In 1964, a year before he died, his father bought the Palace Theatre, a historic New York vaudeville house that had gone into decline. His responsibility was mostly overseeing bookings and labor negotiations. After the war, he moved to Minneapolis to manage the Lyceum Theatre for eight years before returning to Detroit to help his father run the family chain as it spread throughout the Midwest. He worked as a box-office treasurer during the run of the show. He attended the Detroit Institute of Technology with the intention of studying law but left school to serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II.Īs a serviceman, he was assigned in 1943 to help mount the Broadway production of Moss Hart’s “Winged Victory,” a salute to the airborne service branch. In 1939, the 17-year-old Jimmy left school to join the family business - sweeping the lobby, working as an usher and a stagehand and selling tickets in the box office. James Morton Nederlander was born in Detroit on March 31, 1922. Nederlander, a former jeweler, the Nederlander Organization began in 1912 with the purchase of a 99-year lease on the old Detroit Opera House. Nederlander’s Minskoff Theatre stages Disney’s “The Lion King.”įounded by David T. Since then, “Aida,” “Tarzan,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Newsies” have found homes at a Nederlander house. It started in 1994 when Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” opened at the Palace Theatre. Nederlander’s most lucrative business collaborations was with the Walt Disney Co.
Nederlander’s stable is bigger than its rivals, once its theaters nationwide and in London are added to the mix. The Shubert Organization owns 16 theaters outright, and Jujamcyn Theaters owns five. The Nederlander Organization is one of three big theater chains on Broadway. He won a dozen Tony Awards as a producer or co-producer and received a special Tony for lifetime achievement in 2004.īroadway producer James M. Nederlander famously rejected anyone who claimed to have a rational way to predict which shows would be hits.
Known as Jimmy, the elder Nederlander produced or co-produced more than 100 shows, including “Annie,” “Copenhagen,” “The Will Rogers Follies,” “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” “La Cage aux Folles,” “Applause,” “Nine,” “Noises Off” and “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.” He also presented operas, ballets, concerts and artists ranging from Rudolf Nureyev to Frank Sinatra to U2. Nederlander, confirmed the death but did not provide further details. Nederlander, who took over the fledgling Nederlander Organization from his father and built it into one of the largest producers of live entertainment and a dominant national theater chain that includes nine Broadway houses, died July 25.
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