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John Kenley (February 20, 1906 – October 23, 2009) was an American
theatrical producer A theatrical producer is a person who oversees all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The producer is responsible for the overall financial and managerial functions of a production or venue, raises or provides financial backing, and hire ...
who pioneered the use of television stars in
summer stock In American theater, summer-stock theater is a theater that presents stage productions only in the summer. The name combines the season with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes. Summer stock th ...
productions. In 1950, he was the first producer to desegregate live theater in Washington, DC. In 2004 he was made an Honorary Life Member of Actors' Equity for his contributions to American theater. His Kenley Players company was described by
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
as "the largest network of theaters on the straw-hat circuit."


Early life

Kenley was born John Kremchek on February 20, 1906, to Ana Machuga and John Kremchek Zyanskovsky in Denver, Colorado. At birth, he was
intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical b ...
. His father, a Slovakian saloon owner, baptized him as
Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...
. Kenley made his stage debut singing in church in both Russian and English, and was given a solo part at age 4. His family had moved several times ahead of the spread of
prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholi ...
, finally settling in
Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...
.


Performing career

After graduating high school at 16, he moved to
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
and despite his lack of training worked for a
burlesque show American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in America in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the ...
as a
choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who c ...
. According to Kenley, "I taught the girls silly simple routines. As I taught them, I got pretty good." Three years later he moved to New York and landed a part as an acrobat in
John Murray Anderson John Murray Anderson (September 20, 1886 – January 30, 1954) was a Canadian theatre director and producer, songwriter, actor, screenwriter, dancer and lighting designer, who made his career in the United States, primarily in New York City a ...
's ''Greenwich Village Follies''. With the signing of his first performance contract Kremchek became known as John Kenley. He played the
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
circuit throughout the 1920s, dancing, singing, and doing impersonations of
Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...
,
Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", " Louise", " Mimi", and " Thank H ...
,
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, and
Beatrice Lillie Beatrice Gladys Lillie, Lady Peel (29 May 1894 – 20 January 1989), known as Bea Lillie, was a Canadian-born British actress, singer and comedic performer. She began to perform as a child with her mother and sister. She made her West End theat ...
. From 1928 to 1940 Kenley worked as an assistant to producer Lee Shubert. He estimated he read 1000 scripts during that period and discovered
William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''T ...
's ''
The Time of Your Life ''The Time of Your Life'' is a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened on Broadway in 1939. Ch ...
'' and
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...
's first play, '' The Children's Hour.''


Producing career

During World War II he joined the Merchant Marines and served aboard the . Purser-Pharmacist's mate Kremchek participated in a number of harrowing exploits including the support of Allied landings in Southern France. When a convoy of 30 ships came under attack, he was aboard one of only eight that remained afloat. His practical jokes and quirky humor aboard ship earned him the nickname, "The
Storm Petrel Storm-petrel may refer to one of two bird families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: * Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the Northern Hemisphere, although some speci ...
of the Merchant Marines". After the war, Kenley was unable to find stage work in New York and began producing summer stock in Pennsylvania and Ohio. His first theater was converted from a Greek Byzantine church in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania and his second a new theatre in Barnesville, Pennsylvania. He produced ''The Barretts of Wimpole Street'' played at the Barnesville theatre in 1950 starring
Susan Peters Susan Peters (born Suzanne Carnahan; July 3, 1921 – October 23, 1952) was an American actress who appeared in over twenty films over the course of her decade-long career. Though she began her career in uncredited and ingénue roles, she woul ...
as the invalid Elizabeth Barrett. Peters was a former MGM starlet who had been paralyzed from the waist down in a hunting accident. Peters delivered her lines from a sofa which was repositioned in every act to give the illusion of movement. When he took the show to Washington DC, he became the first producer to desegregate live theater there. Over the next fifty years, Kenley's
summer stock In American theater, summer-stock theater is a theater that presents stage productions only in the summer. The name combines the season with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes. Summer stock th ...
productions became what Variety called the "largest network of theaters on the straw hat circuit". His Kenley Players company brought popular shows and celebrities to Ohio, in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Warren. Many of the shows also played in
Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of ...
. Kenley often rode his bike backstage through the large theaters and was known for putting make-up on his dog, Sadie. He often came up with gimmicks to market and sell tickets. Well-known film and TV actors appeared in his productions, also to sell tickets; Kenley was one of the first to use this concept. During the TV version of
The Odd Couple (1970 TV series) ''The Odd Couple'' (titled onscreen ''Neil Simon's The Odd Couple'') is an American sitcom television series broadcast from September 24, 1970 to March 7, 1975 on ABC. The show, which stars Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Osca ...
, stars
Jack Klugman Jack Klugman (April 27, 1922 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. He began his career in 1950 and started television and film work with roles in ''12 Angry Men'' (1957) and ''Cry Terror!'' (1958). Du ...
and
Tony Randall Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play '' The Odd Couple'' by Neil Si ...
recreated their TV roles in Neil Simon's original play.
Jayne Mansfield Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, singer, nightclub entertainer, and ''Playboy'' Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s while under contract at 20th Century Fox, Man ...
played in ''
Bus Stop A bus stop is a place where buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelters, seating, and possibly electronic passenger ...
'',
Bobby Rydell Robert Louis Ridarelli (April 26, 1942 – April 5, 2022), known by the stage name Bobby Rydell, was an American singer and actor who mainly performed rock and roll and traditional pop music. In the early 1960s he was considered a teen idol. Hi ...
appeared in ''
West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...
'', Merv Griffin was cast in ''
Come Blow Your Horn ''Come Blow Your Horn'' is Neil Simon's first play, which premiered on Broadway in 1961 and had a London production in 1962 at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Simon rewrote the script more than two dozen times over several years, resulting in a hit ...
'',
Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Gold ...
in ''
Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as th ...
'',
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in
Pirates of Penzance ''The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. Its official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 187 ...
and
Robby Benson Robby Benson (born Robin David Segal; January 21, 1956) is an American actor and director. He rose to prominence as a teen idol in the late 1970s, appearing in the sports films '' One on One'' (1977) and '' Ice Castles'' (1978). He subsequently ...
in '' Evita''. More traditional Broadway stars also appeared regularly, such as
John Raitt John Emmet Raitt (; January 29, 1917 – February 20, 2005) was an American actor and singer best known for his performances in musical theatre. Early years Raitt was born in Santa Ana, California, United States. He got his start in theatre as ...
in ''
Man of La Mancha ''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay '' I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cerva ...
'',
Ethel Merman Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer, known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and for leading roles in musical theatre.Obituary '' Variety'', February 22, 1984. ...
in ''
Call Me Madam ''Call Me Madam'' is a musical written by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. The musical is a satire on politics and foreign policy that spoofs postwar America's penchant for lending billions of dollars to ...
'' and
Tommy Tune Thomas James Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Wal ...
in ''
Pippin Pippin or Pepin may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Pippin (comics), ''Pippin'' (comics), a children's comic produced from 1966 to 1986 * Pippin (musical), ''Pippin'' (musical), a Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz loosely based on the life ...
''. In 1995 at the age of 89 he was still producing summer shows in parts of Ohio.


Personal life

Kenley was
intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical b ...
, according to Griffin and Barbara Eden. Eden recalled him confiding in her that his parents had concluded "it would be easier for him to go through life as a male rather than as a female," and that he spent the theater season in Ohio and the off season living in Palm Springs as a woman named Joan. In his unpublished memoirs, Kenley writes, "People have often wondered if I am gay. Sometimes I wished I was. Life would have been simpler.
Androgyny Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in ...
is overrated." Kenley died on October 23, 2009, of
pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...
at the
Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit American academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation established in 1921, it runs a 170-acre (69 ha) campus in Cleveland, ...
in Cleveland, Ohio.


Legacy

Kenley is credited with introducing professional live theater to the Midwest, laying the groundwork for national tours of Broadway productions.
Dorothy Kilgallen Dorothy Mae Kilgallen (July 3, 1913 – November 8, 1965) was an American columnist, journalist, and television game show panelist. After spending two semesters at the College of New Rochelle, she started her career shortly before her 18th birth ...
in 1964 devoted a ''The Voice of Broadway'' column to the Kenley Players, writing that Broadway producers should spend "a few pleasant days in Warren, Ohio. … There is a man out there who knows how to get people into the theater—and in show business, that's Trick 1." He "pioneered the notion of putting TV stars in summer stock years before everyone started doing it." In 1950, he broke the color line in Washington DC, bringing a production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street to Washington and advertising that all seats were "available to any paying customer, without regard for race." Washington was at the time "without professional theater because, in response to segregationist seating policies, the Actors Equity union would not allow its members to perform there," and police showed up on opening night expecting a riot. After a sold-out, trouble-free two-week engagement, Kenley was "feted in the local media, with civil-rights pundits lauding the nobility of his groundbreaking production." In 2004,
Actors' Equity The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a book ...
awarded Kenley an Honorary Life Membership, calling out his "extraordinary contribution to the American theater" and describing him as having "refined and ultimately defined the golden days of Equity Summer Stock."


References


Further reading

*''Variety'': May 13, 1964; September 9, 1981; June 13, 1984, p. 89; August 15, 1984, p. 90; August 13, 1986; October 9, 1986, p. 101. *Hirsch, Foster. (1998). ''The Boys from Syracuse: The Schuberts' Theatrical Empire''. Southern Illinois University Press. *Morris, T. "Stage Left: Losses Knock Kenley Players Back on the Sidelines". ''The Dayton Daily News'', March 24, 1996. *Musarra, R. "Packed House Helps Kenley Mark Birthday". ''The Akron Beacon Journal'', February 23, 1995. *Nichols, J. "Kenley Players Returning After 12-Year Absence". ''The Dayton Daily News'', March 10, 1995.


External links


Kenley Players History
by Joe Florenski
Guide to a collection about the Kenley Players at University of Dayton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenley, John 1906 births 2009 deaths American centenarians Men centenarians United States Merchant Mariners of World War II American theatre managers and producers Intersex men Vaudeville performers People from Denver United States Navy sailors