James Binger

James H. Binger, chairman of Jujamcyn Theatres, one of Broadway's leading theater chains, and former chief executive of New Jersey's Honeywell Inc., has died, his family foundation said. He was 88. Binger, of Minneapolis, died Wednesday night, said Rip Rapson, president of the McKnight Foundation. Rapson didn't know the cause of death, but said Binger had been in declining health in recent months.

James H. Binger, chairman of Jujamcyn Theatres, one of Broadway's leading theater chains, and former chief executive of New Jersey's Honeywell Inc., has died, his family foundation said. He was 88. Binger, of Minneapolis, died Wednesday night, said Rip Rapson, president of the McKnight Foundation. Rapson didn't know the cause of death, but said Binger had been in declining health in recent months.

More than a dozen years after retiring as chairman of defense giant Honeywell, James Binger has become something of a force on Broadway. As the owner of five Broadway theaters, Binger has made headlines in New York for hiring a brash, young producer who has vowed to develop profitable new works on a limited budget. The producer, Rocco Landesman, was named president of Binger's Jujamcyn Theaters in September, and a show called "Into the Woods" is offering them an early success.

More than a dozen years after retiring as chairman of defense giant Honeywell, James Binger has become something of a force on Broadway. As the owner of five Broadway theaters, Binger has made headlines in New York for hiring a brash, young producer who has vowed to develop profitable new works on a limited budget. The producer, Rocco Landesman, was named president of Binger's Jujamcyn Theaters in September, and a show called "Into the Woods" is offering them an early success.

Virginia McKnight Binger, 86, the heiress of a 3M Co. fortune who built her family's charitable foundation into one of the most influential grant-makers in Minnesota, died Sunday of undisclosed causes at her home in Wayzata, Minn. Binger ran the McKnight Foundation, a private philanthropy that has given away millions of dollars to numerous causes, primarily in Minnesota. Her father, William L. McKnight, served 37 years as president or chairman of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.

Memorial held for Helm Busloads of friends and fans of Levon Helm traveled to his home Thursday to say goodbye to the influential singer and drummer for the Band, who died of cancer last week. The public memorial was held at the Woodstock, N.Y., barn where Helm held his Saturday night Midnight Ramble concerts in New York's Hudson Valley. His closed casket, on the second floor of the barn, was surrounded by flowers and flanked by his drum kit and a piano. Hundreds of people filed silently past the coffin, set against a backdrop of a family photo slide show.

It was early summer in 1987 and things were not going well for Jujamcyn Theaters. The smallest of Broadway's three theater chains had more houses empty than full and losses were mounting. "I thought," says owner James Binger, "that our management could be improved." Binger had his eye on Rocco Landesman, a former Yale professor of dramatic literature and criticism whose first try at producing was the Tony-winning musical "Big River," then playing at Binger's Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

Four of the horses scheduled to run in the Breeders' Cup--Pine Tree Lane, Family Style, North Sider and Coup de Fusil--are likely to have new owners at Hollywood Park a week from Saturday, since they are being auctioned this weekend at Lexington, Ky. Coup de Fusil, a 5-year-old mare who won three straight stakes late in the year, is part of a dispersal of almost 300 horses by Tartan Farm, which has bred and raced top horses for more than 20 years. James H.

Al Wiggins was a small Santa Ana home builder who started out as a barber. Mac Binger was born to one of the wealthiest families in America: prominent Midwesterners, owners of thoroughbred racehorses and Broadway theaters. This unlikely pair teamed up to build luxury condominiums around a golf course and country club in the resort town of Palm Desert using a federal Department of Housing and Urban Development program for the poor.