Found 5 collections related to Marx, Groucho, 1890-1977

The Sombrero Playhouse, founded in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1949, was for many years a popular venue for touring productions featuring prominent performers, including a number of Hollywood luminaries. Founded by artistic director Richard Charlton, the Sombrero Playhouse became during its heyday perhaps the major performing arts center between Dallas and Los Angeles, attracting celebrity players such as Groucho Marx, Tallulah Bankhead, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Bob Cummings, Celeste Holm, Shelley Winters, Margaret O'Brien, ZaSu Pitts, Pat O'Brien, Walter Pidgeon, John Raitt, and others. These actors usually toured in established works, but new plays were occasionally tried out at the Sombrero, such as William Inge's NATURAL AFFECTION, which premiered in Phoenix in 1962, a year prior to its Broadway run. The Sombrero Playhouse papers consist mostly of clippings from Arizona newspapers and magazines dated between 1961 and 1964, but primarily from 1962 and 1963, concerning current productions at the Sombrero Playhouse. Much of the material consists of feature stories on the star performer of the current show, usually including biographical information about the performer along with excerpts from a recent, local interview. There is also general information about the theater and its founding artistic director Richard Charlton, about the Galaxy Gallery, an art gallery adjacent to the theater operated by Richard's wife Helen Charlton, and the Backstage Club, a restaurant in the same complex which began as a club for actors appearing in Sombrero productions. The material from 1964 speaks of plans to build a new Phoenix Performing Arts Center. less

Microfilm copy of the papers of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright-director, George S. Kaufman, consisting primarily of correspondence, scripts, and biographical scrapbooks. The correspondence contains letters from Fred Allen, Winthrop Ames, George Arliss, Eleanor Belmont, Walter Damrosch, Joseph E. Davies, Robert H. Davis, Theodore Dreiser, James A. Farley, Arthur Hopkins, Otto Kahn, Groucho and Harpo Marx, Adolphe Menjou, William Saroyan, Alfred E. Smith, Henry L. Stimson, John Steinbeck, Booth Tarkington, Oswald Garrison Villard, William Allen White, Alexander Woollcott, and others. There are scripts (some annotated) for seventeen produced and unproduced titles for stage, screen, and television including THE BUTTER AND EGG MAN (1925), THE LATE GEORGE APLEY (1944), THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1939), and several other plays on which Kaufman collaborated with Marc Connelly, Ruth Goodman Goetz, Leueen MacGrath, Morrie Ryskind, Howard Teichmann, and other playwrights. less

Morrie Ryskind, poet, playwright, and columnist. Awarded the 1932 Pultizer Prize for drama for Of Thee I Sing co-written with George Kaufman, Ira Gershwin, and George Gershwin. Testified before the House Un-American Activities Hearings. The papers consist of correspondence, diaries and journals, and scripts by Ryskind. The bulk of the collection is scrapbooks, which have been microfilmed. These contain newspaper clippings pertaining to various productions, as well as Ryskind's published poetry and columns. less

The collection contains commercial discs and noncommercial recordings; the latter containing interviews with Rodgers and his family and friends, performances of his music by contemporary performers, as well as radio and television programs that have used Rodgers' music. less

Weekly 30-minute NBC radio broadcasts, featuring classical and light classical music, which began on Apr. 29, 1940 and continued until 1958. In September, 1959, the Bell Telephone Hour made its television debut as a monthly musical special. It remained a regular television program until April 26, 1968. Library's holdings incomplete. Broadcasts chiefly originated from New York City, sponsored by the Bell Telephone Company (American Telephone and Telegraph). Each 30-minute program generally features a guest singer or instrumentalist, with the Bell Telephone Hour Orchestra, conducted by Donald Voorhees, and the Bell Telephone Hour Chorus. Frequent guest artists include Marian Anderson, Robert Casadesus, Nelson Eddy, Josef Hofmann, Fritz Kreisler, Oscar Levant, James Melton, Grace Moore, Ezio Pinza, Lily Pons, Bidú Sayão, Gladys Swarthout, John Charles Thomas, Helen Traubel, and Eileen Farrell. Chief announcer: Floyd Mack. less