F. Ray Comstock (27 August 1878 – 15 October 1949) was an American theatrical producer and theater operator. He pioneered the intimate musical comedy, staging several successful comedies at his Princess Theatre in Manhattan. He also produced spectacular musicals, variety shows and serious plays by authors such as Henrik Ibsen and Maxim Gorky. Early years F. Ray Comstock was born in Buffalo, New York, on 27 August 1878. His first job was as a theater usher in Buffalo. He moved to New York, and became assistant treasurer at the Criterion Theatre. In 1905 he presented The School Girl, which ran for 150 nights at Daly's Theater. The original show ran for 400 nights at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London. In 1905 Comstock held the lease at the Hippodrome Theatre. That year he entered into a partnership with Morris Gest. Gest was of Russian Jewish origins, an immigrant to the USA. In 1907 Comstock put on his first Broadway theatre production, Fascinating Flora. This was followed in 1908 by Bandana Land, one of the first “Negro” musicals. In 1909 Comstock leased the Colonial Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. The next year he leased it to the Shubert brothers. Princess Theatre musicals Archibald Selwyn partnered with the Shubert Brothers and William A. Brady in building the Princess Theatre, a small 299-seat auditorium on 39th street that opened in 1913. The theater was not successful at first, and Selwyn and Brady gave up their shares to Comstock. Comstock produced Jerome Kern's Nobody Home in 1915, presented in the Princess Theatre. The reaction was generally favorable, and Comstock recognized that a small house like the Princess could provide a venue for a musical comedy that was more intimate and friendly than a larger theater. Comstock formed the Marbury-Comstock Company with Elizabeth Marbury, and commissioned a second musical comedy from Kern, Very Good Eddie. This opened on 23 December 1915 and ran for 341 performances. It then went on the road for another year. The show was deliberately informal and low key, with a more coherent story line than most such comedies and less dancing. It established the genre of the "intimate" musical comedy. The Princess Theatre musicals revolved around modern people in situations that were comic but possible. A cast of about thirty was supported by an eleven-piece orchestra. There were two sets, both relatively simple. This was a gamble, but it paid off.