Margery Gray Harnick (known professionally as MARGERY GRAY) began her long career at the age of seven, singing on an NBC-Radio children’s program. On Broadway, Ms. Gray was featured in Greenwillow and Tovarich (where she played opposite Vivien Leigh and Jean Pierre Aumont). She was also featured in the highly successful Off-Broadway revival of Anything Goes and toured the United States and Canada as a principle in the original cast of The Boy Friend. Her paths crossed with Sheldon Harnick’s when she was featured in his shows Tenderloin and Fiorello. Together they appeared in ‘Rainbow and Stars’ in 1990. They have created two books composed of her photographs and his poems: The Outdoor Museum and Koi. (The latter book has additional photographs by their son Matthew.) Both books are published by Beaufort Books.
Sheldon Harnick’s career began in the 1950’s with songs in revues both on and off Broadway. With Jerry Brock he created a number of memorable musicals including Fiorello (Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award), She Loves Me (Grammy Award), and Fiddler on the Roof (Tony Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award). Other collaborations: Rex (Richard Rogers), A Wonderful Life (Joe Raposo), A Christmas Carol (Michael Legrand), Smiling the Boy Fell Dead (David Baker), and The Phantom Tollbooth (with Arnold Black and Norton Juster). He has written two musicals himself: Dragons and Malpractice Makes Perfect. The Angel recording of The Merry Widow, using Mr. Harnick’s translation, won the Grammy Award as Best New Opera recording of 1978/1979. And along with Jerry Brock, he was presented with The Johnny Mercer Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Matt Harnick was born in Hollywood but spent most of his life bouncing back and forth between New York City and East Hampton, Long Island. His primary love is natural science but he has always been artistic as well. With a B.A. from LIU Southampton Campus, he worked as a Scientific Assistant at the American Museum of Natural History’s Department of Ichthyology and Herpetology. In photography he started as a traditional photographer and has both darkroom and digital processing skills. He loves oragami and has had several original designs published in Origami USA. Professional credits include computer preperation of photos for The Outdoor Museum: Not Your Usual Images of New York; photographs for his book Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: A New York Holiday Tradition; and x-ray of a gecko trapped in amber for the book Amber: A Window To The Past.