times. After various challenges including difficulty in arranging ocean transportation, the goal of 1500 refugees was set. Pittsburgh Playhouse The Pittsburgh Civic Playhouse was founded in 1933. A committee of Richard S. Rauh, Helen Wayne, Leon Falk Jr. and Charles Rosenbloom re-organized the group into the non-profit Pittsburgh Playhouse in late 1934. The Pittsburgh Playhouse became a successful community theater for many years. By the mid 1960s the Pittsburgh Playhouse was in crisis. After a failed move to a professional theater company with the American Conservatory Theater, attendance and subscriptions had dropped off significantly and the ambitious seasons had increased expenses and driven away corporate support, leaving the Playhouse in a tenuous financial position by December 1966. Loti Falk and Theodore Hazlett Jr. led a successful emergency effort to raise $300,000 in order for the 1966-1967 Playhouse season to continue. Personal life Leon Falk Jr. was married 3 times. Falk married Katherine Sonneborn on June 24, 1926. The marriage ended in divorce in August 1947. In December 1948, Falk married his ex-wife's sister, Josephine Sonneborn Ross. Josephine died in her sleep on board their yacht, Saba, in Stuart, Florida on February 11, 1962. Falk later met Loti Grunberg while living in New York City and were married in 1963. The couple moved back to Pittsburgh from New York City in 1963 and became increasingly active in the arts and cultural community of Pittsburgh. Loti joined the board of the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1963 and helped the Pittsburgh Playhouse avoid financial collapse in 1966. Loti Falk helped found the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater in 1969. Falk died on June 9, 1988, after a series of strokes at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh and was survived by his wife Loti, three daughters, two sons, a stepdaughter and four stepsons. References 1901 births 1988 deaths Philanthropists from Pennsylvania Businesspeople from Pittsburgh 20th-century American businesspeople Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni 20th-century American philanthropists