Brock Pemberton
Brock Pemberton (December 14, 1885 - March 11, 1950) was an American theatrical producer, director and founder of the Tony Awards.
Pemberton was born in Leavenworth, Kansas and attended the University of Kansas. Before becoming a producer he was a press agent in New York. He was a partner of Antoinette Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, both professionally and romantically. [1] Among his notable productions was Miss Lulu Bett, whose writer Zona Gale became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and Personal Appearance by Lawrence Riley, which was a Broadway hit and was later turned into the classic film Go West, Young Man.
Pemberton hosted the first Tony Award ceremony, then known as the "Antoinette Perry awards". The awards got their nickname, "Tonys", during that ceremony when Pemberton himself handed out an award and called it a "Toni", referring to the nickname of Antoinette Perry.
Months after his death in 1950 a Tony Award was given to him posthumously which indicated his role as the founder and the original chairman of the Tony Awards. He was a member of the Algonquin Round Table.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ "How The Tonys Got Their Name". The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards. http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/archive/perry.html. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- ^ Members of the Algonquin Round Table
[edit] External links
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