Joe Kipness

A Russian immigrant with no formal education, Mr. Kipness produced nearly 30 Broadway productions, mostly musicals. Even though many were not successful and lost a great deal of money for himself and his investors, Mr. Kipness remained unabashedly stagestruck. After the overnight failure of ''Frankenstein'' almost two years ago, Mr. Kipness appeared undaunted by the fact that $2 million went down with the show. ''Darling,'' he told an interviewer, ''the theater, despite everything, has given me more happiness than I ever received in my life from anything. I'm going to do other shows. I'll do it until I die.''