Partner F.X. McCloskey
Queer Places:
Temple University, 1801 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19122
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Stan Hurwitz (1945 - January 5, 1991) was a press agent who became a theater manager, coproducing
Nunsense and Pump Boys and Dinettes. He was a theater impresario and producer
who developed a taste for show business as a youngster when he got puppets as
a Hanukkah gift.
Hurwitz, a former manager of the Shubert Theater, started his own production business, Starbright Enterprises, and co-produced shows such as One Mo' Time, Kiss of the Spider Woman and The All Night Strut!
With Deen Kogan of the Society Hill Playhouse, he also produced Nunsense, the longest-running musical comedy in Philadelphia.
Kogan met Hurwitz, then a student at Temple University, in the early 1960s when Hurwitz was a stagehand and extra at the playhouse. The two developed a friendship through the years that swung full circle when Hurwitz returned to work with Kogan in 1986 to produce Nunsense.
"He brought a certain strength in public relations," Kogan said. "He loved working in promotion. He had that kind of personality. He was warm and interested. . . . More than the theatrical association, he was a person who was very kind and very caring."
Hurwitz's love for the theater began when he was 9 and received hand puppets for a present, according to his companion of 25 years, F.X. McCloskey.
Temple University
With the puppets in mind, he found a large carton behind a supermarket in his Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood and brought it home to use as a stage for his puppet productions, Hurwitz once told an interviewer.
Hurwitz was involved in theater while in school but studied communications at Temple University on the advice of his guidance counselor, McCloskey said. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1966 and later received a master's degree in communications from Temple, McCloskey said.
Hurwitz's first job out of school was as a public relations director for The Mike Douglas Show in 1966, with responsibilites that included escorting guests for the entertainment/talk show.
Harry Jay Katz, a Center City restaurateur who met Hurwitz in the late 1960s, remembered Mr. Hurwitz as person who put friendship before other wordly concerns. "He was the sweetest, nicest, warmest man. . . . He would always have a hug for you, always have an open ear, always have time for his friends," he said. "Never, ever, in the . . . years I knew him, I never heard him raise his voice," Katz said. "It sounds really corny because I can't say that about many of my associates. . . . It's just a real Philadelphia loss."
After working with the television show, Hurwitz managed the Shubert Theater until 1985. The next year, he began working again with the Society Hill Playhouse. His last project was as producer of the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes, playing at the playhouse.
He he died on January 5, 1991, at his home in Gladwyne.
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