American Theater Hall of Fame

The American Theater Hall of Fame was founded in 1971 in New York City. The first head of its executive committee was Earl Blackwell. In an announcement in 1972, he said that the new Theater Hall of Fame would be located in the Uris Theatre (now the Gershwin Theatre), which was then under construction. James M. Nederlander and Gerard Oestreicher, who leased the theater, donated the space for the Hall of Fame; Arnold Weissberger was another founder. Blackwell ordered that the names of the first honorees "be embossed in bronze-gold lettering on the theater's entrance walls flanking its grand staircase and escalator".^[1]

The American Theater Hall of Fame is located at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City.

The first members elected to the Theater Hall of Fame were Walter Huston, Rudolf Friml, Lee and J. J. Shubert, Norman Bel Geddes, Jeanne Eagels, Ferenc Molnár, P. G. Wodehouse, Clyde Fitch, Lillian Russell, Arthur Hopkins, Marie Dressler, George S. Kaufman, Brooks Atkinson, George Abbott, Thornton Wilder, Ethel Merman, Bert Lahr, Moss Hart, Robert E. Sherwood, Orson Welles, Maxwell Anderson and Clifford Odets.^[2]

Eligible inductees come from disciplines including actors, playwrights, songwriters, designers, directors, and producers who have had a career in American theater for at least 25 years and at least five major production credits on Broadway.^[3][4] Selections are made each year by voting members of the Theater Hall of Fame and the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA). Induction takes place at a ceremony at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City, where the plaques containing the names of the inductees are hung.^[5]

Since 1998, full accounts of the annual induction ceremonies, with quotes from both inductees and their presenters, have appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. An index to these articles is on the ATCA website. An annual Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship Luncheon has been held annually since 2004 to salute a member "who continues to work on Broadway and also presents grants to emerging theatre artists".^[6]

Inductees

• George Abbott
• Judith Anderson
• Fred Astaire
• Pearl Bailey
• Tallulah Bankhead
• Ethel Barrymore
• John Barrymore
• Lionel Barrymore
• Norman Bel Geddes
• Irving Berlin
• Leonard Bernstein
• Edwin Booth
• Katharine Cornell
• Noël Coward
• Colleen Dewhurst^[7]
• Lynn Fontanne
• Eva Le Gallienne
• George Gershwin
• Ira Gershwin
• Lillian Gish
• Oscar Hammerstein II
• Moss Hart
• Helen Hayes
• Gertrude Lawrence
• Frank Loesser
• Alfred Lunt
• Ethel Merman
• George Jean Nathan
• Eugene O'Neill
• Jason Robards^[8]
• Richard Rodgers
• Laurette Taylor
• Tennessee Williams

Founders Award

An annual Theater Hall of Fame Founders Award, established in 1993 in honor of the three founders, recognizes an individual's outstanding contribution to the theatre.^[9]

Recipients:

• 1993 James Nederlander
• 1994 Kitty Carlisle Hart
• 1995 Harvey Sabinson
• 1996 Henry Hewes
• 1997 Otis L. Guernsey Jr.
• 1998 Edward Colton
• 1999 (No award)
• 2000 Gerard Oestreicher
• 2000 Arnold Weissberger
• 2001 Tom Dillon
• 2002 (No award)
• 2003 Price Berkley
• 2004 (No award)
• 2005 Donald Seawell
• 2007 Roy A. Somlyo
• 2008 Shirley Herz