Lee Guber

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Lee Guber
Born(1920-11-20)November 20, 1920
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedMarch 27, 1988(1988-03-27) (aged 67)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Alma materTemple University
OccupationTheater impresario
Known forProducer of Broadway theatre productions
Spouses
  • Edna Shanis (divorced)
​
​
(m. 1963; div. 1976)​
Lois Wyse
​
(m. 1982)​
Children3
RelativesNoah Shachtman (grandson)

Lee Guber (November 20, 1920 – March 27, 1988) was an American theater impresario, who produced several Broadway theatre productions and developed a chain of entertainment venues in suburban locations along the East Coast.

Early life and education

Guber was born in

Central High School, where he met his future business partner Shelly Gross, when they were assigned to sit next to each other in alphabetical order. He attended Temple University, where he majored in sociology, earning bachelor's and master's degrees.[1]

Entertainment

Guber went into the nightclub business, and joined his childhood friend Shelly Gross and Frank Ford in creating a musical theater in Devon, Pennsylvania in 1955 called the Valley Forge Music Fair.[1] The original tent was replaced by a permanent structure, which was subsequently razed and replaced by a supermarket.[2]

The group was advised to open a second theater in

theater in the round format.[1]

Guber and Gross built their business to become one of the biggest purveyors of live entertainment, using their venues in Valley Forge and Westbury, as well as the Painters Mill Music Fair near

Sammy Davis, Jr., Bobby Vinton, Dionne Warwick, Andy Williams and Stevie Wonder, along with such Broadway shows as traveling productions of Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof, George M! and Man of La Mancha, to their suburban venues.[1]

Guber, Ford and Gross Productions aimed to resurrect the popular 50s and 60s TV series, Dialing for Dollars, with Canadian television personality Peter Emmerson slated to be the Host, but Lee Guber's diagnosis of terminal brain cancer brought those plans to a halt in 1987.

Broadway theatre

In 1977, the pair produced a 696-performance run of

Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, ran for only four performances, as did the 1986 musical Rags about immigrants to the United States that cost over $5 million to produce.[1]

Personal life

He was married three times. His first marriage was to Edna Shanis. The couple had two children together, Zev and Carol.[1]

In December 1963 Guber was married to Barbara Walters, then a reporter for NBC, beginning a marriage that lasted 13 years.[1][3] Their daughter Jacqueline Dena Guber was born in 1968 and adopted by the couple the same year.

His third marriage was in 1982 to Lois Wyse, with whom he remained married until his death. His stepchildren are Robert Wyse and Katherine Goldman. He has eight grandchildren, one journalist Noah Shachtman.[4]

Guber enjoyed playing squash and tennis, and was described by The New York Times as "an accomplished cook" who learned his culinary skills from James Beard. He was appointed to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts in the mid-1970s.[1][5]

A resident of

brain cancer.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kleiman, Dena. "Lee Guber, 67; Theater Producer And Entertainment Official, Dies", The New York Times, March 28, 1988. Accessed June 25, 2009.
  2. ^ Morrison, John F. "Shelly Gross, 88, Music Fair co-founder", The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 23, 2009. Accessed June 25, 2009.
  3. ^ Staff. "Lee Guber Marries Barbara J. Walters", The New York Times, December 9, 1963. Accessed June 25, 2009.
  4. New York Times
    . Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  5. ^ Delatiner, Barbara. "A Pair of Aces", The New York Times, September 12, 1976. Accessed June 25, 2009.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lee_Guber&oldid=1220896144"