How two Kansas brothers came to influence the nation’s art and literary circles

This Sunday night, when some of you turn your televisions to CBS at 7 p.m. to watch the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre – better known as the Tonys – think about the Kansas connection.

There would not be a Tony Award had it not been for a Kansan who created the awards in honor of his partner, Antoinette Perry.

Brock Pemberton, a Broadway producer and founder of the Tony Awards, grew up in Leavenworth and attended both the College of Emporia in Emporia and the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

He was a nephew of Marshall Murdock, founding editor and publisher of The Wichita Eagle.

Pemberton also had a brother named Murdock Pemberton.

Both were nurtured in their young careers by Marshall Murdock and William Allen White, editor of the Emporia Gazette.

The two Pembertons later move to New York.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Brock Pemberton produced plays. Some of his best-known hits included “Harvey,” about a man whose best friend is an imaginary rabbit, and “Personal Appearance,” later made into the movie “Go West, Young Man.” During World War II, Brock Pemberton was instrumental in establishing USO shows for the military.

Brock Pemberton’s partner in theater was Antoinette Perry, an actress, director and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing. He nicknamed her “Tony.” She died in 1946.

The first Tony was awarded in 1947 to recognize outstanding talent and technical achievement. When Brock Pemberton died in 1950, he was awarded posthumously a Tony for his role as founder and original chairman of the awards. He is buried in a New York cemetery.

His brother went on to become the first art critic at the New Yorker magazine and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table, the literary world’s most celebrated group of writers, critics and actors.

Murdock Pemberton died in 1982. There is a tombstone for him in Maplewood Memorial Lawn Cemetery in Emporia.

This story was originally published June 9, 2016 at 5:11 PM with the headline "How two Kansas brothers came to influence the nation’s art and literary circles."