS and WPIX-TV. He was published in major news outlets including The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun. He taught journalism at Yeshiva University and NYU, among other colleges.

He was also a poet, creative writer and playwright. His plays included “The Square Root of Love” and “Movie of the Month.” Several of his plays were produced across the United States and around the world. His fiction work won him the prestigious O’Henry Prize and Pushcart Prize. In 2012, he published a book of collected stories called “Outsiders.”

“Humor was a very important part of his life. I mean he really had a phenomenal sense of humor and much of his writing reflects that,” Felshin said. “Studying theater was one of the happiest times of his life.”

Meltzer studied documentary film at the City College of New York, received his masters in theatre at Hunter College and completed all but his dissertation in a Ph.D program in theater history and criticism at the City University of New York.

Those close to him say Meltzer remained an active writer and community member even as his cancer worsened.

“His intellect and humor continued to dazzle even on dark days,” said Nora Eisenberg, a resident of the Upper West Side who was friends with Meltzer for nine years.

Meltzer is survived by Felshin, two nieces Sophia Sagi and Stephanie Meltzer, a nephew Alexander Meltzer and several cousins.

“We were extremely close because Daniel didn’t have children of his own and my father George died was when we were children. Dan really made an effort to be that puzzle piece and try to fill that space of the missing dad. He always wanted us to succeed and follow a passion in life,” said Sagi.