P. Dodd Ackerman, Shrimp Boats, Fort Myers, mixed media 20 by 16 inches. Sighed lower right P. Dodd Ackerman, 57.
Born in Pensacola, Florida in 1876, P. Dodd Ackerman rose to become one of the most distinguished designers of the American theater. Ackerman’s designs for Broadway shows of the 1920 and 1930’s included: The Girl Friend, a musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart; Murder on the Second Floor starring Laurence Olivier; The Green Hat starring Katharine Cornell and Leslie Howard; Sitting Pretty by Jerome Kern; The Barker, starring Walter Huston and Claudette Colbert; No No Nanette; Fancy Free starring Marilyn Miller; and Ernest Hemmingway’s, A Farewell to Arms.
One of Ackerman’s early productions was staged at the Tampa Bay Casino in February 1918. The Tampa Times noted “P. Dodd Ackerman the famous scenic artist, who paints the marvelous scenes for the New York Hippodrome and the Winter Garden, has surpassed his former efforts in the scenic investiture for Very Good Eddie.”
In March of 1933 Ackerman did the stage design for the first drama with a Florida based theme presented on Broadway. The play Strange Times, written by Jessica Ball, the wife of the editor of the Jacksonville Florida Times Union, is set in West Florida pines barrens and tells of the arrival of three very civilized New Yorkers arriving in the Florida pine barrens and a Florida, “Cracker” who prefers to go to the electric chair rather than tell the woman he loves about the death of her former husband. The set included Spanish moss, pine trees, and palmetto logs, all shipped in from Glen St. Mary, Florida.
Some time in the early 1920’s Ackerman acquired a block of waterfront property facing the Caloosahatchee River, on McGregor Boulevard, just outside the city limits of Fort Myers. His home, River House was completed for Christmas of the 1939-40 winter season. After the war Ackerman place frequent ads in the Fort Myers New Press reading, P. Dodd Ackerman Studio, 1637 Frist Street, Phone 863-M. Private lessons only, Useful arts Taught.
He and Mrs. Ackerman were founding members of the Fort Myers Little Theater. The Fort Myers News Press carried ads for his studio. “Own something of which there are no duplicates in this, or any other country. Buy One of Those Sketches Recently Shown Here of Sets for a New York City Production. As Designed By P. Dodd Ackerman Studio, 2053 Bayside Parkway. Tel. ED 2-0952. In 1961 a fallout with friends in Fort Myers prompted Ackerman to move back to New York. He died there, age 87, in 1963.
Born: January 29, 1877, Pensacola, Florida. Died: January 9, 1963, New York. Education: In Paris and Munich, tapestries, furniture design, art application, and figure painting. Exhibits: Fort Myers Little Theater lobby, May 9, 1961, original sketches.
