Tom Erhardt

Thomas 'Tom' Joseph Erhardt (13th March 1928 - 28th December 2019) was a leading theatrical Literary Agent whose career spanned over five decades. A humble and gentle man when it came to his own success, all corners of Tom's life were occupied by his passion for the theatre. Born in Grand Rapids Michigan to parents Joseph and Cecilia, Tom was the eldest of three boys, his brothers named Lawrence and Peter. Lawrence is an award-winning construction engineer, who operates his family run corporation in Michigan. Peter (who died recently) was an inventor and industrial designer who amongst other things, invented the colour toner system for Xerox machines. Both brothers have large families and Andrew Erhardt, Patricia and their children, Sebastian and Gabriel were Tom's closest family in the UK. Tom attended High School at Catholic Central, Grand Rapids. A Senior in 1945, he edited the yearbook "Spires". He also attended Aquinas College in Grand Rapids. In 1946, he enlisted in the US Army aged 17. he fought no battles or campaigns but spent 12 months in the Philippines as a Stenographer. In 1947, aged 19, he received an honourable discharge from Camp Stoneman California. He left the Army a very good typist. Tom started his professional life in 1956, transcribing some of the most important plays and musicals of the twentieth century at New Dramatists' Committee in New York. He went on to work as assistant to agent Lucy Kroll, who represented many of the industry's most illustrious names, including Carl Sandburg, James Earl Jones, Horton Foote and Norman Mailer. On Tom's first morning working for Kroll, before he'd sat down at his new desk, the phone rang. It was Bette Davis screaming down the phone that she had terrible toothache and wouldn't make her lunch-date with Kroll. Tom always said that for the rest of his life he remained wary of the first phone call of the morning. During the years working for Kroll, he was seconded to several companies to help type scripts, including Noel Coward's Sail Away. One day Oscar Hammerstein needed a skilled typist to type up the manuscripts he was working on with Richard Rodgers. Tom was at his typewriter, while, on the other side of the door, he could hear the first phrases of The Sound of Music coming to life. When Hammerstein came through to read a typed draft of the lyrics of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? he shouted "Tom, that's not how you spell flibbertigibbet!". Hammerstein's secretary assured Tom that this was Hammerstein's way of telling you that he liked you. It was a move to London in 1966, working as the assistant to English theatre producer Peter Bridge that marked an important step in Tom's career. Bridge was a leading figure in the West End, producing some of London's most successful plays. Tom also worked as assistant to scriptwriter Larry Kramer on the feature film adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love directed by Ken Russell. Larry became a lifelong friend. It was while working with Bridge that Erhardt first met British playwright and director Alan Ayckbourn. Tom had previously represented Ayckbourn's interests in America when assisting director Gene Saks on How the Other Half Lives. The production was produced in New York and London by Bridge and Eddie Kulukundis. The year 1967 would mark a major turning point in Tom's professional life. This was the year he met, in a London pub, one of the twentieth century's most iconic writers, Tennessee Williams. Neither Tom nor Williams could have imagined how inextricably linked their worlds would become. It was Kulukundis who introduced Tom to Margaret or 'Peggy' Ramsay in 1971, one of the foremost theatrical agents working in Britain at the time. Ramsay saw herself not simply as a literary agent but as an agent of playwrights and had developed an enviable and much revered client list. Peggy offered Tom a full-time position with her at 14a Goodwins Court, St. Martin's Lane, London. Within three years Peggy had made Tom a director of the company, handling foreign rights and acting as point-person for all of her international clients, including Larry Kramer, Wallace Shawn, Manuel Puig and Václav Havel (who would go on to become the President of the Czechoslovakia). During his time with Peggy, Tom helped champion the careers of many of the most prestigious names in the theatre including, J.B. Priestley, Dame Muriel Spark, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Sir David Hare, Sir Christopher Hampton, Martin Sherman, Simon Callow, Stephen Poliakoff, Alan Plater, Robert Bolt, Joe Orton, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill and Willy Russell. In 1983 Peggy received a call to say that the literary executor of the Tennessee Williams estate, Lady Maria St Just, was coming to London to expand Williams' work in Britain and was looking for a UK agent. Peggy agreed to see her, but on the morning of the meeting she was sick and asked Tom to meet Maria in her absence. Tom was exceptionally knowledgeable about all Tennessee Williams plays and poems. He was also very charming and Maria immediately engaged Peggy's agency to represent Williams' work in the UK and rest of the world (excluding USA where it remained with Rosenstone & Wender). Tom and Lady St Just became great friends. Tennessee Williams died in 1981. In 1988 the Trustees of the estate, the University of the South, Sewanee Tennessee, selected Tom as the principal worldwide licensing agent for Williams' works. His unsurpassed depth of knowledge of Williams' plays, screenplays, and poems made Tom the key protector of the work. Ramsay's death in 1991 led to Tom becoming the keeper of her legacy, taking on most of her immense roster of clients. Erhardt was courted heavily by the big agency's in town. It was something of a feeding frenzy. Tom held his nerve. He and Laurence Harbottle were soon approached by Jenne and Giorgio Casarotto who brought with them expertise in agenting for film and television while Tom's expertise in theatre would succeed in forging an invaluable partnership. Tom enjoyed their approach and their conversations together over lunch. In 1992 they joined companies and became Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited. Tom became Company Director and Head of Theatre and worked with his protégé Mel Kenyon for the next twenty-one years. Their partnership was a very happy, fruitful, successful and loving one and continued until Tom's retirement in 2013. Tom's love of travel was often built around his theatre productions. If a play he represented was being produced in a new territory (e.g. South America, Australia, Eastern Europe) he would make that his next trip. He especially enjoyed his summers at the home of leading South African theatre producer Pieter Toerien. Tom always loved to dine out with friends and colleagues. He enjoyed playing bridge (George C. Scott was one of his many opponents) and read crime novels voraciously. Tom continued to work into his eighties, retiring on 20th December 2013. His eighty-sixth birthday was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields and was attended by some of the most distinguished names in the business. In celebration of Tom's career Laurence Harbottle and The Peggy Ramsay Foundation set up the Tom Erhardt Award to support new writing for the stage by providing grants to playwrights. Tom's legacy was his love of playwrights and of the theatre and will continue through the Tom Erhardt Award. Tom Erhardt died peacefully on December 28th 2019 at the age of ninety-one.