Brock Pemberton
Brock Pemberton
Born	Ralph Brock Pemberton (1885-12-14)December 14, 1885 Leavenworth, Kansas, U.S.
Died	March 11, 1950(1950-03-11) (aged 64) New York City, New York, U.S.
Education	University of Kansas
Alma mater	College of Emporia
Occupations	Theatre producer theatre director stage actor journalist
Known for	Founding theTony Awards
Notable work	Harvey
Spouse	Margaret McCoy ​ (m. 1915⁠–⁠1950)​
Relatives	Victor Murdock (uncle)
Awards	Special Tony Award (1950)

Brock Pemberton (December 14, 1885 – March 11, 1950) was an Americantheatrical producer,director and founder of theTony Awards. He was the professional partner ofAntoinette Perry, co-founder of theAmerican Theatre Wing,^[1] and he was also a member of theAlgonquin Round Table.^[2]

He was born Ralph Brock Pemberton^[3] inLeavenworth, Kansas,^[4] the third of four children to Albert Pemberton and Ella Murdock.^[5] He had two older sisters and a younger brother, Murdock Pemberton,^[5] who became a writer and playwright. Pemberton's family had moved toEmporia, Kansas by 1895, where he attended Union Street School thenEmporia High School.^[6][7] He was the valedictorian of his high school graduating class during May 1902.^[8]

He entered theCollege of Emporia on a scholarship during late summer 1902.^[9] During his sophomore year he played football^[10] and was Athletic editor of the college weekly paper.^[11] During the summer of 1904 he worked on theCoffeyville Daily Record, inCoffeyville, Kansas, a paper recently purchased by his cousin Roland Murdock.^[12] The following summer he worked on theKansas City Globe inKansas City, Kansas.^[13] After one term atYale University^{[fn 1]} during the fall of 1906,^[14] he returned to Emporia to work on theEmporia Gazette.^[15]

The owner-editor of that newspaper,William Allen White, had previously employed Pemberton during the summer of 1906 before he left for Yale.^[15] White had gotten his start on a newspaper owned by Pemberton's maternal relatives the Murdocks, and supported the political ambitions of Pemberton's uncleVictor Murdock, owner-editor of theWichita Eagle.^[16] By April 1907 Pemberton was enrolled in the School of Journalism at theUniversity of Kansas,^[17] while still working forThe Emporia Gazette.^[18] He pledgedPhi Delta Theta fraternity^{[fn 2]} upon returning to the University of Kansas in September 1907,^[19] and joined the Dramatic Club.^[20] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1908.^[21]

During the next two years Pemberton worked full-time for theEmporia Gazette, becoming White's star reporter^[22] then city editor by August 1909.^[23] A long profile he wrote of the folksy poetWalt Mason was carried by newspapers across the country in early 1910.^[24][25] In April 1910 he left Kansas to take up what he thought was a position onThe Sun in New York City.^[26]

Upon arriving in New York, Pemberton found outThe Sun position didn't exist, but was able to get a job on theEvening Mail, reporting on harbor traffic and shipping.^[27] He later became drama critic for theEvening Mail, then assistant drama critic on theNew York World, before becomingAlexander Woollcott's assistant inThe New York Times drama department.^[27]

Pemberton directed and produced the American premiere ofLuigi Pirandello'sSix Characters in Search of an Author in 1922,^[28] as well as its first Broadway revival two years later.^[29] In 1926, he produced and directed a Sam Janney play^[30] that became the filmLoose Ankles in 1930, starring a youngLoretta Young andDouglas Fairbanks, Jr. In 1929 he produced and directedPreston Sturges' playStrictly Dishonorable, which was filmed twice,in 1931 and againin 1951.

Among his other productions wasMiss Lulu Bett, whose writerZona Gale became the first woman to win thePulitzer Prize in Drama,Personal Appearance byLawrence Riley, which was aBroadway hit and was later turned into the filmGo West, Young Man andHarvey,Mary Chase's play about a man whose best friend is a large imaginary rabbit, later made intoa film starringJimmy Stewart.

Pemberton gave the Antoinette Perry Award its nickname, the Tony. As Perry's official biography at the Tony Awards website states, "At [Warner Bros. story editor] Jacob Wilk's suggestion, [Pemberton] proposed an award in her honor for distinguished stage acting and technical achievement. At the initial event in 1947, as he handed out an award, he called it a Tony. The name stuck.^[1]

From February 28, 1950 thru March 5, 1950, Pemberton played the lead in a production ofHarvey at theSombrero Playhouse in Phoenix, Arizona.^[31] Six days later he died at home from a heart attack.^[32]

Months after his death in 1950, aTony Award was given to him posthumously in recognition of his role as the founder and the original chairman of the Tony Awards.

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(December 2023)

• Pemberton, Brock (January 2, 1926). "A prince of Broadway". Profiles.The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 46. pp. 11–12.^[33]

• Brock Pemberton at theInternet Broadway Database
• Brock Pemberton atIMDb

• 1885 births
• 1950 deaths
• Algonquin Round Table
• American theatre managers and producers
• College of Emporia alumni
• The New Yorker people
• People from Leavenworth, Kansas
• Special Tony Award recipients
• Tony Awards
• University of Kansas alumni
• Phi Delta Theta members
• 20th-century American people

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