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[Left Side Top: Picture of HERMAN PEPPER]
WE'LL ALL MISS PEPPER.... On Thursday afternoon, March 6, Herman Pepper, probably the world's greatest theatregoer, died at his desk at Playbill Magazine.
"Pep" had been employed by Playbill since 1947, and he had the unusual responsibility of estimating how many programs were needed in each theatre each night. In order to do this he would make his rounds on foot every evening stopping briefly at each house, making a fast count of the audience, cornering a head usher or the general manager or the man at the box-office to ask --- "What's Cooking?"
In his wanderings, Herman Pepper probably saw more theatre in the last quarter century than anyone in the world, but the only two shows he saw from beginning to the end were My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof.
Pep was an extremely accurate barometer of the activity level and future prospects of a Broadway production. He never referred to any show by its name, but rather by the name of the theatre where it was playing. His reports were brief and to the point---"Big lines at the Lyceum,"---"Quiet at the Shubert." His harshest criticism of a show was a dismissive wiggle of his hand and the comment "Some People like it!" He had a particularly hard time understanding who those people were during the nude musicals of the 60s.
Herman Pepper was an important member of that part of the Broadway community which seldom enjoys any public recognition. He had met a few producers, directors, stars but his real friends were the general managers, the men and women in the box offices, the ticket brokers, the cleaners and the ushers.
The enormous success of the current Broadway season was a particular, even personal, satisfaction to Pep. He never lost faith in the Broadway theatre, though he frequently lost patience with its critics. He was among the first to predict theatre's renaissance, having spotted the trend as early as the spring of '74.
In a very real sense the Broadway community was "family" to Pepper. His family will miss him.

[[ Right side of the page, image of HALSTON]]
HALSTON
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