Ruth Béate Landers (May 17, 1938 – April 18, 2024) was a television producer, manager, businesswoman and mother of actresses
Audrey and
Judy Landers.
Background
Ruth Landers was born in 1938 in
Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the foreland of the Taunus on its namesake Main, it forms a contin ...
. Her family fled to Shanghai in November 1938 after
Kristallnacht
( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...
. She immigrated to the United States in 1948.
Her eldest daughter Audrey was born in Philadelphia in 1959.
In 1973, she established a printing company called Office Research Corporation, which she sold in 2000. In the 1980s, Landers began to establish herself as a producer of television and films, alongside managing her daughters Audrey and Judy's careers.
''The Huggabug Club''
In 1995, she created and executive produced the children's television series ''
The Huggabug Club'' (1995–2000).
The family self funded the production, which initially launched on 70 PBS stations, soon growing to 144 the next spring. Landers would later donate the rights to ''The Huggabug Club'' to PBS.
Landers STAR Collection
In 1998, Landers moved to
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...
to live near her daughters. They discovered the town after visiting while doing live performances for ''The Huggabug Club''. In Florida, Landers would go on to develop a line of affordable fashion for women alongside her daughters, which she sold through Home Shopping Europe, QVC and Shop NBC called Landers STAR Collection.
The fashion line was inspired by the Landers family's personal taste and desire to create a collection wearable by mothers, daughters and grandmothers.
Landers died of natural causes in Sarasota on April 18, 2024.
Executive Producer
* 1986 ''Rock Candy''
* 1989 ''Ghost Writer''
* 1989 ''Club Fed''
* 1991 ''
California Casanova''
* 2006 ''
Circus Island''
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1938 births
2024 deaths
American film producers
American television producers
People from Sarasota, Florida
German emigrants to the United States