Playbill: Gerald Schoenfeld, Longtime Head of Shubert Organiztion, Dies
Gerald Schoenfeld, Longtime Head of Shubert Organiztion, Dies
By Robert Simonson
November 25, 2008
Gerald Schoenfeld, the longtime leader of the theatre-owning powerhouse known as the Shubert Organization and a man routinely referred to as the most powerful man on Broadway, died Nov. 25. He was born in 1924 and was believed to be 84 years old.
The Shubert Organization is the owner and caretaker of 17 Broadway theatres - more than any other company in the theatre. Along with his late partner, Bernard Jacobs, who died in 1996, Mr. Schoenfeld ruled over this real-estate empire, as well as the adjoining Shubert Foundation. If you were a producer and regularly presented on Broadway, you had no choice but to do business with Gerry and Bernie. So closely were the two men associated with the organization that they were regularly referred to as "The Shuberts," even though they were no blood relation to the family of brothers who first founded the dynasty.
Mr. Schoenfeld, a lawyer by trade, went into the Shubert fold in 1950, and teamed with Jacobs a few years later to run the organization, after the last in the Shubert blood line exited the concern. In addition to overseeing the operation of the empire, the two men also produced many shows.
Mr. Schoenfeld was a familiar sight at every Broadway opening, endlessly greeting theatre colleagues with a solemnity and magnanimity that more than a few compared jokingly to the Pope handing out dispensations. Mid-sized, bald and deceptively mild in manner, he was known to relish the theatre business, as well as his exalted place in its hierarchy. The Shuberts were excessively secretive about their business, and, even as Mr. Schoenfeld grew older, topics such as a line of succession were rarely if ever discussed.
In 2004, the Shubert-owned Plymouth Theatre on 44th Street was renamed after Mr. Schoenfeld.
Playbill.com will publish a full obituary within the hour.
By Robert Simonson
November 25, 2008
Gerald Schoenfeld, the longtime leader of the theatre-owning powerhouse known as the Shubert Organization and a man routinely referred to as the most powerful man on Broadway, died Nov. 25. He was born in 1924 and was believed to be 84 years old.
The Shubert Organization is the owner and caretaker of 17 Broadway theatres - more than any other company in the theatre. Along with his late partner, Bernard Jacobs, who died in 1996, Mr. Schoenfeld ruled over this real-estate empire, as well as the adjoining Shubert Foundation. If you were a producer and regularly presented on Broadway, you had no choice but to do business with Gerry and Bernie. So closely were the two men associated with the organization that they were regularly referred to as "The Shuberts," even though they were no blood relation to the family of brothers who first founded the dynasty.
Mr. Schoenfeld, a lawyer by trade, went into the Shubert fold in 1950, and teamed with Jacobs a few years later to run the organization, after the last in the Shubert blood line exited the concern. In addition to overseeing the operation of the empire, the two men also produced many shows.
Mr. Schoenfeld was a familiar sight at every Broadway opening, endlessly greeting theatre colleagues with a solemnity and magnanimity that more than a few compared jokingly to the Pope handing out dispensations. Mid-sized, bald and deceptively mild in manner, he was known to relish the theatre business, as well as his exalted place in its hierarchy. The Shuberts were excessively secretive about their business, and, even as Mr. Schoenfeld grew older, topics such as a line of succession were rarely if ever discussed.
In 2004, the Shubert-owned Plymouth Theatre on 44th Street was renamed after Mr. Schoenfeld.
Playbill.com will publish a full obituary within the hour.