David Merrick (born David Lee Margulois; November 27, 1911 – April 25, 2000) was an American theatrical producer who won a number of

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

Life and career

Born David Lee Margulois to

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

parents in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, Merrick graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, then studied law at the Jesuit-run Saint Louis University School of Law. In 1940, he left his legal career to become a successful theatrical producer. His first seven productions were hits, starting with ''Clutterbuck'' in 1949, which he produced in partnership with Irving Jacobs, and he set a precedent in 1958 of having four productions on Broadway simultaneously; all hits: '' Look Back in Anger'', '' Romanoff and Juliet'', ''

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

'' and '' The Entertainer''. He often was his own competition for the Tony Award, and he frequently won multiple nominations and/or wins in the same season. Merrick was known for his love of

publicity stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utiliz ...

s. In 1949, his comedy ''Clutterbuck'' was running out of steam, but along with discount tickets, he paged hotel bars and restaurants around Manhattan during cocktail hour for a "fictive Mr. Clutterbuck" as a way of generating name recognition for his production, and it helped his show keep alive for another few months. Another famous stunt promoted the poorly reviewed 1961 musical '' Subways Are For Sleeping''. Merrick found seven New Yorkers who had the same names as the city's seven leading theater

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

Howard Taubman Hyman Howard Taubman (July 4, 1907 – January 8, 1996) was an American music critic, theater critic, and author. Biography Born in Manhattan, Taubman attended DeWitt Clinton High School and then won a four-year scholarship to Cornell University ...

, Walter Kerr, John Chapman, John McClain, Richard Watts Jr., Norman Nadel, and Robert Coleman. Merrick invited the seven

namesake A namesake is a person, place, or thing bearing the name of another. Most commonly, it refers to an individual who is purposely named after another (e.g. John F. Kennedy Jr would be the namesake of John F. Kennedy). In common parlance, it may ...

s to the musical and secured their permission to use their names and pictures in an advertisement alongside quotes such as "One of the few great musical comedies of the last thirty years" and "A fabulous musical. I love it." Merrick then prepared a newspaper ad featuring the namesakes' rave reviews under the heading "7 Out of 7 Are Ecstatically Unanimous About Subways Are For Sleeping". Only one newspaper, the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...

'', published the ad, and only in one edition; however, the publicity that the ad garnered helped the musical remain open for 205 performances (almost six months). Merrick later revealed that he had conceived the ad several years previously, but had not been able to execute it until

Brooks Atkinson Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theater critic. He worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his ...

retired as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' theater critic in 1960 since he could not find anyone with the same name. Merrick joined

The Lambs The Lambs, Inc. (also known as The Lambs Club) is a New York City social club that nurtures those active in the arts, as well as those who are supporters of the arts, by providing activities and a clubhouse for its members. It is America's old ...

in 1950, and in 1968 he joined the board of directors of the Riviera, a hotel and casino on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits ...

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, alongside Harvey Silbert and Harry A. Goodman. He also worked with director and choreographer Gower Champion, who directed Merrick's production of '' 42nd Street''. But on the morning of August 25, 1980, Champion died of a rare blood cancer, and Merrick announced the news himself to both the cast and the audience at the opening night curtain call. Merrick suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

in 1983, after which he spent most of his time in a wheelchair. He established the David Merrick Arts Foundation in 1998 to support the development of American musicals.

Personal life

Merrick was married six times to five women: His first marriage was to fellow native-St. Louisan Leonore Beck. They married January 16, 1938, and divorced on January 11, 1963. His second wife, Jeanne Gibson, was a Kentucky-born Broadway press agent. They met at the Savoy Hotel in London, where Gibson was working as the hotel’s press consultant. She became pregnant in 1962, while Merrick was still married to Beck. Their daughter, Cecilia Ann Merrick, was born January 1963. Gibson and Merrick were married from spring 1963 until October 1966. He married Etan Aronson (February 24, 1944 - July 26, 2023), a Swedish model and former flight attendant, twice. They first married in September 1969, and divorced in Mexico three weeks later, but the divorce was not finalized in America until 1976. Together, they had a daughter, Marguerita Merrick (born September 1972). On July 1, 1982, Merrick married actor Karen Prunczik, who originated the role of Anytime Annie and filled in for a week playing the lead character Peggy Sawyer in Merrick’s ''42nd Street''. They divorced in 1983. Merrick and Aronson married for the second time on Tuesday, August 30, 1983 in Greenwich, Connecticut. In the late 1980s, they adopted two children, Olivia Merrick (born May 1988) and Carl Christian Merrick (born July 1987), although in 1994 Merrick petitioned the court to cancel the adoption. Merrick and Aronson divorced again in October 1999, after lengthy divorce proceedings. Merrick met Natalie Lloyd (born Natalie Ting Lloyd, Shanghai, 1954; formerly married to Jose Teresa) in the late 1980s when she was working as a receptionist in the office of William Goodstein, Merrick's lawyer. They started living together almost immediately, while Merrick was still married to Aronson. Merrick and Lloyd married on November 23, 1999 in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, less than six months before Merrick’s death on April 25, 2000.

Honors

In 1965, Merrick received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

. In 2001, he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Biography

An unauthorized biography by Howard Kissel is titled ''David Merrick: The Abominable Showman'' ().

Cultural references

In "What Does A Naked Lady Say to You?", a first-season episode of '' The Odd Couple'', the director of the nude

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

play ''Bathtub'' (itself based on '' Oh! Calcutta!'') complains after police officer Murray Greschler ( Al Molinaro) busts the production for indecency, "Murray, you wouldn't do this to me if I was David Merrick!" In "We Closed in Minneapolis", a first-season episode of ''

The Mary Tyler Moore Show ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (also known simply as ''Mary Tyler Moore'') is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from September 19, 1970 ...

'', Mary's character comments to the mailroom guy upon seeing his delivery to Murray's desk of what she assumes to be a rejection letter, "Oh, poor Murray. He's been writing this play for three years. You'd think Broadway producers would be sensitive enough to do more than just stick mimeographed rejection slips in when they send it back. You know, something like a nice, handwritten note saying, "Good work, Murray. Nice try. Love, David Merrick."

Quotes

* "It's not enough that I should succeed, others should fail." (This statement has also been attributed to François de La Rochefoucauld,

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

, and

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

Awards and nominations

* 1958 Tony Award for Best Play ('' Romanoff and Juliet'', nominee) * 1958 Tony Award for Best Play ('' Look Back in Anger'', nominee) * 1958 Tony Award for Best Musical (''

'', nominee) * 1959 Tony Award for Best Play ('' Epitaph for George Dillon'', nominee) * 1959 Tony Award for Best Musical ('' La Plume de Ma Tante'', nominee) * 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical (''Take Me Along'', nominee) * 1961 Special Tony Award (winner) * 1961 Tony Award for Best Play (''Becket'', winner) * 1961 Tony Award for Best Musical (''Do Re Mi'', nominee) * 1961 Tony Award for Best Musical (''Irma La Douce'', nominee) * 1962 Tony Award for Best Producer of a Play (''Ross'', nominee) * 1962 Tony Award for Best Producer of a Musical (''Carnival'', nominee) * 1962 Tony Award for Best Musical (''Carnival'', nominee) * 1963 Tony Award for Best Producer of a Musical (''Oliver!'', nominee) * 1963 Tony Award for Best Musical (''

Oliver! ''Oliver!'' is a stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel ''Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, southwest London in 1960 before opening in the W ...

'', nominee) * 1963 Tony Award for Best Musical ('' Stop the World – I Want to Get Off'', nominee) * 1964 Tony Award for Best Producer (Musical) (''Hello, Dolly!'', winner) * 1964 Tony Award for Best Play (''Luther'', winner) * 1964 Tony Award for Best Musical (''Hello, Dolly!'', winner) * 1965 Tony Award for Best Producer of a Musical (''The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd'', nominee) * 1965 Tony Award for Best Musical ('' Oh, What a Lovely War!'', nominee) * 1966 Tony Award for Best Play (''Inadmissible Evidence'', nominee) * 1966 Tony Award for Best Play ('' Philadelphia, Here I Come!'', nominee) * 1966 Tony Award for Best Play (''

Marat/Sade ''The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade'' (), usually shortened to ''Marat/Sade'' (), is a 1963 play by Peter Weiss. The work was firs ...

'', winner) * 1967 Tony Award for Best Musical (''I Do! I Do!'', nominee) * 1968 Special Tony Award (winner) * 1968 Tony Award for Best Producer of a Play (''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'', winner) * 1968 Tony Award for Best Play (''

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' is an absurdist, existential tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's ''Hamle ...

'', winner) * 1968 Tony Award for Best Musical (''The Happy Time'', nominee) * 1968 Tony Award for Best Musical ('' How Now, Dow Jones'', nominee) * 1969 Tony Award for Best Musical (''Promises, Promises'', nominee) * 1970 Tony Award for Best Play (''Child's Play'', nominee) * 1971 Tony Award for Best Play (''The Philanthropist'', nominee) * 1972 Tony Award for Best Play (''Vivat! Vivat Regina!'', nominee) * 1973 Tony Award for Best Musical (''Sugar'', nominee) * 1975 Tony Award for Best Musical (''Mack & Mabel'', nominee) * 1976 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival (''Very Good Eddie'', nominee) * 1976 Tony Award for Best Play (''Travesties'', winner) * 1981 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical (''42nd Street'', nominee) * 1981 Tony Award for Best Musical (''42nd Street'', winner) * 1986

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards are among the most esteemed honors in New York theater, recognizing outstanding achievements across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions within the same categories. The awards are considered a signific ...

for Outstanding Revival (''Loot'', nominee) * 1986 Tony Award for Best Reproduction (''Loot'', nominee)

Additional notable stage productions

* ''Clutterbuck'' (1949) * '' Fanny'' (1954) * '' The Matchmaker'' (1955) * '' Look Back in Anger'' (1957) * '' Romanoff and Juliet'' (1957) * ''

'' (1957) * '' The Entertainer'' (1958) * '' The World of Suzie Wong'' (1958) * '' La Plume de Ma Tante'' (1958) * '' Destry Rides Again'' (1959) * ''

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'' (1959) * '' Take Me Along'' (1959) * '' Irma La Douce'' (1960) * '' A Taste of Honey'' (1960) * '' Becket'' (1960) * '' Do Re Mi'' (1960) * ''

Carnival! ''Carnival'' is a musical theatre, musical, originally produced by David Merrick on Broadway in 1961, with the book by Michael Stewart (playwright), Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The musical is based on the 1953 film ''Lil ...

'' (1961) * '' Subways Are For Sleeping'' (1961) * '' I Can Get It for You Wholesale'' (1962) * '' Stop the World – I Want to Get Off'' (1962) * ''

'' (1963) * '' Luther'' (1963) * '' 110 in the Shade'' (1963) * '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1963) * '' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore'' (1964) * '' Hello, Dolly!'' (1964) * '' Foxy'' (1964) * '' Oh, What a Lovely War!'' (1964) * '' The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd'' (1965) * '' Pickwick'' (1965) * '' Cactus Flower'' (1965) * ''

'' (1965) * '' Don't Drink the Water'' (1966) * '' I Do! I Do!'' (1966) * '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1966) * '' Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead'' (1967) * '' How Now, Dow Jones'' (1967) * '' The Seven Descents of Myrtle'' (1968) * '' The Happy Time'' (1968) * '' Promises, Promises'' (1968) * '' Forty Carats'' (1968) * '' Play It Again, Sam'' (1969) * ''

Private Lives ''Private Lives'' is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It concerns a divorced couple who, while honeymooning with their new spouses, discover that they are staying in adjacent rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetuall ...

'' (1969) * '' Mack and Mabel'' (1974) * '' Very Good Eddie'' (1975) * ''

State Fair A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in t ...

'' (1996)

Film productions

Merrick produced four films: * '' Child's Play'' (1972) * ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' () is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious mi ...

'' (1974) * ''

Semi-Tough ''Semi-Tough'' is a 1977 American sports comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston, Lotte Lenya, and Bert Convy. It is set in the world of American professional fo ...

'' (1977) * ''

Rough Cut In filmmaking, the rough cut (also known as the first cut or editor's cut) is the second of three stages of offline editing. The term originates from the early days of filmmaking when film stock was physically cut and reassembled, but is still ...

'' (1980)

References

External links

''The New York Times'' obituary
* *
David Merrick Paper
s at the

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, th ...

St. Louis Walk of Fame
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merrick, David 1911 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American Jews American theatre directors American theatre managers and producers American entertainment industry businesspeople Broadway theatre producers Businesspeople from St. Louis Missouri Democrats New York (state) Democrats Tony Award winners Washington University in St. Louis alumni Saint Louis University School of Law alumni 20th-century American businesspeople American casino industry businesspeople American corporate directors Special Tony Award recipients