Posters featuring a few of George Abbot’s Tony award-winning musicals, l-r: Damn Yankees, Fiorello!, and The Pajama Game
George Abbott, Upsilon 1911, University of Rochester
A LOOK BACK AT THE DEAN OF BROADWAY SHOWMEN By Chrisopher Lawrance Tang ESQ, Gamma Tau ‘01 (Georgia Tech) A young freshman at the University of Rochester’s Fall 1907 class found himself struggling with his studies. He worked the Summers as an electrician to pay for college and started to think of sacrificing his dreams of writing for that more reliable path. Fortunately for him and the world of theater, he George Abbot found the brotherhood of Psi Upsilon and a generous teacher who helped him through those struggling days. Young George Abbott, Upsilon 1911 (Rochester) would go on to be so famous as to be heralded as the Dean of Broadway Showmen 1.
Prior to university, young George enjoyed a childhood in New York. Though he spent some formative years in Wyoming riding and roping like a character from his musical Hello Dolly, he attended high school in his home town of Forestville, New York. There he led as both the captain of the football team and the lead actor for their drama program. In college George joined the Upsilon chapter and, thanks to the tutoring of his teacher Ednah Levis and the support of the brotherhood, George progressed through college with aplomb. Reflecting on the brotherhood George said that he felt guilty that other students at the University of Rochester were denied the Psi U experience 2. Within the University George continued to develop as a leader serving as a student council representative, vice president of student government, and named class poet during his senior year. Miss Levis’ attention not only aided him in college before a lifelong bond when they wed. After undergraduate George attended the renowned Harvard Dramatic Seminar under the renowned professor George Pierce Baker before moving to New York City to find his future.
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