Margie Korshak (1939-2025)
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Silver-haired, glamorous founder of Margie Korshak public relations and marketing agency and erstwhile booster of Chicago theater Margie Korshak has died in her Gold coast home at the age of 86.
Korshak told war stories of a life in promoting entertainment, of working closely with theater legends like Cameron Mackintosh and Garth Drabinsky, and of wrangling Barbra Streisand. She repeated what she saw as the eternal truth that “Les Misérables” would be the greatest musical of all time, even as she spoke of plans to see the rest of Broadway’s current season. Her clients included downtown theater owner Broadway in Chicago, and a who’s who of others in the entertainment and restaurant businesses, and her conversation across the years was filled with grand celebrity stories, a few involving her Uncle Sidney Korshak, a noted attorney with a reputation for being the Los Angeles-based fixer for the Chicago Outfit. In Chicago, Korshak, known to all by her first name, prided herself on having worked most every Chicago opening of a Broadway show since 1976. She was a fierce advocate for her clients, operating on the principle that she who does not ask does not get, and she had no compunction in pushing hard through whatever channel — reporter, critic, columnist, editor, yet more powerful editor — would get the results she wanted, ideally coverage in the Sunday Tribune’s arts section, ideally on the cover. But she did so with charm. Former Tribune arts and entertainment editor Scott Powers on Sunday called her “a tenacious sweetheart.” Born in 1939, Korshak married a total of five times, including to such successful spouses as Theodore Ruwitch, a Chicago industrialist; Michael Chernoff, a lawyer for the Indianapolis Colts with whom she had two children; and, later in life, Charles “Corky” Goodman, vice chairman of Henry Crown & Co., a Chicago-based private investment firm and a noted philanthropist, especially in Jewish circles and for educational institutions in Israel. Margie Korshak Inc. was founded in 1969, once had as many as 50 employees and for years was a multimillion-dollar operation. Her client list once included Bloomingdale’s and Disney although, in recent years, Korshak had wound down her business and moved its smaller operations inside Broadway in Chicago, its biggest client and the one with the product about which she was the most passionate. “A legend in her own time, she was the sparkle in my life and in all those that knew her,” said Eileen LaCario, Broadway in Chicago’s vice president and a close friend. Broadway in Chicago President Lou Raizin spoke of the “countless ways” in which Korshak would be missed. “She was knocked down a few times but she always got right back up,” said son Steven. “When she started that business in 1969, very few women were doing anything like that.” Korshak is survived by her children, Susan and Steven. With thanks to the Chicago Tribune for their coverage. |