Nick Vanoff

Producer Nick Vanoff thought BIG, likening himself as an inspired modern contemporary theatrical New York 42nd Street and Broadway showman Florence Ziegfield, when producing ABC's television hosted television musical variety series "The Hollywood Palace," located on 1735 North Vine Street and Hollywood Boulevard in the spring of 1967. Vanoff had the show's design team Jim Trittipo and Hub Braden put together a proposal estimate for the ABC studio-theater property undergoing major renovations, which would have been undertaken during the 1967 summer "The Hollywood Palace" TV variety show's hiatus. The main stage underground basement area would have been converted into a swimming pool for aquatic staged performances. This would have removed an orchestra basement lounge, dressing rooms and storage rooms. The stage floor would be on tracks to slide backwards, to store behind the cyclorama stage back wall. A second sliding ice rink floor would be on top of the stage floor (rear back wall) storage area, on another set of tracks. A major problem, for utilizing the rear of the building for the two tracking floor storage area, was the backside property, which was owned by the Methodist Church. The Knickerbocker Hotel had been purchased and converted into a Methodist Senior Citizen assisted living residential facility. ABC TV would not make a real estate commitment for the renovation, nor foot the reconstruction costs as projected. Vanoff then instigated a second proposal to move the ABC TV variety series to Culver City Studios, where the expanded variety showcase could include an ice rink and swimming pool. Vanoff aborted the proposal when ABC objected moving the television show out of their Hollywood-Vine Studio. After the series was canceled in January, 1970, Nick Vanoff, involved with real estate, took over the former Columbia Pictures Film Studio located at Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, renaming the abandoned lot "The Sunset Gower Studios." In 1979, Vanoff proposed a variety show to the network brass at NBC Television, titled "The Big Show" encompassing a swimming pool, an ice rink, a performance three ring stage surrounded by a live studio audience, hosted by rotating two celebrity stars, as a ninety (90) minute in length weekly variety show presentation. NBC jumped on the complex TV variety show idea. The opening "premiere" of " The Big Show" was a two hour musical specialty television spectacle, video taped on one of the large film stages at "The Sunset-Gower Studios," 1438 North Gower Street, in Hollywood, California. "The BigShow" premiered in September 1980, lasting all of just one NBC prime-time season.

Nick Vanoff was born on October 25, 1929 in Greece.

Producer who worked side by side with his younger brother, Boris Vanoff (1932-2006), who was a talent coordinator, on The Hollywood Palace (1964). Boris was also a cameraman for ABC-TV in Buffalo.

Nick Vanoff started his career as a dancer in Charles Weidman's Dance Theatre. Later, he was a lead dancer for the New York City Opera. He was also in the dance line in the "Kiss Me, Kate" original Broadway musical. The Cole Porter "Kiss Me Kate" musical opened December 30, 1948, closing in July 28, 1951, 1077 performances, featuring star lead performers: Patricia Morison, Alfred Drake, Lisa Kirk; line dancers: Mark Breaux, John Castello and Nick Vanoff.

Vanoff was a cue card holder on the NBC television music variety series "The Perry Como Show" and later, Perry Como promoted Vanoff to be the TV musical series associate producer. Together with William O. Harbach, Vanoff co-produced "The Tonight Show," when Steve Allen was the host. Additionally, he created and produced the televised "Kennedy Center Honors." In the 1960s, he produced more than ten hours of television every week, including shows with Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Don Knotts, Milton Berle and Sonny and Cher. A few decades later, in 1985, he produced the film "Eleni".

Forming Zodiac Productions with William O. Harbach, Nick's co-producer and long time associate-friend, they produced The Hollywood Palace (1964) variety show for ABC (1964-70).

He was a producer and director, known for The Julie Andrews Hour (1972), The Hollywood Palace (1964) and The Bing Crosby Show (1959).

Vanoff won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 1990 for his production of the "City of Angels" musical on Broadway. Additionally, he won five Emmy Awards as a producer for: "The Julie Andrews Hour" in 1973, "The Kennedy Center Honors" in 1984, 1987 and 1989, and Julie Andrews's special, "The Sound of Christmas," in 1988. In 1990, he was named "Showman of the Year" by the Publicists Guild of America (which later merged into the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees-IATSE).