Walter Pierce (impresario)
| Walter Pierce | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 11, 1930 Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Boston University |
| Known for | impresario, promoter, arts administrator |
Walter Pierce (born November 1, 1930, Cambridge, Massachusetts) is a performing arts impresario who, from 1965 until 1996, presented, managed, and promoted over 1500 music, dance, and theater events in Boston under the auspices of the Celebrity Series of Boston. Pierce also served as president of the International Society for the Performing Arts in 1976 and 1977.
Walter Pierce graduated from Rindge Technical High School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1947 and from Boston University in 1952. He was drafted into the US Army in September 1952, served two years, eighteen months in Germany.
Following his discharge, Pierce moved to New York City, working for the advertising firm of Ruthrauff and Ryan before joining the theatrical publicity firm of Max Eisen. While with Max Eisen, Pierce promoted Broadway and off-Broadway shows, including Yiddish Theatre productions, and the summer tent productions of St. John Terrell who conceived ‘Broadway under the big top,’ the presentation of musical theatre in the round under a circus tent, also known as Music Circus.
Pierce returned to Boston to pursue a master's degree in Public Relations at Boston University, following which Pierce joined the South Shore Music Circus, a summer tent theater in Cohasset, MA, as publicity director. During Cohasset’s off-season, he free-lanced as a publicist promoting the Boston premiere of Federico Fellini’s film La Strada, writing for the exhibitors’ trade magazine Motion Picture Herald and managing the opening of a foreign films theater in Milton, Massachusetts, before returning the following summer to the South Shore Music Circus.
During his second season at the South Shore Music Circus, Pierce was introduced to Boston impresario Aaron Richmond, who offered him a position with the Boston University Celebrity Series that Pierce accepted, working summers at the Music Circus and at the Celebrity Series the balance of the year. Pierce left the Music Circus in 1960 to work for the Celebrity Series on a full-time basis.
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