 Photo of Eben Henson taken in front of the Pioneer Playhouse box office
by Robert A. Powell during the 2003 summer season.
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PC: Right Click on Photo and Select 'Save Target As' *
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EBEN HENSON
(January 27, 1923 - April 25, 2004)
A Brief Biography
Colonel Eben Henson was best known as the founder of Pioneer Playhouse, Kentucky’s
oldest outdoor theater which he started in 1950 near Danville, Kentucky and
ran continuously for 54 years.
Lacking sufficient funds to build a stage, Henson tenaciously relied on used
or abandoned materials. He once traded a fifth of whisky for support beams
and often joked that he was the first person to promote recycling. His theater’s
distinctive gingerbread ticket office was lifted from the set of the MGM Civil
War epic Raintree County.
In a wide-ranging and storied career, the Colonel produced over 300 plays,
worked on and acted in dozens of movies including Raintree County, April Love
and The
Treasure of Matacombie, served on numerous arts boards and even survived a
stint as an alligator wrestler in Silver Springs, Florida.
Henson was born in Danville, Kentucky on January 27, 1923. His mother was
a New Yorker from a tough neighborhood near Coney Island and his father was
a
sign
painter, magician and federal revenue agent who chased moonshiners through
the hills of Kentucky.
After a stint in the U. S. Navy during WWII, Henson pursued an acting career
in New York. He studied drama at the New School for Social Research with the
experimental theater director Erwin Piscator and performed in plays alongside
Tony Curtis, Bea Arthur and Harry Belafonte.
In 1947 he returned to Kentucky with an unshakable resolve to bring “Broadway
to the Bluegrass.” He built a summer stage that helped the careers of
hundreds of young actors, including John Travolta, Jim Varney, Lee Majors and
Bo Hopkins.
Twice named a Kentucky colonel by Governors of the state, Henson played up
the title with his signature string tie and his considerable Southern charm
on his
annual recruiting trips to New York to audition prospective actors. On one
such trip in 1999, a New York Times writer described him in a feature article
as “part
George M. Cohan, part Lee Strasburg, part used-car salesman” and one
of a dying breed. He refused to close his theater during lean years through
force
of will alone.
When Henson married Charlotte Hutchison he found an active partner in running
the theater. Their children are: Eben David Henson, a graphic artist in Danville;
Robby Henson, a filmmaker in Los Angeles; Holly Henson, a standup comic in
Minneapolis; and Heather Henson, a children’s book author and novelist
now living in Danville. He is survived by his sister, Janet Dow, a playwright
residing in Woodbury,
Connecticut.
Henson once described how he built his distinctive 12-acre theater complex; “I
never used a blueprint. I would just put up a board and start nailing.” That
statement stands as a blueprint for his life.
The family requests. in lieu of flowers, friends can make donations to the
arts organizations of their choice.
Additional information
Henson once served as the mayor of Danville, was a recipient of the Governor’s
Pioneering Award and was awarded a permanent star on the Kentucky walk of fame
in downtown Lexington.
Additional survivors are daughters-in-law Janet Cox Henson and Linda Ciangio-Henson,
sons-in-law Timothy Ungs and Tom Hansen, and grandson Daniel Walker Ungs.
Portrait of Eben Henson taken by Robert A. Powell in front of the Pioneer
Playhouse box office in 1969.
To Download High Resolution Images:
PC: Right Click on Photo and Select 'Save Target As' *
MAC: Click and Hold on Photo and Select 'Download Link to Disk' |
Eben Henson with Eva Marie Saint during the filming of Raintree County
in the early 1950s. It was the last epic extravaganza produced by one
of the major Hollywood studios, and Miss Saint was considered as the ‘toast
of Danville.’
|
During the first two decades of his career, Eben Henson made several
trips to Hollywood, and worked on various film projects with the seven
major movie studios. He is pictured here on a studio back-lot with Zsa
Zsa Gabor and Lex Baxter. Eben was a stunt man in several Tarzan movies,
and Baxter was the third actor to play Tarzan.
|
840 Stanford Rd.
Danville, KY |
40422 859-236-2747 pioneer@mis.net | 
