The Broadway Threatre Guild has been bringing national Broadway musical theater productions, as well as some dramas, to a local venue since 1988.

Gary Hill took a leadership role in founding and running a theater gift shop, which was part of the BTG fundraising efforts from circa 1988 to 2001. Hill started as a volunteer with the Guild in 1988, first selling posters, that had been sent as promotional items, from a card table in the lobby of DeVos Hall. The store was named “Stage Door” after the 1937 star-packed movie of the same name that is a favorite of Hill's.

From this small beginning the store grew and moved from the Guild offices, then at 50 Monroe Place, to a kiosk located at Breton Village shopping center in 1991, to a regular store location at that same Grand Rapids neighborhood mall. Hill ran the store until his retirement in 2000. The store was also the primary Ticketmaster sales site for purchase of tickets for the productions. But it was closed in 2001, along with other moves to decrease the large deficits from which the Guild was attempting to recover, with the BTG organization citing a lack of profits.

In addition to the store, Hill often prepared articles for the organizations newsletter “Backstage Whispers.”

Born August 23, 1937 in Sparrow Hospital, Lansing Michigan. Father, William Gordon Hill and Mother, Alice Jeanne Saunders (Hill). Was only child on both sides of family until nine years of age. Grandmothers, Aunts and Uncles doted on me as I did them. They all became a driving forces in my up-bringing as my parents divorced when I was five years old. In school I was an above average student in the public schools of Lansing, graduating in 1955 from Eastern High. After serving in the military for two years, I attended Lansing Community College, Michigan State University and graduated from Grand Valley State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education. In High school, and before in Junior High, I developed a strong interest in music and drama and participated in all school shows and loved every minute of doing so. That must have come directly from my passion for movies that started at a very early age. The MGM musicals in particular let me escape from reality and I would sit through them several times just to see one number performed that took my fancy.

All movies were fair game but it was the musicals that made my world happy. I still watch and love them. They were magical to me and being alone in a dark theater watching these artists was my idea of heaven. In my twenties, I took my first trip to New York and Broadway in 1960 and my first show on my first night there was Bye, Bye Birdie with Chita Rivera starring. Movies were great but this was better. I couldn't believe I had seen Anita from West Side Story perform right there in front of me. I had never been so thrilled until I saw Ethel Merman, in my second show, Gypsy. Those two shows changed my life forever. I went to NYC several times a year for thirty years just to see the current offerings. I caught all the pre-Broadway shows that opened in Detroit at that time such as Hello, Dolly!, Fiddler on the Roof and Sweet Charity. I had found my passion and after moving to Grand Rapids I found a wonderful way to express it.

I saw all the touring shows at DeVos Hall presented by Ken Shaw and was a season ticket holder when Mr. Shaw left town unable to pay for the next presentation which was South Pacific starring Robert Goulet. The community leaders rallied to raise funds to keep Broadway in Grand Rapids and were very successful in doing so. However, they needed volunteers and I decided to become one. Signing a volunteer request in the lobby brought me to this new group called The Broadway Theatre Guild. I was now a part of something I loved and believed in. I was now on a journey to be a part of what I loved.

I then became a tiny part of bring Broadway to the people of this city. From distributing posters to the creation of Stage Door I had listened to my heart and all that great Broadway music that inspired me. Finally I was where I belonged. Thank you Chita and Ethel.

November 15th, 2005