- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186331", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Sc MIRS Childress 1998-56", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b22252709", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1959-1991", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1959/1991"}
{"value"=>"1980-1991", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1980/1991"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Alice Childress audio and moving image collection"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"5 audio_recordings", "unit"=>"audio_recordings"}]}
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1 video_recording", "unit"=>"video_recordings"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Pioneering African American writer, actress, and director Alice Childress (1916-1994) was known for her plays and her best-selling young adult novel, <span class=\"title\">A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich</span>. The collection consists of five sound recordings and one video recording documenting performances and research dating from 1959-1991."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Childress, Alice", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>This note was originally written by archivists in the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Alice Childress papers (Sc MG 649) finding aid. It has been adapted to reflect this collection.</p> <p>Pioneering African American writer, actress, and director Alice Childress (1916-1994) was known for her plays and her best-selling young adult novel, <span class=\"title\">A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich</span>. Her acting career began in 1944 with the American Negro Theatre's production of <span class=\"title\">Anna Lucasta</span>, where she performed alongside her first husband, actor Alvin Childress of <span class=\"title\">Amos and Andy</span> fame.</p> <p>Alice Childress began writing plays and other works in the late 1940s, becoming the first Black woman to have a play produced in the United States, and the first Black woman to receive an OBIE for Best Off-Broadway Play. Her first publication <span class=\"title\">Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life</span>, was a 1956 anthology that brought together the vignettes she published in a column in Paul Robeson's newspaper <span class=\"title\">Freedom</span>.</p> <p>She was a collaborative writer, working creatively with her second husband, musician Nathan Woodard, on projects such as <span class=\"title\">Behind Every Door: A Light Opera for a Working Lady</span>. The play was a finalist in a 1984-1985 contest sponsored by the New York Shakespeare Festival. She also worked with actress Clarice Taylor to develop <span class=\"title\">Moms: A Praise Play for a Black Comedienne</span>, first staged in 1986. The play brought to life the stage persona of Black vaudeville and comedy actor Jackie \"Moms\" Mabley. Together, Childress and Taylor conducted oral history interviews with Mabley's family, including her son Charles \"Cholly\" Atkins, a dancer and former Motown choreographer. Taylor later adapted their research material into a play of her own about Mabley, entitled <span class=\"title\">Moms: The First Lady of Comedy</span> which ran at Astor Place Theater in 1987. The two plays were at one time the focus of a copyright infringement case.</p> <p>Childress had produced dozens of works, including books, plays, screenplays, and teleplays by the time of her death in 1994.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection consists of five sound recordings and one video recording documenting performances and research dating from 1959-1991. The recordings are arranged chronologically.</p> <p>The collection contains a small selection of Childress's lengthy catalog. Several recordings document her performing her own works, such as an early recording of her reading \"All About Ms. Tubman,\" a chapter from her novel <span class=\"title\">Like One of the Family</span>. She performs on a demo tape featuring an excerpt from her play <span class=\"title\">Behind Every Door: A Light Opera for a Working Lady</span>. Another recording documents her rehearsing the first act of her 1986 play <span class=\"title\">Moms: A Praise Play for a Black Comedienne</span>. As part of her research for the play, she interviewed Charles \"Cholly\" Atkins. Clarice Taylor also appears on the recording. The only recording that doesn't feature Childress is an audio recording of Taylor's performance of her play <span class=\"title\">Moms: The First Lady of Comedy</span>. A 1991 video recording documents one of Childress's last performances as part of a PEN program, in which she reads from <span class=\"title\">A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich</span> for an elementary school class.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Papers transferred to Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division. See Alice Childress papers, Sc MG 649.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Collection inventoried by <span class=\"name\">Nathan Evans</span>. Collection processed and described by <span class=\"name\">Lyric Evans-Hunter</span>, archivist; and <span class=\"name\">Shola Lynch</span>, curator. Finding aid published in <span class=\"date\">2023</span>.</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection, and a grant from the Mellon Foundation supported the digitization."}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Item scope and content notes and AMI identifiers revised for clarity by Lyric Evans-Hunter.", "date"=>"2024-04-12"}
- date_start
-
1959
- keydate
-
1959
- date_end
-
1991
- date_inclusive_start
-
1959
- date_inclusive_end
-
1991
- date_bulk_start
-
1980
- date_bulk_end
-
1991
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Alice Childress audio and moving image collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library"}