Theatre impresario and Broadway producer Shelly Gross passed away on June 19, 2009, in West Palm Beach, Florida, after a long illness. With a career that spanned over fifty years, he created an unprecedented number of theatre operations around the country, produced shows for Broadway & National Tours and presented a who's who of legendary performers including everyone from Judy Garland to Bruce Springsteen. He was 88 years old.
Sheldon (Shelly) Gross was born on May 20, 1921 in Philadelphia, PA, the son of Samuel Gross, M.D., a general practitioner, and Anna Rosenblum Gross, a teacher. He attended Central High School and the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. After briefly attending Harvard Law School, he enlisted in the Navy to serve during World War II. He served several years as a communications officer, with the rank of lieutenant, in the South Pacific.
Upon returning from the war, Shelly soon thereafter met his wife, Joan Seidel Gross, with whom he had a wonderful marriage that produced three sons. On May 1, 2009, Shelly and Joan celebrated their 63d anniversary.
After the war, following up on his years as a radioman in the Navy, he obtained a Master's in Journalism from
Northwestern University and embarked upon a career in broadcasting. Shelly started out at WFPG, a radio station in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he was an announcer and newscaster. Moving back to Philadelphia, he began working in television at WFIL, known as the home of American Bandstand, where he became a popular television personality, winning the TV Guide Announcer of the Year award in 1954. Shelly remembered his early days in TV with great pride and fondness and, in recent years, was very active with Broadcast Pioneers in Philadelphia, which awarded him as Person of the Year in 1995.
In 1955, with partners
Lee Guber and
Frank Ford, Shelly opened the Valley Forge Music Fair, in Devon, PA, which at the outset was a huge circus tent presenting musicals in the summer. This was the beginning of Shelly's long, successful career as a theatrical producer. Valley Forge was followed in 1956 by Westbury Music Fair, on Long Island, and Shelly and his partners subsequently built a chain of year-round, superstar theaters that was the largest in the country. Shelly and his partners not only ran the theaters, but produced their own shows, with several companies active at the same time traveling from theater to theater. This created work and opportunities for so many young theater people, giving many their start, among the most notable being
Liza Minnelli, whose mother,
Judy Garland, performed one of her last concert tours at the Music Fairs. The list of stars who appeared at the Music Fairs, many of whom became Shelly's personal friends, could fill a small book:
Frank Sinatra,
Tony Bennett,
Don Rickles,
Bob Hope,
Jack Benny,
Bill Cosby (a fellow alumnus of Central High),
Sammy Davis, Jr.,
Ray Charles,
Tom Jones,
Angela Lansbury,
Steve Lawrence and
Eydie Gorme,
Patti LaBelle,
Milton Berle, Kenny Rogers,
Smokey Robinson,
Stevie Wonder,
Bruce Springsteen, Grover Washington, Jr., the list goes on and on.
In addition to the Music Fairs, Shelly, with his boyhood friend and partner,
Lee Guber, produced numerous Broadway shows, including
Carol Channing in Lorelei; a revival of The King and I, with
Yul Brynner; and a revival of Camelot, with
Robert Goulet. They also produced national tours of these shows and many others. Because of his many active years as a theatrical producer, Shelly was a Tony voter in his later years and loved his trips to New York seeing all the season's shows. Most recently, he was able to continue his passion for theater in retirement, by becoming an active supporter of Palm Beach Dramaworks, a highly-regarded nonprofit theater company in West Palm Beach, mentoring its directors and helping to raise considerable funds for the company.
Besides his career in theater, Shelly was a published author of such novels as "Havana X," "Roots of Honor," and "Stardust." He was also an avid fisherman and chess player.
In addition to his wife, Joan, Shelly is survived by his three sons, Byron of Los Angeles (Ricky Tovim), Rick of Estero, Florida (Debra Hardesty), and Dan of Wellesley, Massachusetts (Anne Marie Becker), four grandchildren, Tim Moffitt, Ted Moffitt, Jake Gross and Lilianna Gross, nephew Larry Kety, niece Roberta Kety and goddaughter Sara Jamison.
A memorial service is planned for late July in West Palm Beach, Florida. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his honor to Palm Beach Dramaworks, 322 Banyan Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL 33401.
