Samuel Roger Horchow (July 3, 1928 – May 2, 2020) was an American retailer and Broadway

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

. Horchow was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, the son of Beatrice (Schwartz) and Reuben Horchow, an attorney. In 1971, he started The Horchow Collection, the first luxury mail-order catalog that was not preceded by a brick-and-mortar presence. He sold the Horchow Collection to

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compan ...

in 1988. In 1992, he produced his first Broadway show, '' Crazy for You'', a

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

musical, for which he won the

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

for Best Musical. The London version of ''Crazy for You'' won the

Laurence Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known a ...

for Best Musical. Though ''Crazy for You'' was inspired by an earlier Gershwin musical, '' Girl Crazy'', which opened in 1930, theater critics and the American Theater Wing ultimately considered it to be a "new musical." ''Crazy for You'' was directed by Mike Ockrent and choreographed by

Susan Stroman Susan P. Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include '' The Producers'', '' Crazy for You'', ''Contact'', and '' The Scottsboro Boys''. She i ...

. In 2000, Horchow and co-producer Roger Berlind staged a revival of

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...

's ''

Kiss Me, Kate ''Kiss Me, Kate'' is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and the conflict on and off-sta ...

'', for which he won his second Tony Award, for Best Musical Revival. In 2007, Horchow along with other producers produced '' Curtains'', a comedic murder mystery nominated for 8 Tony awards and 10 Drama Desk awards and in 2008 was a minor producer in the Broadway revival of ''

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with si ...

'' with Patti LuPone. Horchow was a member of The Hill School Class of 1945. In 2002 he received the school's highest alumni honor, The Sixth Form Leadership Award. Horchow was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater,

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, in 1999, and is one of the subjects of '' The Tipping Point'' (Little, Brown, 2000) 2002 edition , an influential book by '' New Yorker'' writer

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published seven books: '' The Tipping Point: How Little ...

. Horchow was the author of three books, "''The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections''" (St. Martin's Press, 2006 and Neiman Marcus Exclusive, 2005) , ''Elephants in Your Mailbox: How I Learned the Secrets of Mail-Order Marketing Despite Having Made 25 Horrendous Mistakes'' (Times Books, 1980) , and ''Living in Style: In A Time When Taste Means More Than Money'' (Rawson Assoc, 1981) . Horchow was on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service. Horchow served on the board of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Whitney Museum, Dallas Museum of Art and Yale University Art Gallery. He was Vice-Chairman of KERA Public Radio, Dallas, TX. Dallas Theater Center, Foundation for Arts and Preservation in Embassies, Direct Relief International (Advisory Board). His wife, Carolyn Pfeifer, died in 2009. Horchow lived in Dallas and had three daughters and five granddaughters.

References

1928 births 2020 deaths Writers from Cincinnati The Hill School alumni 20th-century American businesspeople Jewish American writers 21st-century American Jews {{theat-bio-stub

External Links

Roger Horchow Collection of George Gershwin
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) 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 for the pu ...