Person
Biography
Marvin Morgenstern maintained a deliberately low profile during the nearly 50 years that he spent as the partner to Barton Mumaw, one of Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers who remained connected to the Pillow for seven decades. Though he is only referred to as “M” in Mumaw’s autobiography (because Morgenstern’s mother was alive at the time of publication in 1986 and they observed the era’s customary discretion), Morgenstern’s impact on Mumaw was life-changing. Mumaw described the young lawyer that he met in 1953 as “A tall, handsome, intelligent young man, his integrity shone as clearly as his brilliance.” Spending their first decade together in the West Village of Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights, they were partners in various real-estate ventures while Mumaw performed on Broadway (including more than five years in the original company of My Fair Lady). After they relocated to Florida in 1965, they continued their real estate investments and moved with remarkable frequency, often every year or two. Morgenstern was a master weaver and won many awards for his creations. He also dabbled in antiques, but most of his time was devoted to his lifelong mission as companion and caregiver to Barton Mumaw until his death in 2001. The extent of that devotion was made clear after Morgenstern’s own death in October 2016 at the age of 91. It was only then that the terms of the financial trust that he had nurtured alone for fifteen years became known, resulting in a bequest of nearly half a million dollars for Jacob’s Pillow. In recognition of this extraordinary gesture, one of the new Overlook Houses has been named Barton Mumaw House and decorated with some of the images and memorabilia that Morgenstern and Mumaw donated to the Pillow over the years. After more than four decades together with Mumaw, he was fond of saying of their partnership, “If we’re not careful, it will become permanent!” In the end, it was exactly that.
Source of Biography
Written by Norton Owen for Jacob's Pillow Remembers.