Richard Myers, a leading producer of Broadway plays for almost twenty years, was born on March 25, 1901, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his early education at the William Penn Charter School.
Mr. Myers entered the theater through the field of music. Associated with such publishing firms as Chappel and Company and Harms, Inc., he contributed music to various productions, including Here Goes the Bride (1931), Earl Carroll Vanities (1932), and the Ziegfield Follies (1934). One of his many works is the well-known hit song, “My Darling.”
In 1936, Mr. Myers launched his career as a producer, presenting with Francis Curtis I Want a Policeman. Shortly thereafter he collaborated for the first of many times with Richard Aldrich in presenting Tide Rising (1937). This was followed by such hits as The Importance of Being Ernest (1939), Margin for Error (1939), and My Dear Children (1940) which marked John Barrymore's last theater appearance. Aldrich and Myers became partners in 1948 with the production of Goodbye, My Fancy. In the next three years, they produced such hits as Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (1949) and The Devil's Disciple (1950), Four Twelves Are 48 (1951), and the repertory of the Dublin Gate Theater.
Mr. Myers collaborated with Julius Fleischmann to present the most successful of his ventures, The Moon Is Blue, which enjoyed a long run on Broadway, sent out several road companies, and was eventually made into a movie. Myer and Fleischmann also produced A Girl Can Tell (1953) and Dear Charles (1954) with Tallulah Bankhead. This partnership collaborated with other producers to present Little Glass Clock (1956), directed by Alan Schneider, Hotel Paradiso (1957), Interlock (1958), and Requiem for a Nun (1959), also directed by Alan Schneider.
