Morris Gest (also Maurice Guest, March 15, 1875 – May 16, 1942) was an American

theatrical producer Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

of the early 20th century.

Early life

Moishe Gershnowitz was born near

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

(then part of the Russian empire, now

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

), Edna Nahshon, "Going against the grain: Jews and passion plays on the American mainstream stage, 1879–1929"; in Edna Nahshon, ed, ''Jews and Theater in an Intercultural Context'' (Leiden: Brill, 2012; )
Here
at Google Books. the son of Leon and Elizabeth Gershonovitz. Through his mother he was a member of the middle-class Michliszanski clan which included his cousin, later renamed as Bernard Berenson, the art historian. A couple were emigrating to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and agreed to take him with them in 1890. Later, he attracted the attention of Mr. Thompson, for whom he worked in the library of the United States District Court who saw to it that he went to school.

Career

The theatre was the first job that came Gest's way and he gained experience in most of the skills involved in Boston's theatres. In 1901, he went to New York and worked for Oscar Hammerstein at the Manhattan Opera House and was promoted to foreign representative. He also produced Broadway shows such as ''Morris Gest's "Midnight Whirl"'' (1919) with music by

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swan ...

and lyrics by

Buddy DeSylva George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva (January 27, 1895 – July 11, 1950) was an American songwriter, film producer and record executive. He wrote or co-wrote many popular songs, and along with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs, he co-founded Capitol R ...

. After some false starts in production by himself, he teamed up with F. Ray Comstock and in the 1920s made his reputation by the import of Russian productions from the post-Revolutionary regime. They first staged a faux-Oriental spectacle entitled ''Aphrodite,'' which ran for 148 performances in 1919-20. Despite contributions by

Michel Fokine Michael Fokine ( – 22 August 1942) was a Russian choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and at the age of 9 was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Imperial Ballet Sch ...

(choreography) and Léon Bakst (costumes), it “displayed a gorgeous exterior, but was hollow inside.” In 1922 and 1923, Gest and Comstock presented

Nikita Balieff Nikita Fyodorovich Balieff (c. 1873 – September 3, 1936, born Mkrtich Balyan) was a Armenians in Russia, Russian Armenian vaudeville, vaudevillian, stage performer, writer, impresario, and director. He is best known as the creator and master o ...

's company " La Chauve-Souris". They also presented the

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; , ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was founded in by the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright ...

directed by

Konstantin Stanislavski Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( rus, Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj, links=yes; ; 7 August 1938) was a seminal Russian and Sovie ...

which reigned over New York drama despite the handicap of Russian dialogue. In 1923, he organised the last U.S. tour of Eleanor Duse. In 1924, he brought

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avant-gard ...

from Germany to stage '' The Miracle'' to which Gest brought his own talents in publicity and casting. These were well needed as the heavy costs of the sets, costumes, and cast of 175 could have meant financial disaster. In 1929, he put on Broadway, a presentation of “ The Passion Play”.

Later life

The

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and the parting from Comstock seem to have curbed his productions for five years but there was a last production, ''Lady Precious Stream'' in 1936. The same year marked the onset of a nervous breakdown. However he recovered sufficiently to be involved in the "Morris Gest's Little Miracle Town: with the world's greatest midget artistes". This was in connection with the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair) was an world's fair, international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The fair included exhibitio ...

.Program for "Morris Gest's Little Miracle Town: with the world's greatest midget artistes"
here
(PDF) at 1939nyworldsfair.com.

All the participants were midgets that Gest had brought from Germany, and the entire project was seen as a tawdry freak show, a sad commentary on the life of the producer who, in the 1920s, had introduced America to European high art.

He died on May 16, 1942. His widow, Reina, the daughter of David Belasco, died in 1948.

References

External links

*
Morris Gest Collection
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

* *Morris Gest, "Winning Farrar". ''

Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film fan magazines, its title another word for screenplay. It was founded in Chicago in 1911. Under early editors Julian Johnson and James R. Quirk, in style and reach it became a pacesetter for fan m ...

'', July 1915, pp 115–117
Here
in archive.org. About Geraldine Farrar: "How the most famous prima-donna in the world was secured for the photoplays. The man who turned the trick tells the story." {{DEFAULTSORT:Gest, Morris 1875 births 1942 deaths American theatre managers and producers American people of Russian-Jewish descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States

Early life

Career

Later life

References

Further reading

External links