- unitid
-
{"value"=>"21770", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"*T-Mss 1969-001", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b16338318", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1880-2003", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1880/2003"}
{"value"=>"1938-2003", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1938/2003"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Alexander H. Cohen papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"396 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"189.75 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Billy Rose Theatre Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The papers primarily document the career of theater and television producer Alexander H. Cohen and include some personal papers, as well as a number of materials by and about Cohen's wife and professional partner, Hildy Parks."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Cohen, Alexander H., 1920-2000", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Producer Alexander Henry Cohen was born on July 24, 1920 in New York City. He was the elder son of Alexander H. Cohen senior, a successful businessman, and Laura Tarantous Cohen. After his father's death, when Cohen was four, his mother married a banker and the family moved to Park Avenue. His younger brother Gerry committed suicide in 1954, at which point in time Cohen severed his relationship with his mother.</p> <p> He was introduced to the theater, as a boy, by an uncle. Cohen attended Columbia University and New York University, but did not graduate. Willing to take risks, Cohen had spent most of his inheritance, by the time he was twenty-one, on mostly unsuccessful theater projects, such as running two summer theaters on Long Island. Martin Balsam, Irene Dailey, and Ronald Alexander worked at one of these, the Red Barn Theatre in Locust Valley, Long Island.</p> <p> Cohen's first success came when he invested $5,000 in <span class=\"title\">Angel Street</span> (1941) by Patrick Hamilton, which later became the film <span class=\"title\">Gaslight</span>. He became known as \"Broadway's Millionaire Boy Angel.\" He married Jocelyn Newmark in 1942 and they later had a daughter, Barbara. Cohen was drafted into the Army in 1943. He served in the 302nd Co. 94th Division in Salina, Kansas, and was discharged after one year because of a leg problem.</p> <p> In the late 1940s, Cohen went to work for the Bulova Watch Company as Director of Publicity and Advertising, where his genius for marketing displayed itself. He conceived and developed Bulova's association with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, by creating the Bulova Academy Award Watch, the first licensed Academy Award merchandise. Meanwhile, after a series of eight flop productions, including <span class=\"title\">The Duke in Darkness</span> (1944) with Raymond Burr, and <span class=\"title\">The First Gentleman</span> (1957), directed by Tyrone Guthrie and starring Walter Slezak, Cohen continued to hone his producing skills under veteran Broadway producer Herman Levin, working as Company Manager for <span class=\"title\">Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</span> (1949) and as General Manager for <span class=\"title\">My Three Angels</span> (1954).</p> <p> In the mid-1950s, Cohen also began Theatre Tours, pioneering all-expense packaged tours to Broadway and out-of-town tryouts, as well as establishing his own public relations firm, Interscope, Incorporated. Cohen and his wife divorced, and in 1956, he married Hildy Parks, an actress, who would also become his professional partner, both as producer and scriptwriter. They had two sons, Gerald and Christopher.</p> <p> Cohen set up the London Company in 1959 to develop productions for both Broadway and the West End. He maintained a London office for some ten years and presented some fifteen productions in London, including Arthur Miller's <span class=\"title\">The Price</span> (1968), Neil Simon's <span class=\"title\">Plaza Suite</span> (1969), <span class=\"title\">1776</span> (1970), <span class=\"title\">Applause</span> (1972), starring Lauren Bacall, and Mary Chase's <span class=\"title\">Harvey</span> (1975), starring James Stewart. Throughout his career, many of Cohen's productions would have a decidedly British flavor.</p> <p> Seeking a more civilized way for theatergoers to attend shows without rushing through dinner, Cohen began his Nine O' Clock Theatre in 1959. The Nine O' Clock Theatre presented ten successful productions of intimate concert performances and revues, including <span class=\"title\">At the Drop of a Hat</span>, a two-person revue with Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, and including <span class=\"title\">An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May</span> (1960), <span class=\"title\">Beyond the Fringe</span> with Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore (1962), <span class=\"title\">At the Drop of Another Hat</span> (1966), and Marlene Dietrich in her one-woman shows in 1967 and 1968. To celebrate the Nine O' Clock Theatre's first anniversary and the Nichols and May opening (while raising money for the Actors' Fund), Cohen transformed Shubert Alley into a carnival, complete with a Ferris wheel and celebrity volunteers, including Lucille Ball selling tickets in a booth.</p> <p> Among Cohen's more than 100 productions are <span class=\"title\">Hamlet</span> (1964), starring Richard Burton, directed by Sir John Gielgud, <span class=\"title\">The School for Scandal</span> (1963), directed by Sir John Gielgud, and starring Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson, Jules Feiffer's <span class=\"title\">Little Murders</span> (1967) and <span class=\"title\">The Homecoming</span> (1967) by Harold Pinter, which won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play, <span class=\"title\">Home</span> by David Storey (1970), starring Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson, <span class=\"title\">Ulysses in Nighttown</span> (1974), starring Zero Mostel, <span class=\"title\">Anna Christie</span> (1977) starring Liv Ullmann, <span class=\"title\">84 Charing Cross Road</span> by Helene Hanff (1982), <span class=\"title\">Edmund Kean</span> (1983) starring Ben Kingsley, and Dario Fo's <span class=\"title\">Accidental Death of an Anarchist</span> (1984), starring Jonathan Pryce.</p> <p> Cohen also produced a number of musicals such as <span class=\"title\">Baker Street</span> by Raymond Jessel and Marian Grudeff (1965), featuring Sherlock Holmes, for which he employed a colorful and massive marketing campaign, such as placing an animated billboard atop the Broadway Theatre, importing London street signs, an unprecedented two-page color ad in <span class=\"title\">Playbill</span>, and having actors dressed as Sherlock Holmes appearing around the city. Cohen also produced Richard Rodgers's final musical, <span class=\"title\">I Remember Mama</span>, starring Liv Ullmann in 1979, <span class=\"title\">A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine</span> (1980), and brought Peter Brook's production of <span class=\"title\">La Tragedie de Carmen</span> to New York (1983). He continued to produce on Broadway through the 1980s and 1990s, although with less frequency than in earlier years. Perhaps reflecting the changing economic climate of Broadway, Cohen's final production, <span class=\"title\"> Waiting in the Wings</span> by Noel Coward (1999), featured an all-star cast, including Lauren Bacall and Rosemary Harris, as well as a list of co-producers.</p> <p> In 1977, Cohen produced a revival of Olsen and Johnson's <span class=\"title\">Hellzapoppin</span> starring Jerry Lewis, amidst great publicity, but decided to close the show in Boston, to significant financial loss, and against the advice of most of his staff. In his one-man show, <span class=\"title\">Star Billing</span> (1999), Cohen recalled that the then-CBS president William Paley, contacted him immediately after hearing of Cohen's <span class=\"title\">Hellzapoppin</span> decision, to ask him to produce the network's anniversary weeklong special (<span class=\"title\">CBS: On the Air</span>, 1978), because he admired his integrity.</p> <p> Television provided the opportunity, the budget, and the venue to give life to productions matching Cohen's sense of scale. Cohen conceived and originated the national <span class=\"title\">Tony Awards</span> telecast in 1967 and both he and Hildy Parks produced the awards until 1986, with Parks also writing the scripts. He and Parks also produced the three <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars</span> programs, billed as \"the greatest gathering of the greatest stars that we will ever see in our lifetime,\" (1982, 1985, and 1990) to raise money for the Actors' Fund of America. (Cohen also served on the Fund's board, and as Vice-President.) Cohen even exceeded the program's title, offering more than two hundred stars. The couple also produced the <span class=\"title\">Emmy Awards</span> in 1978, 1985, and 1986.</p> <p> Among their numerous television productions are <span class=\"title\">NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration</span> (1986), the <span class=\"title\">A.C.E. Awards</span>, and specials for Liza Minnelli, Placido Domingo, Marlene Dietrich, and others. <span class=\"title\">Happy Birthday Hollywood</span>, a three-hour special produced by Parks and Cohen for ABC in 1987, raised funds for the Motion Picture and Television Country Home and Hospital. Cohen had plans for many other projects, notably ideas for stage, film, and television productions based on the life of one of his heroes, P.T. Barnum, the ultimate showman.</p> <p> In addition to his producing activities, Cohen supervised the building of the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto and managed it for its first three years in the early 1960s. (The theater's inaugural production was <span class=\"title\">Camelot</span> with Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, but is not documented in the papers.) Here he presented such artists as Tony Bennett, Eartha Kitt, Beatrice Lillie, and Bob Newhart in concert, and revivals of <span class=\"title\">Guys and Dolls</span>, <span class=\"title\">West Side Story</span>, and <span class=\"title\">The Most Happy Fella</span>. He also managed the Erlanger and Locust Street Theatres in Philadelphia and set up the Playgoers Club, providing a subscription base for both theaters. In 1975, Cohen was hired to revitalize the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore for two seasons. He also undertook the opening and managing of the Rich Forum for the Stamford Center for the Arts in 1992.</p> <p> Cohen also undertook a number of marketing projects, such as a weeklong travel package to the Laurence Olivier Awards in London with American Express in 1986. In 1974, Cohen convened the First American Congress of Theatre at Princeton University to identify problems facing every sector of the theater and to suggest possible solutions. He played the producer (possibly modeled after him) in the Woody Allen film, <span class=\"title\">The Purple Rose of Cairo</span> (1985) and taught a course in producing for the theater at the New School in the 1980s. In 1999, he appeared in a one-man show Off Broadway, <span class=\"title\">Star Billing</span>, humorously recounting his life in the theater.</p> <p> He was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Tony Award, Emmy Award, the Oscar, Theater World Award, the Shubert Foundation Award, Drama Desk Award, the March of Dimes Award, and was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.</p> <p> Alexander H. Cohen died of respiratory failure at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City on April 22, 2000. In a notebook that contains jottings probably intended for his memoirs, Cohen wrote, \"I wanted to become the master of the grand gesture.\" His life is testimony to that wish fulfilled.</p>"}
- scopecontent
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{"value"=>"<p>Primarily documenting the career of theater and television producer Alexander H. Cohen, the papers consist of correspondence, contracts, financial records, office files, photographs, slides, scrapbooks, programs, scripts, datebooks, publicity material, clippings, production materials, scores, writings, posters, floor plans, and costume designs. There are also a number of personal papers, as well as some materials by and about Cohen's wife and professional partner, Hildy Parks, a writer, producer, and actress. They are perhaps best known for producing the <span class=\"title\">Tony Awards</span> telecasts from 1967 to 1986 and for presenting the three <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars</span> telecasts (1982, 1985, and 1990).</p> <p>The papers are especially rich in contracts and financial papers for Cohen's theatrical and television ventures, both produced and unproduced, most especially from the 1950s through his final production, <span class=\"title\">Waiting in the Wings</span> by Noel Coward (1999). However, several of the scrapbooks and a number of photos document Cohen's earliest theater productions from the 1940s. Although Cohen's theatrical ventures in America form the bulk of the collection, his London productions are also represented in the papers.</p> <p>Cohen's hands-on approach to producing is reflected in his correspondence with playwrights, actors, and investors, as well as in script and casting notes. His flair for marketing and promotion is evident throughout the papers, especially for productions such as <span class=\"title\">Baker Street</span> (1965) and <span class=\"title\">Accomplice</span> (1990), and in numerous joint ventures with corporate sponsors, such as American Express and Mumm Champagne. Papers relating to lawsuits in which Cohen was a party can also be found throughout the collection.</p> <p>Theater productions comprise a large part of the collection, but Cohen's television projects, such as the <span class=\"title\">Tony Awards</span> and the three <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars</span> specials, are also well documented. Other projects and events, such as Cohen's management of the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto, and several other theaters, can also be found in the collection.</p> <p>The office files and other project files encompass Cohen's myriad activities, including his subsidiary companies such as Bentwood Television and Theatre Tours, as well as his work for the Actors' Fund of America. The collection provides a window on the work of one of the last of the 20th Century's individual producers.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Alexander H. Cohen papers are arranged in seven series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21770#c453473'>Series I: Productions</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>circa 1938-2001</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists mostly of financial and legal papers, but also includes correspondence, a number of scripts, programs, publicity and production materials, and ephemera for many of Cohen's more than 100 theater and television presentations. His earliest theater productions (from the 1940s) are documented in other series in the papers, such as Photographs and Scrapbooks. Television production files date from Cohen's first <span class=\"title\">Tony Awards</span> telecast in 1967 through <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars III</span> in 1990. Additional related financial and legal papers can be found in the Loose Financial Records series and in the Subsidiaries files of the Office Files series.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21770#c457084'>Series II: Other Projects</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1880-2003</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of correspondence, scripts, contracts, financial papers, and production materials principally for theater and television projects either unproduced, or not produced by Cohen. However, it also encompasses events both inside and outside of the entertainment realm, in which Cohen was involved, and companies and organizations with which he worked.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21770#c457703'>Series III: Office Files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1962-2000</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains the records for Cohen's subsidiary companies, through which he did business, his individual and joint (with Hildy Parks) business accounts and files, and general office files, which contain correspondence and financial papers. There is also a small number of personal papers for Cohen and his family. Additional financial items for Cohen and the subsidiaries can be found in the Loose Financial Records series.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21770#c458337'>Series IV: Loose Financial Records</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1955-2000</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains monthly bank statements, checks and check stubs, deposit slips, and several ledgers for theater and television productions, corporate, tax, manager, and office accounts. There are also weekly theater settlement envelopes containing receipts and some box office statements for stage productions. Of particular note are the <span class=\"title\">Beyond the Fringe</span> weekly settlements that include receipts for $5.00 for tea (and sometimes cookies) backstage.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21770#c458528'>Series V: Photographs</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>circa 1920s-1999</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series is comprised of photographs, negatives, contacts sheets, and slides mostly of personalities, but also for stage and television productions. There are also some personal photographs of Cohen and his family, as well as a few for other projects on which he worked. Additional photographs can be found in the Oversized and Scrapbooks series.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21770#c460076'>Series VI: Scrapbooks</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1941-1986</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of scrapbooks primarily filled with clippings, but several scrapbooks also contain a few photos, programs, and publicity materials on Cohen himself, his family, and his productions. The scrapbooks provide the most complete documentation in the collection of Cohen's early career and life in the 1940s and early 1950s, including the Red Barn Theatre he ran in Locust Valley, Long Island in 1941. They are also almost the only documentation in the papers for Cohen's organization of the First American Congress of Theatre (1974) and his attempt to convene the U.S. Bicentennial World Theatre Festival in 1975. Clippings on Cohen's work in \"bringing Broadway to Baltimore\" at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore can also be found in the scrapbooks. The <span class=\"title\">Tony Awards</span> and <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars I</span> and <span class=\"title\"> II</span> are especially well documented. The <span class=\"title\"> Baker Street</span> scrapbook contains a small vinyl recording, from <span class=\"title\">Show</span> magazine, of Richard Burton performing \"A Married Man,\" a song from the musical. Of particular interest are the clippings in the <span class=\"title\">Beyond the Fringe</span> (New York) scrapbook documenting the February 9, 1963 visit to the John Golden Theatre by President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy, where they received a standing ovation, delaying the curtain by eight-minutes.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21770#c460138'>Series VII: Oversized</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1923-1998</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains souvenir programs, music scores, financial records, photographs, window cards, clipping enlargements, several costume designs, and awards given to Hildy Parks. The souvenir programs are from a number of Cohen's stage productions, such as <span class=\"title\">Hamlet</span> (1964), <span class=\"title\">Hellzapoppin '67</span>, and a program mockup for the Broadway-bound <span class=\"title\">Hellzapoppin</span> starring Jerry Lewis. The scores include conductor scores and instrumental parts for several of Cohen's theater and television productions, including <span class=\"title\">A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine</span>(1980), <span class=\"title\">Hellzapoppin '67</span> (1967) <span class=\"title\">La Tragedie de Carmen</span> (1983), and <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars III</span> (1990).</p> <p> Financial papers include ledger books and sheets, and payroll sheets, both for productions and for Cohen's subsidiaries Bentwood Television, Inc., Playgoers Club, Inc., and Theatrical Subsidiaries, Inc. There are also stock certificates for the latter two companies. (Some financial material is restricted because it contains personal information.)</p> <p> Photographs are both loose and in albums. <span class=\"title\"> Tony Awards</span> albums contain photos of the awards show and rehearsals, as well as related events such as the nominations luncheon. The <span class=\"title\"> La Tragedie de Carmen</span> albums also include performance and rehearsal photos. Of particular note are the group photos of stars onstage for both <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars</span> (1982) and <span class=\"title\">CBS: On the Air</span> (1978). The window cards are mostly for Cohen's productions, including some London shows otherwise undocumented in the collection, such as <span class=\"title\">His Hers Theirs</span> by Hugh and Margaret Williams (1969) and <span class=\"title\">Overheard</span> by Peter Ustinov (1981), but also include several for productions by others.</p> <p> There also two costume designs by Alvin Colt, one from <span class=\"title\">Waiting in the Wings</span>(1999), the other from <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars</span> (1982); both are inscribed to Hildy Parks. There are also two citations for Parks, including one from the Actors' Fund for writing and producing the first two <span class=\"title\">Night of 100 Stars</span> programs; the other is the Proclamation, by the Manhattan Borough President, of Hildy Parks Day, March 12, 1996.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
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{"value"=>"<p>The Alexander H. Cohen Papers were donated to the Billy Rose Theatre Division in 1969, 1996, 1997, 2002, and 2006 by Alexander H. Cohen and his family.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
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{"value"=>"<p>Audiovisual materials separated from archival collections are cataloged individually and can be found in the Library catalog. Search CATNYP, The New York Public Library catalog.</p> <ol class=\"list\"> <li> <span class=\"title\">And Then We Wrote</span>(EMI)*</li> <li> <span class=\"title\">At the Drop of a Hat</span> (Angel)*</li> <li> <span class=\"title\">At the Drop of Another Hat</span> (Angel)*</li> <li> <span class=\"title\">Beyond the Fringe</span> (Capitol)</li> <li> <span class=\"title\">Beyond the Fringe '64</span> (Capitol)*</li> <li> <span class=\"title\">Good Evening</span> (Island)</li> <li> <span class=\"title\">Hamlet</span> (Richard Burton production, Columbia)</li> <li> <span class=\"title\">Tried by the Centre Court</span> (EMI)*</li></ol>"}
- processinfo
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{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Camille Croce Dee</span>, <span class=\"name\">Lee J. Spilberg</span>, and <span class=\"name\">Lenora Grice</span>.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division</p>"}
- revisiondesc
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{"value"=>"Container information added and dates revised by Tara Strongosky.", "date"=>"2024 September 25"}
- date_start
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1880
- keydate
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1880
- date_end
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2003
- date_inclusive_start
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1880
- date_inclusive_end
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2003
- date_bulk_start
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1938
- date_bulk_end
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2003
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Alexander H. Cohen papers, *T-Mss 1969-001. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts"}