The Estate of Jerry Herman

Auction of the Estate of Legendary Composer/Lyricist Jerry Herman on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 10am
Over 100 Lots, Including His Grand Piano, Memorabilia, Awards, Props, Artwork, Furniture & Much More
Featured Section of the Stage & Screen Auction
Sold to Benefit the Jerry Herman Legacy Programs at The ASCAP Foundation

NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle is honored to present at auction the Estate of Jerry Herman, the legendary composer-lyricist of such beloved Broadway musicals as Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage aux Folles. Over his five-decade career, he created music that still resonates with audiences, uplifting songs with phrases promising hope and happy tunes that left audiences humming. And he generously supported the Broadway community through The Actors Fund (now the Entertainment Community Fund) and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, in addition to fostering the next generation of writers and actors through the Jerry Herman Projects at ASCAP.

The Estate of Jerry Herman will be offered as a featured section of the Stage & Screen auction on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 10am. Property from the Estate comprises over 100 lots, including:

1995 Yamaha C7 Ebonized Grand Piano
2010 Kennedy Center Honors and 1994 Hollywood Walk of Fame Award
Hirschfeld Print signed by Mame Stars Angela Lansbury, Bea Arthur and Jane Connell
Props, Posters, Memorabilia, Awards, Silver, Furniture and much more

Jerry Herman

Early Years
Jerry Herman was born in New York in 1931, the only child of Harry and Ruth Herman, who encouraged his early love for music. Growing up in Jersey City, Jerry learned piano from his mother and quickly displayed remarkable compositional talent. His parents, both teachers and amateur musicians, ran a summer camp in upstate New York, where he wrote songs and staged musicals.

In 1946, his parents took him to see Ethel Merman in the original Broadway production of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, a life-changing experience. “I can still remember coming home from the show and sitting down at the piano and being able to play parts of six songs I’d never heard before,” Mr. Herman told The New York Times. “I was truly inspired by Irving Berlin, by his simplicity, and by the fact that he was able to write in a vernacular that the entire country could grasp immediately.”

After graduating from high school, he enrolled in Parsons School of Design but soon transferred to the University of Miami, where he studied drama and musical composition. It was there that he wrote his first musical, Sketchbook, which marked the start of his remarkable career.
Returning to New York after college, Jerry began to attract attention writing off-Broadway revues like I Feel Wonderful (1954), Nightcap (1958), Parade (1960) and Madame Aphrodite (1961). His first full Broadway score, for Milk and Honey (1961), received rave reviews and earned him his first Tony nomination.

Hello Dolly!
David Merrick, producer of Milk and Honey, was impressed and asked him to compose samples for a musical based on Thornton Wilder’s farce The Matchmaker. Given just a weekend, Herman recalled in his memoir, “I produced those four songs in two days of the wildest, most intensive writing binge of my life.” He took his tunes and a singer to Merrick's office, where Merrick, typically serious, smiled and said, “Kid, the show is yours.”

Hello Dolly! starring Carol Channing opening in January 1964 and became one of the great success stories of the musical theater, running for almost seven years and winning ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score for Herman. The show’s title song, famously recorded by Louis Armstrong, became a cultural phenomenon.

Mame
Jerry Herman’s next triumph, Mame starring Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur, opened in May 1966 and ran for almost 4 years, winning three Tony Awards, and garnering a Tony nomination for Herman. Based on Patrick Dennis’s 1955 novel Auntie Mame and its 1956 play adaptation, the musical showcased Herman’s talent for creating timeless and joyous music.

Following the success of Mame, Jerry Herman received mixed reviews with his next three musicals. Dear World (1969), an adaptation of Jean Giraudoux’s play The Madwoman of Chaillot; Mack & Mabel (1974) the story of silent film director Mack Sennett and his star Mabel Normand; and The Grand Tour based on S. N. Behrman's play Jacobowsky and the Colonel and starring Joel Grey (1979).

La Cage aux Folles
Jerry Herman made a triumphant return to Broadway in 1983 with La Cage aux Folles, a groundbreaking musical that became the first hit Broadway show centered on a same-gender relationship. Based on the 1973 French play by Jean Poiret, also a movie in French, and later the hit film, The Birdcage, it was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, running for over four years and winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score for Herman. The song, I Am What I Am, emerged as a global anthem of pride and self-acceptance.

In 1985 Jerry's Girls, a musical revue based on Mr. Herman’s songs, opened on Broadway starring Leslie Uggams, Dorothy Loudon and Chita Rivera. He wrote Barney’s World of Imagination, the title song for the film, Barney’s Great Adventure, sung by Bernadette Peters. His last Broadway show was the 1998 An Evening with Jerry Herman, a career retrospective in which he played piano onstage.

Honors and Awards
Over the course of his career, Jerry Herman was recognized with numerous awards and honors, including Tonys, Grammys, Drama Desk Awards, the Johnny Mercer Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, the Oscar Hammerstein Award, the Frederick Lowe Award and the Theatre Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1982 and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994. He received a lifetime achievement award at the Tony Awards in 2009 and was presented with the Kennedy Center Honors in 2010. The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, the campus theater at the University of Miami, is named in his honor.

Mr. Herman’s life was chronicled in his autobiography, Showtune: A Memoir with Marilyn Stasio; a biography by Stephen Citron, Jerry Herman: Poet of the Showtune; and a documentary, Words and Music by Jerry Herman, by filmmaker Amber Edwards.

Legacy
Jerry Herman's extraordinary talent for crafting songs that evoke joy and humanity has established him as one of Broadway’s most beloved composers. His musicals, celebrated for their optimism, warmth and memorable melodies, have left a lasting impact on musical theater. Through his work, he continues to inspire and entertain, guaranteeing that his contributions to the arts will be felt for generations to come.

“I’m a happy man who writes the way I want to write,” he told The Times. “If I had the choice of being the most brilliant and sophisticated writer that ever came down the pike, or of being the simple melodic songwriter that I am, I would still have chosen the latter.”

The Jerry Herman Programs of the ASCAP Foundation
The sale of property from the Estate of Jerry Herman will benefit the Jerry Herman Programs of the ASCAP Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization serving the music industry. The ASCAP Foundation Jerry Herman Broadway Legacy Prize was created as part the nationwide series of concerts and educational programs for high school and university students made possible by ASCAP member Jerry Herman. For information on The ASCAP Foundation, visit ascapfoundation.org