- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*T-Vim 2015-022", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"23284", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b21009801", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1884-1999", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1884/1999"}
{"value"=>"1938-1999", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1938/1999"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Ben Edwards designs and papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"26.52 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"47 boxes, 3 volumes, 33 oversized folders, 20 tubes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"id"=>"THE", "value"=>"Billy Rose Theatre Division"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Ben Edwards (1916-1999) was an American scenic designer and art director, and occasional lighting designer, costume designer, and producer, working in theatre, industrial shows, film, and television. The Ben Edwards designs and papers (1884-1999, bulk dates: 1938-1999) document his career and personal life with designs, drawings, research files, letters, and other files."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Ben Edwards designs and papers, *T-Vim 2015-022. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Edwards, Ben, 1916-1999", "type"=>"persname", "role"=>"creator"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Ben Edwards (1916-1999) was an American scenic designer and art director, and occasional lighting designer, costume designer, and producer, working in theatre, industrial shows, film, and television. George Benjamin Edwards (known professionally as Ben Edwards) was born on July 5, 1916 in Union Springs, Alabama to William Thomas Edwards and Sara McLaurine. After the deaths of his mother (in 1918) and father (in 1926) Edwards lived with his aunt and uncle. In 1934, after Edwards graduated from Union Springs High School, he moved to New York with a scholarship to study acting at the Feagin School of Dramatic Arts.</p> <p>While attending Feagin, Edwards designed sets for the school's productions. He was inspired to pursue set design by Dr. Milton Smith, who taught at both Feagin and Columbia University and invited Edwards to work on Columbia productions. From 1935 to 1936 Edwards studied drafting with Emeline Roche at the Florence Kane School, where he met fellow student Lester Polakov. Polakov, who would later found the Studio and Forum of Stage Design, soon became Edwards' close friend and roommate. On the suggestion of Feagin teacher Grace Mills, Edwards got a summer stock job at the Barter Theatre designing sets in 1936. He spent the summer of 1937 working at the Falmouth Theatre in Falmouth, Massachusetts. In 1937, Edwards started designing sets for the Federal Theatre Project of the WPA, working on a 1938 repertory season of five shows which played at Maxine Elliott's Theatre, consisting of <span class=\"title\">Coriolanus</span>, <span class=\"title\">Diff'rent</span>, <span class=\"title\">No More Peace</span>, <span class=\"title\">Pygmalion</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines</span>.</p> <p>Though he had already performed on Broadway in walk-on roles in <span class=\"title\">Swing Your Lady</span> and <span class=\"title\">Daughter of Atreus</span>, his debut as a Broadway designer came with the 1940 play <span class=\"title\">Another Son</span>. Edwards took a hiatus from Broadway to serve in the military during World War II, with the Army Air Corps from 1941 to 1944, and the 95th Fighter Squadron from 1944 to 1946.</p> <p>By 1947 Edwards was back in New York, designing sets for the legendary production of <span class=\"title\">Medea</span> starring Judith Anderson. For the next 50 years, Edwards would be one of Broadway's most acclaimed and prolific scenic designers. Some of his credits include Eugene O'Neill's <span class=\"title\">Desire Under the Elms</span> (1952), Arthur Laurents' <span class=\"title\">The Time of the Cuckoo</span> (1952), Jean Anouilh's <span class=\"title\">The Waltz of the Toreadors</span> (1957), William Inge's <span class=\"title\">The Dark at the Top of the Stairs</span> (1957), O'Neill's <span class=\"title\">A Touch of the Poet</span> (1958), <span class=\"title\">Heartbreak House</span> (1959), <span class=\"title\">Purlie Victorious</span> (1961), <span class=\"title\">A Shot in the Dark</span> (1961), <span class=\"title\">The Aspern Papers</span> (1962), Edward Albee's <span class=\"title\">The Ballad of the Sad Cafe</span> (1963), the Richard Burton <span class=\"title\">Hamlet</span> (1964), Peter Shaffer's <span class=\"title\">The Royal Hunt of the Sun</span> (1965), O'Neill's <span class=\"title\">More Stately Mansions</span> (1967), O'Neill's <span class=\"title\">A Moon for the Misbegotten</span> (1973), <span class=\"title\">A Matter of Gravity</span> (1976), <span class=\"title\">An Almost Perfect Person</span> (1977), <span class=\"title\">The West Side Waltz</span> (1981), <span class=\"title\">Lillian</span> (1986), and <span class=\"title\">A Few Good Men</span> (1989). He also designed revivals of <span class=\"title\">Death of a Salesman</span> (1984), <span class=\"title\">The Iceman Cometh</span> (1985), <span class=\"title\">Long Day's Journey Into Night</span> (1988), and <span class=\"title\">A Streetcar Named Desire</span> (1992).</p> <p>Edwards never won a competitive Tony Award, though he was nominated for several and received the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1998. Though primarily known as a scenic designer, Edwards often also designed lighting. In his early career he occasionally designed costumes as well. Edwards produced or co-produced many of the productions he designed.</p> <p>In addition to his extensive theatre career, Edwards was simultaneously designing for film and television. His film credits include <span class=\"title\"> Lovers and Other Strangers</span> (1970), <span class=\"title\">Last of the Red Hot Lovers</span> (1972), <span class=\"title\">Class of '44</span> (1973), <span class=\"title\">Fort Apache, the Bronx</span> (1981), <span class=\"title\">Hanky Panky</span> (1982), and <span class=\"title\">Sweet Liberty</span> (1986). He designed such TV movies as <span class=\"title\">All the Way Home</span> (1971), <span class=\"title\">The House Without a Christmas Tree</span> (1972), <span class=\"title\">Look Homeward, Angel</span> (1972), <span class=\"title\">Valley Forge</span> (1975), <span class=\"title\">The World Beyond</span> (1978), <span class=\"title\">A Special Friendship</span> (1987), and <span class=\"title\">The Sunshine Boys</span> (1996). On some of these projects Edwards was the production designer, on others he was the art director.</p> <p>Edwards was active in the scenic design community throughout his career, serving as the president of the United Scenic Artists Local 829 from 1971 to 1980. He taught classes at the Lester Polakov Studio of Design and New York University and participated in many panel discussions and conferences.</p> <p>From 1963 to his death, Edwards was married to costume designer Jane Greenwood, with whom he collaborated on many productions, and had two daughters. Ben Edwards died of pneumonia in New York, New York on February 12, 1999.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Ben Edwards designs and papers (1884-1999, bulk dates: 1938-1999) document the American scenic designer and art director's career and personal life with designs, drawings, research files, letters, and other files.</p> <p>This collection consists mainly of set, lighting, and costume designs from Edwards' prolific career in theatre, film, television, and industrial shows. The designs, which date from 1938 to 1996, are arranged alphabetically by production name, and provide a fairly comprehensive representation of his career. The vast majority of the designs contained here are set designs, though a much smaller number of costume designs and lighting plots are also included. Design formats include pencil drawings, paint elevations, diazotypes, and blueprints. Design files may occasionally contain production photographs, set photographs, research materials, rough preliminary sketches, production materials, fabric swatches, and notes.</p> <p>An incomplete alphabetical run of Ben Edwards' research files document his process of designing a particular show, by compiling background research files on different places, geographical locations, types of buildings, objects, subjects, time periods, and topics. Topics include farm life and everyday life; activities, such as fire-fighting; religions, such as Budhism; institutions, such as the Army; and events, such as the Civil War, the circus, and bullfights. These files, which he would consult and supplement with each new production, provide valuable insight into Edwards' artistic process. Occasionally research files include a file on a particular production. Research files consist of historic photographs, slides, cartes de visite, and cabinet cards; stereo-graphs, fabric swatches, flooring samples, extracts from books, photocopies of photographs and artwork, design drawings, magazine and newspaper clippings, calendars, guidebooks, maps, travel guides, notes, cards, and letters.</p> <p>This collection also contains incoming letters from Edwards' friends, colleagues, and family members. These letters discuss personal and family matters as well as professional activities. His correspondents often describe, analyze, critique, or relate information pertaining to upcoming or past theatrical productions on which he or they worked. Early letters from Edwards' family discuss World War II and his military service. This collection includes letters from Hume Cronyn, Maurice Evans, John Gielgud, Leland Hayward, Moss Hart, and Katharine Hepburn. Other personal documents such as military documents, wills, hotel bills, tickets, and clippings; and production materials such as box office statements, budgets, rehearsal schedules, and production inventories, are often included with correspondence.</p> <p>Other files document Edwards' personal life and career with such items as award nomination certificates, documents pertaining to professional organizations in which he was involved, playbills and programs from productions he designed, artwork by an unidentified artist, passports, identification cards, an address book, an appointment book, and notes and sketches from unidentified productions. There are also two children's scrapbooks with magazine illustrations mounted to fabric pages, one scrapbook of clippings from illustrated newspaper serial stories and pencil sketches, and one scrapbook containing reproductions of famous paintings.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Ben Edwards designs and papers are divided into the following categories: Designs, Research Files, Letters, and Other Files.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by Jane Greenwood, 2015.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"type"=>"processing", "value"=>"<p>Compiled by <span class=\"name\">Diana Bertolini</span>, <span class=\"date\">2016</span></p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Theatre Division at theatre@nypl.org.</p>"}
- dsc_type
-
combined
- date_start
-
1884
- keydate
-
1884
- date_end
-
1999
- date_inclusive_start
-
1884
- date_inclusive_end
-
1999
- date_bulk_start
-
1938
- date_bulk_end
-
1999
- extent_statement
-
26.52 linear feet (47 boxes, 3 volumes, 33 oversized folders, 20 tubes)