John Willis R.I.P.
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Big Magilla
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Ah, that was nice.Reza wrote:Mr. Willis was a stickler for detail, and he was especially miffed when, writing brief obituaries for film and theater celebrities, he could not find out the cause of death. He deplored the euphemism “natural causes.”
“When I go, please mention what killed me,” he often said.
It was complications of lung cancer.
June 28, 2010
John Willis, Ubiquitous Editor of Theatre World, Dies at 93
By BRUCE WEBER
John Willis, who spent more than half a century doggedly keeping comprehensive track of American theater productions and film releases and whose encyclopedic records were published in the annual volumes Theatre World and Screen World, died at his home in Manhattan on Friday. He was 93.
His death was announced by Ben Hodges, who succeeded him as editor of Theatre World in 2008.
A prodigious theatergoer who became perhaps the most ubiquitous audience member of the last half of the 20th century, Mr. Willis was an aspiring actor who came to New York City in 1945 after serving in the Navy during World War II and took a job as a typist at Theatre World, which was then a new publication.
Founded by Daniel Blum, it was a thoroughgoing accounting of Broadway shows, out-of-town tryouts and summer stock productions. It kept tabs on cast members, crew members and running dates and published production photos.
Five years later Blum founded Screen World, which did the same for domestic and foreign films released in the United States, and Mr. Willis was his assistant from the outset. For decades, the two enterprises were singularly authoritative, providing research material for journalists, entertainment professionals and fans.
“Before the Internet, he was the go-to guy for this information,” said Barry Monush, now the editor of Screen World, who became Mr. Willis’s assistant in 1988 and assumed most of the editing chores in the 1990s.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, as Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and regional theater emerged and flourished, Theatre World did too. As the movie business grew, so did Screen World’s coverage of it. Mr. Willis’s role increased over time, and in 1965, when Blum died, he took over as editor of both volumes, though he was first and foremost a theater devotee.
The theater volumes also included season highlights, career summaries of the year’s performers, brief obituaries and, most years, a season summary written by Mr. Willis. Theatre World was also the sponsor of annual awards for excellence by performers making their Broadway or Off Broadway stage debuts. Mr. Willis’s home office on the Upper West Side was a repository of theater documents a veritable archive of playbills, press releases, production photos and the like.
Mr. Willis took the responsibility of the awards especially seriously; under his editorship the long list of prominent recipients included Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Bernadette Peters, Gregory Hines, Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Danny Glover, Richard Gere, Matthew Broderick, John Malkovich, Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson. Hewent to see them all and many, many more.
Indeed, Mr. Willis was a theatergoing phenomenon. Before he broke his hip in a fall in 2002, he saw everything he could, attending an average of eight live performances a week, 50 weeks a year which over a half-century adds up to 20,000 shows. (He took off two weeks each June to visit his home in Bean Station, Tenn.)
According to Mr. Hodges, Mr. Willis stayed to the end of each performance, with two exceptions: one was during the blackout of 1977, the other when the friend he was with was thrown out of a theater for drunkenness and Mr. Willis was fearful the man was too unsteady to make it home.
“He’d sit through anything,” Mr. Hodges said. “He’d say, ‘They went through all this effort, it’s the least I can do.’ ”
John Alvin Willis was born in Morristown, Tenn., on Oct. 16, 1916. His father was a pharmacist and his mother came from a wealthy family. He graduated from Milligan College in Johnson City, Tenn., and earned an M.A. in English from the University of Tennessee. He enlisted in the Navy in 1941 and served in the Pacific during World War II. Shortly after he arrived in New York, the director of a summer stock production who was working with Blum on the first Theatre World told him about the typist job.
Mr. Willis was married and divorced twice. No immediate family members survive.
His dedication to the theater was especially remarkable in that he held a full-time teaching job in the New York City public schools from 1955 to 1976; when he finally retired from teaching, he was able to attend daytime movie screenings in addition to his evening playgoing.
As if he didn’t have enough to do, Mr. Willis assisted Blum in compiling Opera World from 1952 to 1954, and he was the sole editor of Dance World from 1966 to 1979.
“I was amazed at the hours he worked,” Mr. Monush said. “You could call him at 1 or 2 in the morning and he’d be up working.”
Obviously, Mr. Willis was a stickler for detail, and he was especially miffed when, writing brief obituaries for film and theater celebrities, he could not find out the cause of death. He deplored the euphemism “natural causes.”
“When I go, please mention what killed me,” he often said.
It was complications of lung cancer.
John Willis, Ubiquitous Editor of Theatre World, Dies at 93
By BRUCE WEBER
John Willis, who spent more than half a century doggedly keeping comprehensive track of American theater productions and film releases and whose encyclopedic records were published in the annual volumes Theatre World and Screen World, died at his home in Manhattan on Friday. He was 93.
His death was announced by Ben Hodges, who succeeded him as editor of Theatre World in 2008.
A prodigious theatergoer who became perhaps the most ubiquitous audience member of the last half of the 20th century, Mr. Willis was an aspiring actor who came to New York City in 1945 after serving in the Navy during World War II and took a job as a typist at Theatre World, which was then a new publication.
Founded by Daniel Blum, it was a thoroughgoing accounting of Broadway shows, out-of-town tryouts and summer stock productions. It kept tabs on cast members, crew members and running dates and published production photos.
Five years later Blum founded Screen World, which did the same for domestic and foreign films released in the United States, and Mr. Willis was his assistant from the outset. For decades, the two enterprises were singularly authoritative, providing research material for journalists, entertainment professionals and fans.
“Before the Internet, he was the go-to guy for this information,” said Barry Monush, now the editor of Screen World, who became Mr. Willis’s assistant in 1988 and assumed most of the editing chores in the 1990s.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, as Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and regional theater emerged and flourished, Theatre World did too. As the movie business grew, so did Screen World’s coverage of it. Mr. Willis’s role increased over time, and in 1965, when Blum died, he took over as editor of both volumes, though he was first and foremost a theater devotee.
The theater volumes also included season highlights, career summaries of the year’s performers, brief obituaries and, most years, a season summary written by Mr. Willis. Theatre World was also the sponsor of annual awards for excellence by performers making their Broadway or Off Broadway stage debuts. Mr. Willis’s home office on the Upper West Side was a repository of theater documents a veritable archive of playbills, press releases, production photos and the like.
Mr. Willis took the responsibility of the awards especially seriously; under his editorship the long list of prominent recipients included Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Bernadette Peters, Gregory Hines, Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Danny Glover, Richard Gere, Matthew Broderick, John Malkovich, Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson. Hewent to see them all and many, many more.
Indeed, Mr. Willis was a theatergoing phenomenon. Before he broke his hip in a fall in 2002, he saw everything he could, attending an average of eight live performances a week, 50 weeks a year which over a half-century adds up to 20,000 shows. (He took off two weeks each June to visit his home in Bean Station, Tenn.)
According to Mr. Hodges, Mr. Willis stayed to the end of each performance, with two exceptions: one was during the blackout of 1977, the other when the friend he was with was thrown out of a theater for drunkenness and Mr. Willis was fearful the man was too unsteady to make it home.
“He’d sit through anything,” Mr. Hodges said. “He’d say, ‘They went through all this effort, it’s the least I can do.’ ”
John Alvin Willis was born in Morristown, Tenn., on Oct. 16, 1916. His father was a pharmacist and his mother came from a wealthy family. He graduated from Milligan College in Johnson City, Tenn., and earned an M.A. in English from the University of Tennessee. He enlisted in the Navy in 1941 and served in the Pacific during World War II. Shortly after he arrived in New York, the director of a summer stock production who was working with Blum on the first Theatre World told him about the typist job.
Mr. Willis was married and divorced twice. No immediate family members survive.
His dedication to the theater was especially remarkable in that he held a full-time teaching job in the New York City public schools from 1955 to 1976; when he finally retired from teaching, he was able to attend daytime movie screenings in addition to his evening playgoing.
As if he didn’t have enough to do, Mr. Willis assisted Blum in compiling Opera World from 1952 to 1954, and he was the sole editor of Dance World from 1966 to 1979.
“I was amazed at the hours he worked,” Mr. Monush said. “You could call him at 1 or 2 in the morning and he’d be up working.”
Obviously, Mr. Willis was a stickler for detail, and he was especially miffed when, writing brief obituaries for film and theater celebrities, he could not find out the cause of death. He deplored the euphemism “natural causes.”
“When I go, please mention what killed me,” he often said.
It was complications of lung cancer.