Revered American Showman Dies In Hospital

Eclectic American showman and publicist Howard Atlee, who promoted classical Broadway-era talent including dog shows and dramas, has reportedly died in a Maryland hospital at the age of 97.

His friend and caretaker Harpreet Singh broke the news of Atlee’s passing just days ago. Atlee promoted Edward Albee’s first play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, at the Billy Rose Theater in 1962.

Atlee also assisted in bringing Black Americans into the entertainment industry by helping the founding of the Negro Ensemble Company, which promoted Black actors and other theater workers.

The New York Times reports on his death,

Howard Atlee, an eclectic publicist who represented award-winning shows during a now bygone Broadway era and, as an avocation, also bred dachshunds that won best in show at dog competitions, died on March 15 in Silver Spring, Md. He was 97.

His death, in a hospital, was announced by his friend and caretaker, Harpreet Singh.

Transplanted from an Ohio city of 10,000, Mr. Atlee set his sights on Broadway after attending his first professionally staged production while serving in the Navy in Boston. After he was discharged, he was a theater major in college.

As a publicist, he would help launch the career of the playwright Edward Albee by promoting his first full-length play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” at the Billy Rose Theater in 1962. Some critics dismissed it as salacious, but Howard Taubman raved in The New York Times that it was written by “a born dramatist” and “marks a further gain for a young writer becoming a major figure of our stage.”

Mr. Atlee also helped found the Negro Ensemble Company, which offered opportunities to fledgling Black actors and other theater professionals, including would-be publicists.

The New York times

The New York Public Library has posted the following biography on Atlee,

Howard Atlee was born Howard Atlee Heinlen in Bucyrus, Ohio in 1926. After graduating from Emerson College in 1950, Atlee initially worked as an actor and theater manager. He began his career as a press agent in the early 1950s, joining the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers (ATPAM) in 1958.

Atlee’s office represented productions ranging from Broadway to Off-Off-Broadway plays, including plays of the Black Arts Movement and Theater of the Absurd. Atlee represented many Edward Albee plays, and also served as press agent for Richard Barr and the production group Barr formed with Clinton Wilder. The production group, founded as Theater 1960 (its name changed annually, becoming Theater 1961, Theater 1962, etc.), was responsible for the original 1962 production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

From 1967 until the early 1990s, Atlee was press agent for the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). He hired black associates to work with the NEC; many black press agents were able to meet the apprenticeship requirements for ATPAM membership through working in Atlee’s office.

Atlee retired as a press agent and returned to acting in the 1990s.

Rest in peace to a legendary showman!