Biography[edit]

Born in New York City, Ayers earned a degree in drama from the University of Iowa and a degree in architecture from Princeton University.^[3] He made his Broadway debut as the scenic designer for producer and director Leonard Sillman's 1939 revival of R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End starring Colin Keith-Johnston as Stanhope. That same year he designed sets for a revival of Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted with June Walker as Amy and Douglass Montgomery as Joe.

Ayers remained productively engaged on Broadway for the next sixteen years. He designed sets for the Broadway productions of Robert Wallsten and Mignon G. Eberhart's Eight O'Clock Tuesday (1941), Max Catto's They Walk Alone (1941), James Edward Grant's Plan M (1942), Norma Mitchell and John Harris's Autumn Hill (1942), S. N. Behrman's The Pirate (1942), Norman Armstrong's Lifeline (1942), John Patrick's The Willow and I (1942), Florence Ryerson's Harriet (1943), Rodgers and Hammerstein's landmark production ofOklahoma! (1943, and the 1951 revival), Ernest Pascal's Peepshow (1944), and Tennessee Williams's Camino Real (1953). He designed both sets and costumes for the Broadway productions of Shakespeare's As You Like It (1941), Shakespeare's Macbeth (1942), Patrick Hamilton's Angel Street (1943), Harold Arlen's St. Louis Woman (1946), Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1946), Cole Porter's Out of This World (1950), My Darlin' Aida (1952), Kismet (1953), and The Pajama Game (1954).

Ayers was married to Shirley Osborn. They had two children together, Jonathan Ayers and Sarah Ayers.^[1] After his death from cancer on August 14, 1955 at New York Hospital, his widow and several friends set up the Lemuel Ayers Cancer Research Fund in lieu of a memorial. His widow said she hoped the fund, which was to be administered by the New York Hospital, would "help prevent other tragic wastes of life and talent by incurable types of cancer."

at the Harry Ransom Center

W.H. Crain Costume and Scene Design Collection

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