- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186090", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"SCP 186090", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b22897029", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1880s-1989", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1880/1989"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Bill Gunn photographs"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"5 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1.75 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Bill Gunn (1934-1989) was a Black writer, actor, and director. The Bill Gunn photographs collection primarily contains pictures of his family, from the 1880s through 1989, as well as some photos related to his career. Bill Gunn's mother, Louise Gunn, compiled most of the photographs in the collection, which depict her career, friends, family, and community engagement."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Gunn, Bill, 1934-1989", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>A Schomburg staff member originally wrote a version of this biographical note after the collection was donated in 2011, with edits and additions by Emily P. Dunne in 2022.</p> <p>William Harrison (Bill) Gunn was an African American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, and actor who was active from the mid-1950s until his death in 1989. Gunn was born on July 15, 1934, and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by his parents, who were both artists. William Harrison, Sr., was a songwriter and poet, and Louise Alexander Gunn was a vaudeville actress, theatrical director, model, and clothing designer. Louise Gunn was also a very active member and financial supporter of the Zion Baptist Church and the Opportunities Industrial Center, led by minister and civil rights leader Leon Sullivan.</p> <p>Gunn dropped out of high school to join the Navy. He returned to Philadelphia in 1952, and moved to New York City's East Village to pursue acting, making his Broadway debut in <span class=\"title\">The Immoralist</span> in 1954. Throughout the 1960s, Gunn appeared in several on and off-Broadway plays, as well as some television programs. Gunn's creative output was expansive, and includes credits as a playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, and novelist. His work was often semi-biographical, and was frequently adapted to other media. The Emmy-winning musical <span class=\"title\">Rhinestone</span>, was based on <span class=\"title\">Rhinestone Sharecropping</span>, Gunn's 1981 novel about the experience of Black artists in America. Due to the autobiographical nature of his writing, Gunn sometimes cast himself as characters in his films and plays.</p> <p>Much of Gunn's work was defined by a blurring of the traditions and boundaries of genres, and by stark challenges to the assumptions of existing white power structures in the entertainment industry. These artistic goals, taken in tandem with Gunn's exploration of themes of sexuality, may have brought about the professional ostracism and stifled output that persisted throughout his career. In 1970, for example, Gunn became the second Black filmmaker to direct a film for a major studio, his debut feature, <span class=\"title\">Stop</span>. This film was given an X rating due to sex scenes with interracial and same-sex partners, shelved by Warner Brothers, and never commercially released.</p> <p>In 1973, Gunn wrote, directed, and acted in <span class=\"title\">Ganja and Hess</span>, a vampire film starring Duane Jones and Marlene Clark. After recuts and a title change by the studio (without Gunn's input or approval) <span class=\"title\">Ganja and Hess</span> was marketed as a blaxploitation film and received a limited release in the United States. Outside of the United States, the film was critically acclaimed, selected for Critic's Week at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, and later recognized as one of the ten best American films of the decade by Cannes. Gunn later directed <span class=\"title\">Personal Problems</span> in 1980, an avant-garde soap opera extensively featuring Black directors, writers, and actors. This film was given a limited release.</p> <p>Gunn's final play, <span class=\"title\">The Forbidden City</span>, debuted at The Public Theater on April 4, 1989. The following day, Gunn died of encephalitis in Tappan, New York.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The photographs in this collection date from the 1890s to 1989, and consist mostly of personal photographs compiled by Louis Gunn, as well as some professional photographs related to Bill Gunn's career. The collection is arranged by type (scrapbooks, albums, and loose photographs) which are then arranged chronologically. The original order of the albums and scrapbooks were maintained, and often contain a wide range of dates.</p> <p>Personal photographs contain the scrapbooks and photo albums, as well as loose photographs. The two scrapbooks date from approximately the 1880s to the 1940s, and contain collages of the Gunn family (including Bill Gunn as a baby), and vaudeville actors. They were likely assembled by Louise Gunn. All five photo albums contain several generations of the Gunn family, friends, and some ephemera. Each album is loosely arranged chronologically, but incorporate portraits of distant relatives from the late 1880s and 1890s, with snapshots from the twentieth century.</p> <p>Loose photographs are from the same period as the albums, and contain Vaudeville Actors and Family and Friends. Many of the vaudeville photographs appear to be of minstrel shows, depicting many of the male performers in blackface. The vaudeville actors photographs include headshots of Louise Gunn in costume and makeup, as well as Cab Calloway, Jimmie Lunceford and more. The Family and Friends grouping commence with generational pictures from the 1880s, and conclude with snapshots from the late 1980s.</p> <p>There is a single folder containing Professional photographs, which include images of actors from the 1960s through 1989. There are headshots of Bill Gunn, Ernest Perry, Steven Williams, and others, as well as a contact sheet containing images of Bill Gunn acting with Natalie Wood in the 1966 film, <span class=\"title\">Penelope</span>.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection was a gift from the Bill Gunn Estate and Charles \"Chiz\" Schultz in 2011.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Photographs transferred from the Bill Gunn papers in Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books, Schomburg Center.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Emily P. Dunne</span> in <span class=\"date\">2022</span>.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1880
- keydate
-
1880
- date_end
-
1989
- date_inclusive_start
-
1880
- date_inclusive_end
-
1989
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Bill Gunn photographs, Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library"}