Lewis Manilow brought his energy and enthusiasm to an array of civic and cultural institutions in Chicago, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, which he co-founded, and the Goodman Theatre.
A lawyer and developer by vocation, Manilow was an eclectic and influential art collector, as well as a prodigious fundraiser for Democratic political candidates. He combined his real estate acumen with his civic interests in promoting the notion of a North Loop theater district, which came to fruition with the construction in 2000 of the Goodman’s home at 170 N. Dearborn St.
“Lewis Manilow was a driving force behind Chicago cultural anchors including the Goodman Theatre and Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art, a generous philanthropist and dear friend,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. “Throughout my career, Lew challenged me to think fresh and new, read great books and question conventional wisdom.”
Manilow, 90, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on Tuesday at his Gold Coast neighborhood home, said his wife, Susan.
Born Irvin Inger in Wayne County, Mich., Manilow was given up for adoption shortly after his birth by his Eastern European immigrant parents, Sam and Gussie Inger. He was adopted by Russian immigrant and noted Chicago developer Nathan Manilow and his wife, Minette.
Manilow grew up on Chicago’s North Side and graduated from Senn High School. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a year before transferring to the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. He subsequently earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1951.
Always a fan of theater, Manilow moved to New York City to produce a play, Sean O’Casey’s “Purple Dust,” at the Cherry Lane Theatre.
“He loved the theater, but then he fast realized that that was not going to be what he did,” Susan Manilow said with a laugh. “So he came back to Chicago.”
Manilow started working as a Cook County assistant state’s attorney. The theater continued to beckon, however, and in 1956, he was part of a group that launched a small resident theater company at the Studebaker Theatre in the Fine Arts building.
Manilow eventually left the state’s attorney’s office and went into private law practice with Elliot Epstein. Much of his work involved the real estate ventures of his father, who helped develop south suburban Park Forest.
Manilow also served as president of his father’s company, Park Forest South Developers, and was one of four developers, along with Bernard Wolf, Marvin Fitch and Paul Rosenthal, to develop the 27-story Cornell Village condominium complex at 5201 S. Cornell Ave. in Hyde Park in the late 1960s.
In 1970, Manilow and his father, who died in 1971, began work on another planned community, Park Forest South — now known as University Park. They were co-investors in the project with subsidiaries of Illinois Central Industries and a unit of United States Gypsum. Manilow told the Tribune’s Alvin Nagelberg in 1970 that he and his father hoped to bring “a dead subdivision” back to life.
While Park Forest South never grew to anywhere near the size that Manilow and his father had aimed for — their early plans were for a community of 100,000 residents — it became a community of about 7,000 residents
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Manilow eased up on his development work and began focusing more on philanthropic, civic and political endeavors.
Manilow was in a group of founding sponsors of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and was on the museum’s board from the time it opened in 1967. He served as its board president from 1976 until 1981 and had been an early contributor to the museum’s collection. Manilow also endowed a curatorship at the museum.
Manilow and his wife brought into the museum’s collection works by artists such as H.C. Westermann, Kara Walker, Shirin Neshat, William Kentridge and Kerry James Marshall.
“Lew was a giant of Chicago’s art and culture scene. His extraordinary passion, intelligence and dedication influenced not only the MCA and the visual arts but also the theater scene and downtown Chicago,” said Madeleine Grynsztejn, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art. At the MCA, “his influence is clear to all of us as there are innumerable gifts of art from him and his wonderful wife, Susan, in our galleries, including some great masterpieces.”
Beginning in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Manilow was the first to propose a “theater row” in the North Loop as a way to reinvigorate the neighborhood and upgrade its nightlife. He co-chaired the capital campaign committee that successfully allowed the Goodman Theatre to leave its longtime home at the Art Institute of Chicago and move to a newly constructed, $53 million complex on Dearborn in the Loop. Manilow and his wife donated $1 million for the project.
“There are times when you have to step up,” he told the Tribune’s Sid Smith in 1999. “When people have a vision like this, people like me have to help it along. I’ve been pushing the theater district for 20 years. With the dream this close, I can’t not donate.”
“The Goodman Theatre would not be what it is today without Lew Manilow, and furthermore the North Loop theater district would not exist if it were not for Lew Manilow,” said Goodman Executive Director Roche Schulfer. “He had this vision for how live theater in the North Loop could reinvigorate this part of the city and make it a destination point for people once again as it had been decades before.”
Schulfer recalled Manilow’s incisive questions at meetings involving the board, staff members and artists.
“He wanted to get right down to the meat of the issues,” Schulfer said.
Barbara Gaines, founder and artistic director of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and a longtime friend, said Manilow was a “natural teacher.”
“He was a creator. Some people divide and some people create for their fellow man, and he was a creator,” Gaines said. “He did so many creations.”
In 2000, Manilow was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton, alongside Barbra Streisand and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Manilow also had a keen interest in politics. He served on Jimmy Carter’s Illinois campaign committee in 1976, and in 1992, he teamed up with attorney John Schmidt to lead the Illinois campaign finance operation for Clinton’s first presidential campaign.
In addition to his wife, Manilow is survived by two sons, David and John; a daughter, Karen; two stepsons, John Eisendrath and Chicago Sun-Times CEO Edwin Eisendrath; 15 grandchildren; and a brother, Jack Shore — whom Manilow met for the first time in 2008.
Manilow’s family is planning a private graveside service for Friday. A public celebration will be held on Jan. 15 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand Ave.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
