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Ernest Harold Martin (born Ernest Harold Markowitz; August 28, 1919 – May 7, 1995)[1] was an American Broadway producer who wrote the book for a musical, owned a Broadway theater and produced motion pictures, including Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Chorus Line and Cabaret (1972 film nominated for 10 Oscars).[1] Best known for such hits as Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Cabaret, Martin left his mark on American and international theatre and screen.
Martin, singly or with Cy Feuer, was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical five times with Walking Happy (1967); Skyscraper (1966), Little Me (1963); How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1962), and Guys and Dolls (1951). Little Me and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying also garnered them nominations for the Tony Award for Best Producer of a Musical. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Guys and Dolls won the Tony Award for Best Musical, while "Business" also won the Best Producer Tony and the Pulitzer Prize. Feuer and Martin owned the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre from 1960 to 1965.[2] They were so successful as producers on Broadway that they were dubbed "The Golddust Twins."
Martin managed the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera from 1976 to 1980 as well as its sister Civic Light Opera in San Francisco, bringing Broadway shows to the west coast and creating and cultivating new shows (such as Liza Minnelli's The Act) prior to taking them to Broadway NY Times Obituary Ernest H. Martin Dies. Ernest H. Martin was a master at conceptualization and initiator of many Broadway and film classics, while his partner Cy Feuer, was a master at directing and executing on the ideas. Feuer was known to say, "Ernie was the sparkplug and I was the engineer" [3]
He graduated from UCLA, where he was elected president of the senior class. He began his career at CBS radio, where he quickly rose to the position of head of programming. He was married three times, twice to women named Nancy, and his third wife was Twyla Martin. One of his wives was the quintessentially insouciant actress Nancy Guild, (1925-1999) to whom he was married from 1951 to 1975, with whom he had three children: Cecilia and Polly (deceased 2004), as well as Liz (who was Nancy Guild's daughter from a prior marriage).[3]
