Samuel Roger Horchow (July 3, 1928 – May 2, 2020) was an American retailer and

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

producer. Horchow was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, the son of Beatrice (Schwartz) and Reuben Horchow, an attorney. In 1971, he started The Horchow Collection, the first luxury

mail-order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...

catalog that was not preceded by a brick-and-mortar presence. He sold the Horchow Collection to

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...

in 1988. In 1992, he produced his first Broadway show, '' Crazy for You'', a

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

musical, for which he won the

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

for Best Musical. The London version of ''Crazy for You'' won the

Laurence Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...

for Best Musical. Though ''Crazy for You'' was inspired by an earlier Gershwin musical, ''

Girl Crazy ''Girl Crazy'' is a 1930 musical by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book by Guy Bolton and John McGowan. Ethel Merman made her stage debut in the first production and co-lead Ginger Rogers became an overnight star. Rich in song, ...

'', which opened in 1930, theater critics and the American Theater Wing ultimately considered it to be a "new musical." ''Crazy for You'' was directed by Mike Ockrent and choreographed by

Susan Stroman Susan P. Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include '' The Producers'', '' Crazy for You'', ''Contact'', and '' The Scottsboro Boys''. She i ...

. In 2000, Horchow and co-producer

Roger Berlind Roger Stuart Berlind (June 27, 1930December 18, 2020) was a New York City theatrical producer and board member of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc. He was one of the founders of Carter, Berlind, Potoma & Weill in 1960, a ...

staged a revival of

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...

's ''

Kiss Me, Kate ''Kiss Me, Kate'' is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and the conflict on and off-s ...

'', for which he won his second Tony Award, for Best Musical Revival. In 2007, Horchow along with other producers produced ''

Curtains A curtain is a piece of cloth or other material intended to block or obscure light, air drafts, or (in the case of a shower curtain), water. A curtain is also the movable screen or drape in a theatre that separates the stage from the auditorium ...

'', a comedic murder mystery nominated for 8 Tony awards and 10 Drama Desk awards and in 2008 was a minor producer in the Broadway revival of ''

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

'' with

Patti LuPone Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theater. She has won three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, two Grammy Awards, and was a 2006 inductee to the American Theater Hall of Fa ...

. Horchow was a member of

The Hill School The Hill School (commonly known as The Hill) is a coeducational preparatory boarding school located on a campus in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about northwest of Philadelphia. The Hill is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization (TSAO). ...

Class of 1945. In 2002 he received the school's highest alumni honor, The Sixth Form Leadership Award. Horchow was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater,

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, in 1999, and is one of the subjects of ''

The Tipping Point ''The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference'' is the debut book by Malcolm Gladwell, first published by Little, Brown in 2000. Gladwell defines a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling po ...

'' (Little, Brown, 2000) 2002 edition , an influential book by ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * ''The New ...

'' writer

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published seven books: '' The Tipping Point: How Little T ...

. Horchow was the author of three books, "''The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections''" (St. Martin's Press, 2006 and Neiman Marcus Exclusive, 2005) , ''Elephants in Your Mailbox: How I Learned the Secrets of Mail-Order Marketing Despite Having Made 25 Horrendous Mistakes'' (Times Books, 1980) , and ''Living in Style: In A Time When Taste Means More Than Money'' (Rawson Assoc, 1981) . Horchow was on the Board of Selectors of

Jefferson Awards for Public Service The Jefferson Awards Foundation was created in 1972 by the American Institute for Public Service. The Jefferson Awards are given at both national and local levels. Local winners are ordinary people who do extraordinary things without expectation ...

. Horchow served on the board of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Whitney Museum, Dallas Museum of Art and Yale University Art Gallery. He was Vice-Chairman of KERA Public Radio, Dallas, TX. Dallas Theater Center, Foundation for Arts and Preservation in Embassies, Direct Relief International (Advisory Board). His wife, Carolyn Pfeifer, died in 2009. Horchow lived in Dallas and had three daughters and five granddaughters.

References

1928 births 2020 deaths Writers from Cincinnati The Hill School alumni 20th-century American businesspeople Jewish American writers 21st-century American Jews {{theat-bio-stub

External Links

Roger Horchow Collection of George Gershwin
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...