Franne Lee papers and designs

Description data TOP

physdesc

{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"15.5 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"31 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}

unitid

{"value"=>"*T-Mss 1999-021", "type"=>"local_call"}

{"value"=>"21782", "type"=>"local_mss"}

unitdate

{"value"=>"1969-1997", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1969/1997"}

date_inclusive_start

1969

date_inclusive_end

1997

keydate

1969

unittitle

{"value"=>"Franne Lee papers and designs"}

repository

{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</span> <span class=\"subarea\">Billy Rose Theatre Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"><span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}

abstract

{"value"=>"Franne Lee (1941- ) is a costume and production designer for theater and film, as well as a producer and visual artist. This collection contains designs, correspondence, and other materials related her production designs from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. Also included are materials for original projects on which she collaborated."}

prefercite

{"value"=>"<p>Franne Lee Papers and Designs, *T-Mss 1999-021. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</p>"}

origination

{"value"=>"Lee, Franne, 1941-", "type"=>"persname"}

bioghist

{"value"=>"<p>Franne Lee was born Franne Newman in the Bronx, New York, on December 30, 1941. An early fascination with the arts would lead to a life-long career as a professional artist, one noted for her innate creativity and sense of irreverence. She has said, \"When I was a little girl, I would go to my dad's workshop and pick up discarded stuff from the floor and tables … I played with them, glued them together, painted them, and furnished my doll house. I was a junker from an early age.\" She studied art at the University of California, Berkeley, and spent a summer at City College New York, with the intention of becoming a painter. While studying for her M.F.A. in painting at the University of Wisconsin, Franne Lee was recruited to create sets for the theater department. She fell in love with the theater and switched to set and costume design. Franne Lee married Ralph Sandler, than an English professor at the University of Wisconsin, in 1961. A daughter, Stacy, was born in 1962, and a son, Geoffrey, was born in 1964. The marriage ended in 1967.</p> <p>Franne Lee's professional career began in Philadelphia's Theatre of the Living Arts with productions of <span class=\"title\">Harry Noon and Night</span> (1969) and <span class=\"title\">A Line of Least Existence</span> (1970), during which she met Eugene Lee, the set designer, with whom she lived and worked for the next ten years. Together they designed the Manhattan Project's highly acclaimed production of <span class=\"title\">Alice in Wonderland</span> (1970), directed by Andre Gregory, for which they shared the 1971 Drama Desk Award for most promising new designer. Next followed a production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Edward Bond's <span class=\"title\">Saved</span> (1970). The Lees began dividing their time between New York and Rhode Island, where they worked with the Trinity Square Repertory Company. After a year in Iran and Paris working with Peter Brook and Jean Monod, the Lees returned to Rhode Island and Andre Gregory's Manhattan Project to design <span class=\"title\">Endgame</span> (1972). Next came <span class=\"title\">Dude</span> (1972) at the Broadway Theatre in New York. The Lees' son, William Tuttle Lee, was born in 1973.</p> <p>It was the Lees' collaborations with director Harold Prince for <span class=\"title\">Candide</span> (1974) which brought them fame and acclaim, including Tony Awards for costume and set design. From 1974 through 1978, Franne Lee designed costumes for <span class=\"title\">Love for Love</span> and <span class=\"title\">Gabrielle</span> (1974), <span class=\"title\">The Skin of Our Teeth</span> (1975), <span class=\"title\">Ashmedai</span> (1976) at the New York City Opera (also with Harold Prince), and <span class=\"title\">Girl of the Golden West</span> at the Chicago Civic Opera (1978). During this time, the Lees ventured into television, as the original designers of <span class=\"title\">Saturday Night Live</span>, for which they worked from 1975 through 1980. Franne earned an Emmy for set and costume design, and is remembered for such iconic outfits as the Killer Bees and the Coneheads. In addition, the Lees enjoyed another successful collaboration with Harold Prince in his Broadway production of <span class=\"title\">Sweeney Todd</span> (1979).</p> <p>The Lees divorced in 1980 but collaborated occasionally on projects such as the television film version of <span class=\"title\">Sweeney Todd</span>. Franne continued to work in theater and television, and branched into film. Productions from the 1980s to 1990s include <span class=\"title\">The Mooney Shapiro Songbook</span> (1981), Shel Silverstein's <span class=\"title\">Wild Life</span> (1983), three one-act plays by Elaine May, David Mamet, and Shel Silverstein (1983) for Chicago's Goodman Studio, <span class=\"title\">Streetheat</span> (1985), The Paul Simon Special, and Edith Wharton specials for PBS, and <span class=\"title\">Comedy Zone</span> (1988). Her film work includes John Sayles' <span class=\"title\">Baby It's You</span> (1982), Al Pacino's <span class=\"title\">The Local Stigmatic</span> (1992) and <span class=\"title\">Chinese Coffee</span> (1997), and <span class=\"title\">Sweet Nothing</span> (1993). Franne also designed several music videos, including the <span class=\"title\">Harlem Shuffle</span> (1986) with the Rolling Stones, and created the sets for Suzanne Vega's <span class=\"title\">Days of Open Hand</span> Tour. Franne moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1995, and became more involved in television, designing <span class=\"title\">Sherman Oakes</span> for Showtime and <span class=\"title\">Roseanne</span> for King World. In 1998 she moved to Nashville and began working on local music videos, commercials, and theater.</p> <p>Franne Lee's design style reflects her fertile imagination, incorporating vintage items with odds and ends, resulting in highly detailed, sophisticated, witty pieces. She is currently a board member at Plowhaus, an artists' cooperative based in Nashville, Tennessee, where she continues nurturing her love of art.</p>"}

scopecontent

{"value"=>"<p>The collection contains correspondence, professional papers, and designs related to Franne Lee's work as an award-winning costume and production designer between 1969 and 1997. Production notes and other materials relating to projects on which Lee worked during this period make up about half of the collection, with the rest consisting of designs. The strengths of this collection are the complete costume bibles for <span class=\"title\">Sweet Nothing</span> (1993), the final colorized costume designs with swatches illustrating fabrics and textures for shows such as <span class=\"title\">Candide</span> (1974) and <span class=\"title\">Eating Raoul</span> (1992), large-scale costume plots and set designs, inspiration boards and elevations for various shows, and Lee's correspondence with long-time friends director Harold Prince and producer Bobby Geisler. Of special interest might be the extensive paperwork for <span class=\"title\">Bowling for Horror</span>, a proposed cable television series starring Brian Doyle-Murray, for which only the pilot episode was produced, and which provides insight into the many details involved in developing a show, of which costume design is one component. Also included are many initial pencil sketches, rough costume sketches, set renderings, clippings, programs, a sketchbook, a miniature model of a set, and an autographed vinyl album of Emo Philips' comedy show. This collection provides insights into Lee's working relationships, as well as her method of developing designs and her system of organizing material.</p>"}

{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Franne Lee papers and designs are arranged in six series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21782#c466863'>Series I: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1969 - 1994 and undated</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains letters, cards, notes and telegrams from friends and colleagues reflecting Franne Lee’s active involvement in the theater world as an award-winning costume and production designer in New York, Rhode Island, Chicago and London. Included are personal notes from many of the people with whom Lee worked, such as David Lynch, Paul Newman, Amanda Plummer, Stephen Sondheim, and Diane Venora, congratulatory telegrams for various awards won, letters regarding participation in conferences on design, and invoices for union dues. Of particular note are the letters from director Harold Prince and producer Bobby Geisler, both long-time friends and colleagues of Lee’s.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21782#c466891'>Series II: Professional Work Files, ca.</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970 - 1995</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>In this series are materials such as resumes, biographical sketches of varying lengths, magazine and newspaper articles about Franne and Eugene Lee, materials from conferences in which Franne participated, papers related to lawsuits, investments, and exhibits, photographs, and several project proposals, including two bound scripts sent to Franne by Bobby Geisler.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21782#c466902'>Series III: Production Notes and Materials</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1969 - 1997 and undated</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains small-scale costume sketches, preliminary sketches for costumes and sets, clippings for costume inspirations, costume plots, scripts, memos, production notes, contracts, and some correspondence relating to many productions in which Franne Lee was involved. Of particular note are the costume bible for <span class=\"title\">Sweet Nothing</span>, materials documenting the development of an original cable television series, <span class=\"title\">Bowling for Horror</span> (only the pilot was produced), correspondence regarding <span class=\"title\">Saturday Night Live</span>, correspondence, sketches, and financial material on <span class=\"title\">Sweeney Todd</span>, and photographs of early designs from the Trinity Square Repertory Company.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21782#c467004'>Series IV: Clippings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970 - 1992 and undated</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>In this series are newspaper and magazine clippings with reviews of productions on which Franne Lee worked, particularly those for which she received honorable mention, such as <span class=\"title\">Candide</span> (1974) and <span class=\"title\">Sweeney Todd</span> (1979), and an issue of <span class=\"title\">The Transylvanian</span>, the National Rocky Horror Fan Club publication.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21782#c467028'>Series V: Designs</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970 - 1994 and undated</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The series contains pencil sketches and painted designs for costumes, some with fabric swatches or notes attached, as well as elevations of set designs, large-scale costume plots, and inspiration boards Franne Lee produced for various film and television projects. Of particular interest are the items for <span class=\"title\">Alice in Wonderland</span> (1970), <span class=\"title\">Candide</span> (1974), <span class=\"title\">Eating Raoul</span> (1992), and <span class=\"title\">Sweeney Todd</span> (1979). Also of interest are the original designs for the Killer Bee outfit for <span class=\"title\">Saturday Night Live</span> (1976) worn by John Belushi.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21782#c467069'>Series VI: Oversized Materials</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970 - 1987 and undated</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>In this series are mainly oversized clippings relating to various projects on which Franne Lee worked, such as <span class=\"title\">Love for Love</span> (1974) and <span class=\"title\">Sweeney Todd</span> (1979), as well as the logo design for <span class=\"title\">Bowling for Horror</span>, and a sketchbook.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}

arrangement

{"value"=>"<p> <ul> <li>Series 1: Correspondence, 1969-1994 and undated</li> <li>Series 2: Professional Work Files, ca.1970-1995</li> <li>Series 3: Production Notes and Materials, 1969-1997 and undated</li> <li>Series 4: Clippings, 1970-1992</li> <li>Series 5: Designs, 1970-1994 and undated</li> <li>Series 6: Oversized Materials, 1969-1997 and undated</li></ul></p>", "supress_display"=>true}

acqinfo

{"value"=>"<p>The Franne Lee Papers and Designs were donated to the Billy Rose Theatre Division in 1999 by Franne Lee.</p>"}

separatedmaterial

{"value"=>"<p><span class=\"title\">Emo Philips Live from the Hasty Pudding Theater</span>-Autographed Album</p>"}

userestrict

{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.</p>"}

processinfo

{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Jackie Graziano and Sisnur Araujo; Machine-readable finding aid created by Sisnur Araujo.</p>"}

extent_statement

15.5 linear feet (31 boxes)

date_start

1969

date_end

1997

Update Collection TOP

Update from EAD XML File

Child components TOP

1. Series I: Correspondence [27/1]
2. Series II: Professional Work Files, ca. [10/1]
3. Series III: Production Notes and Materials [70/2]
4. Series IV: Clippings [23/1]
5. Series V: Designs [40/1]
6. Series VI: Oversized Materials [6/1]