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Theatre and music producer
Founder: Library Theatre
Washingtonian of the Year 1987
Cherry Gordon was headed for the theatre from the start. After leaving Western in 1947 determined to become
an actress, she entered Syracuse University and graduated in 1950 with a
degree in theater. While in Syracuse, she was a writer and director of
children’s programming for the city’s first commercial TV station.
Moving to NYC, she worked in a
variety of settings: she was an assistant to Skitch Henderson on his
morning radio show; she wrote a weekly program for teen-agers and began
her own production company – Chero Enterprises – to develop children’s
entertainment; and she worked for CBS to produce the first educational
children’s show on network TV.
Marriage to Rabbi Leon M. Adler
in 1957 brought her back to the DC area, to Montgomery Co. where she
became active with the Jewish Community Center writing and directing
puppet shows for children. She was a founding trustee of the Cultural
Alliance of Greater Washington and served as Vice-President. Her activism
also helped form the Montgomery Co. Arts Council and she also served as
Vice-President of the League of Washington Theaters. In 1970 she founded
the Library Theatre to bring live musical productions to DC area
elementary schools, as well as original programming for WRC-TV.
This record of creative work on
behalf of theatre in the Washington area was recognized in 1987 when the
Washingtonian Magazine named her “Washingtonian of the Year” and the same
year the Governor of Maryland awarded her a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Cherry also received the Tony Taylor Award given by the Cultural alliance
of Greater Washington.
Her marriage to Rabbi Adler ended
in divorce. Cherry died on September 14, 1996, of cancer, leaving three
children.
Source: Washington
Post, 16 Sept. 1996. |