Bill Hanauer has had a forty year+ career in the entertainment industry, in fifteen of which he fought for the rights of workers, especially those in his industry, and of artists, craftspersons, and all people interested in the Arts, as well as for tenants’ rights, for universal health care, and for victims of HIV AIDS around the world. He inherited his need and ability to perform public service from his parents and maternal grandfather. With his partner and his mother, Bill chose to move to Ossining in 1996 because the Village reminded them of their native New York City and Philadelphia, i.e., Ossining is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic municipality of socio-economic diversity. And it is on the Hudson River.

Bill has been a theatrical director, designer, and performer, and has taught these crafts at The College of Staten Island (CUNY) and The College of Mount Saint Vincent. Now, he produces the annual New York Emmy® Awards Galas and directs the NY Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and its not-for-profit educational Foundation. From 1985 to 2000, he led three entertainment industry unions, was chief negotiator of their collective bargaining agreements, chief labor organizer, and trustee of a health and a pension plan. For twelve of those years, he also led Unions for the Performing Arts – the 21 union legislative action coalition, co-drafting and achieving enactment of pro-worker amendments to the NY State Labor Relations Act; testifying before legislative committees and the Governor’s Task Forces, and organizing and chairing annual legislative conferences. During the early 1990’s, Bill was on the steering committees of coalitions of Business, Labor, and Government: the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting and Production NY, working to increase motion picture production and ancillary businesses in NY. He has also been on the Board of the NYS Governor’s/NYC Mayor’s Committee for Positive Action, developing programs and funding to increase minority participation in the technical crafts of the motion picture industry, and addressing conferences and university audiences.

Five months after Bill Hanauer moved to Ossining, he was elected Vice President of the Sparta Association; he was elected its president one year later and served for six consecutive terms. He remains a member of the neighborhood association and of the Jug Tavern of Sparta, Inc., and was a member of the short-lived Committee for a Better Ossining.

Bill has a BA in Communications Arts and Sciences from Queens College – CUNY, and studied acting with Day Tuttle, Lenore DeKoven and Stella Adler. He still performs in staged readings and, in his very limited spare time, his pursuits are opera, theatre, cooking, and designing and overseeing renovations of parts of his historic home, the former Calvary Union Chapel.