Herman Shumlin

Shumlin, Herman (1898–1979), producer and director. Born in Atwood, Colorado, he worked in New York for the Clipper and Billboard, then served with Laurence Schwab and Frank Mandel and with Jed Harris before embarking on an independent career as producer and director. Among his notable productions were The Last Mile (1930), Grand Hotel (1930), The Children's Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939), The Male Animal (1940), The Corn Is Green (1940), Watch on the Rhine (1941), The Searching Wind (1944), Inherit the Wind (1955), and The Deputy (1964). Lillian Hellman, whose plays he produced, wrote that he “has made many an actor into a star, and many a star into a decent actor. The theatre, for him, is not a place to show off. . . . He is one of the few directors who believes in the play; he is one of the very few who has the sharp clarity, the sensitivity, the understanding, which should be the director's gift to the play.”