Kermit Bloomgarden

Kermit Bloomgarden (December 15, 1904 – September 20, 1976) was an American theatrical producer. He was an accountant before he began producing plays on Broadway including Death of a Salesman, The Diary of Anne Frank (1955), The Music Man (1957), Look Homeward, Angel (1957), and Equus (1973).

Early life Bloomgarden was born in Brooklyn to Zemad and Annie (née Groden) Bloomgarden, where he attended the local public schools. He majored in accounting at New York University and became a Certified Public Accountant after his graduation in 1926.

Career Bloomgarden transitioned into theater after meeting Arthur Beckhard at a 1932 dinner party, who convinced Bloomgarden, as he later recounted, that "the theater was for me". He worked for Beckhard as his general manager, before accepting the same position with Herman Shumlin. In his ten years with Shumlin, he helped produce a number of Lillian Hellman's plays, including The Children's Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939), and Watch on the Rhine (1942), and The Lark (1952), Hellman's English-language version of the play L'Alouette by Jean Anouilh. Bloomgarden also mounted Hellman's last play Toys in the Attic (1960).

His first producing effort was Heavenly Express (1940), starring John Garfield, which closed shortly after it opened. His first hit was Deep Are the Roots (1945), followed by Hellman's Another Part of the Forest (1946). Command Decision (1947) written by William Wister Haines, followed, with Paul Kelly sharing the Best Actor Tony Award that year for his performance and James Whitmore earning the Tony for "Best Performance by a Newcomer". Bloomgarden had a major string of success that culminated with the February 1949 opening of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, which earned a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Bloomgarden died at age 71 in his New York City home on September 20, 1976, having dealt with a brain tumor for six months before his death.

Personal life Bloomgarden's first wife, Hattie Richardson, who sang under the name Linda Lee, died in 1942. His marriage to his second wife, Virginia Kaye, ended in divorce. He had two sons with Kaye.