Ken Shaw

1941 - 2021

By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Ken Shaw, who brought out the stars, presenting Toledo audiences with Broadway touring companies and a diversity of song, dance, and glamour, from the 1960s through the 1980s, died Oct. 8 in Warren Barr Gold Coast nursing home in Chicago. He was 80.

He was ill briefly with pancreatic cancer, his daughter, Carrie Shaw, said.

Mr. Shaw left Toledo in 1991 and his career as a theatrical promoter for Chicago to oversee the reopening of the Shubert Theatre, which the Nederlander Organization had just bought. He retired in 2006 from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where his roles included director of facilities and general manager.

Among his last Toledo ventures was Westgate Dinner Theater, a fixture on the Toledo professional theater scene formed in 1974 by Mr. Shaw and Virgil Gladieux, the food service magnate. Mr. Shaw bought the theater in 1987, but closed it in November, 1988, citing lack of patronage and mounting losses.

Several years earlier, Norman Dresser, then-Blade entertainment editor, noted that Mr. Shaw had staged about 200 "shows, concerts, and personal appearances since he abandoned spinning records for a local radio station to enter a more rewarding - and risky - area of show business."

Falling on the wrong side of risk brought occasional headlines - "Faith In Shaw Expressed by Agents In New York"; "Shaw says Toledo shows will go on."

More frequent were late summer previews of dazzling seasons ahead - hit musicals and plays starring names familiar from television or film - and positive reviews ("Spectacle At Masonic Truly A 'Cats' Meow").

"He loved bringing happiness and joy to other people," his daughter said.

Matt Lentz, who worked for Mr. Shaw starting as a high school student in the early 1970s, called him "Toledo's pre-eminent entrepreneur promoter for nearly three decades."

"Toledo and northwest Ohio enjoyed a lot of great theater thanks to Ken's passion for theater and his determination," said Mr. Lentz, now marketing and programming director at the Valentine Theatre, who became a vice president of Ken Shaw Productions. "It was where I honed my craft and career."

Mr. Shaw, who in childhood put on a neighborhood carnival and a church Christmas play, was a University of Toledo student in 1960 when he helped book the Kingston Trio and then the Four Freshmen for campus performances. For several years, his specialty was musical acts, which he brought to UT, the Sports Arena, or the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater - to which he booked Louis Armstrong and, separately, pianist Roger Williams.

He started bringing theatrical productions to the former Rivoli Theater downtown, presenting six shows his first season, 1967. By 1968, with the Rivoli scheduled for the wrecking ball and construction ongoing at the Masonic Auditorium - the future Stranahan - he staged several shows at Whitmer High School's auditorium.

In the early 1970s, he started Summer Star Theater in July and August. Mr. Dresser of The Blade deemed Mr. Shaw's 1972 season his most stunning, with 26 shows at the Masonic, including a summer season, and such stars as Burt Reynolds, Joel Grey, Tony Randall, Jack Klugman, Jane Powell, Pat O'Brien, and Phyllis Diller,

Mitzi Gaynor was a perennial favorite of Mr. Shaw, and Toledo audiences, and was booked regularly.

Money woes led Mr. Shaw to take a break in the mid-1970s, during which he was an entertainment consultant for Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

He returned to Toledo, formed Ken Shaw Productions, and brought in the likes of Carol Channing and Sammy Davis, Jr. and through the 1980s presented such fare as Cats, A Chorus Line, Evita, Annie, and La Cage Aux Folles.

"He had a vivid personality," said Frank Fischer, a retired television producer who worked for Mr. Shaw starting in the late 1960s. "He was gung-ho behind everything he got involved with. Luckily he picked good stuff.

"He had a couple bumps. That stuff happens. He had that kind of personality where he couldn't quit," Mr. Fischer said. "He had a wonderful attitude toward booking success, who he was [and] Toledo was."

Kenneth Frederick Shaw was born July 1, 1941, to Bette and Kenneth G. Shaw. He grew up in West Toledo and was a 1959 graduate of DeVilbiss High School.

He was a former assistant program director of radio station WCWA.

He was formerly married to Betty Beyer Bernhoft.

Surviving are his daughter, Carrie Shaw; son, Kevin Shaw; sister, Mary Wittman; two granddaughters, and a great-granddaughter.

A memorial services will be held form 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Nov. 18 in the lobby of the Stranahan Theater.

The family suggests tributes to JourneyCare, a Chicago hospice, or Ronald McDonald House.