- unitid
-
{"value"=>"20346", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"LPA Mss 2005-001", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1927-2004", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1927/2004"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Fred Ebb papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"109 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"86 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Music Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Fred Ebb was a lyricist and librettist for Broadway musicals and motion picture and television projects. With composer John Kander, Ebb wrote scores for many acclaimed successful musicals. This collection contains scripts, scores and production files pertaining to Ebb's musicals as well as photographs, awards, personal and business files and extensive scrapbooks Ebb kept on each of his shows and other aspects of his life and career."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Ebb, Fred", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Fred Ebb was born in the Bronx on April 8, 1928. He grew up in New York and studied at New York University and Columbia University. By 1951, songs with Ebb lyrics were being published and one of his early efforts was recorded by Judy Garland. Ebb's primary collaborator throughout the 1950s was Paul Klein, though he worked with several composers, including Mary Rodgers and Charles Strouse. With Klein, Ebb wrote many songs, some of which were in the Broadway revue, <span class=\"title\">From A to Z</span> (1960) as well as several shows, including the 1963 off-Broadway production of <span class=\"title\">Morning Sun</span>.</p> <p> In the early 1960s Ebb's publisher, Tommy Valando introduced him to John Kander, a young composer from Missouri. Kander and Ebb instantly clicked as friends and collaborators and their partnership proved the longest lasting composer/lyricist pairing in Broadway history. With the exceptions of various independent projects, such as incidental motion picture scores Kander wrote and performer's specialty act scripts Ebb wrote, Ebb and Kander were exclusive collaborators from <span class=\"title\">My Coloring Book</span>, their first hit song in 1962, until Ebb's death in 2004.</p> <p> The first Broadway musical by the new team of Kander and Ebb, introduced them to two other collaborators who would work with them several times through the next forty years and largely shape the public's image of their work. Although George Abbott directed <span class=\"title\">Flora, the Red Menace</span> (1965) it was produced by Abbott's protege, Hal Prince and starred Liza Minnelli, in her Tony award-winning Broadway debut. The show only ran a few months, but it established Kander and Ebb's relationship with Prince, who directed and produced <span class=\"title\">Cabaret</span>, (1966) their next musical. <span class=\"title\">Cabaret</span> was a financial and critical success, running on Broadway for 1,165 performances and winning 8 Tony awards, including Best Score for Kander and Ebb and Best Musical, as well as being a ground-breaking work, often touted as a landmark in the history of the concept musical. <span class=\"title\">Cabaret</span> was also adapted into an acclaimed motion picture, directed by Bob Fosse in 1972, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as awards for the film's stars Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli. <span class=\"title\">Cabaret</span> continues to be an extremely popular musical and its most recent Broadway revival ran for 6 years.</p> <p>Kander and Ebb followed up <span class=\"title\">Cabaret</span> with two moderately successful shows, both of which opened in 1968 and ran about 300 performances, <span class=\"title\">The Happy Time</span>, which won Tonys for director Gower Champion and star Robert Goulet and <span class=\"title\">Zorba</span>, which was directed by Prince. Their next piece, <span class=\"title\">70, Girls, 70</span> (1971) was an offbeat musical comedy that did not fare as well. However, the early 1970s brought many triumphs to Kander and Ebb, with the motion picture of <span class=\"title\">Cabaret</span> as well as the acclaimed television special, <span class=\"title\">Liza with a Z</span> (1972) written and produced by Ebb, directed by Fosse and starring Minnelli. The program included new Kander and Ebb songs, for which they received an Emmy Award.</p> <p>Kander and Ebb's next Broadway show was one of their biggest successes, <span class=\"title\">Chicago</span> (1975). Though its success was somewhat eclipsed by that season's blockbuster, <span class=\"title\">A Chorus Line</span>, <span class=\"title\">Chicago</span>'s original production, directed by Fosse, starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach had a healthy run of 936 performances and was nominated for 11 Tony awards. A revival of <span class=\"title\">Chicago</span>, which originated in the Encores! Series hit Broadway in 1996 and as of this writing, was just passing the 4000-performance mark. This revival also inspired the Academy Award-winning hit motion picture adaptation of the show in 2002.</p> <p>The Liza Minnelli vehicle, <span class=\"title\">The Act</span> (1977), which remains Martin Scorcese's only Broadway credit, was Kander and Ebb's next show. Around this time, they wrote songs for several motion pictures, including <span class=\"title\">How Lucky Can You Get</span>, the Oscar nominated song from <span class=\"title\">Funny Lady</span> (1975). They also wrote several songs for Scorcese’s <span class=\"title\">New York, New York</span>, (1977) which starred Minnelli and Robert DeNiro, including the title song, which is arguably Kander and Ebb's most famous song. Though Minnelli introduced the song in that film, a later recording by Frank Sinatra launched its tremendous popularity, which culminated in 1985, when the Mayor proclaimed it the Official Song of the City of New York.</p> <p>In 1981, Kander and Ebb's score and stars Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Cooper won Tonys for <span class=\"title\">Woman of the Year</span>. This was followed by <span class=\"title\">The Rink</span> (1984), which starred Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli. Their next show, <span class=\"title\">Kiss of the Spiderwoman</span> (1993) was another triumph starring Rivera. The show, which was directed by Hal Prince, ran 904 performances and won Tonys for its three stars, Rivera, Brent Carver and Anthony Crivello as well as for Kander and Ebb’s score and the musical itself. Ebb's final show to open on Broadway was <span class=\"title\">Steel Pier</span> (1997), but two other Kander and Ebb projects, <span class=\"title\">The Visit</span> and <span class=\"title\">The Skin of Our Teeth</span>/<span class=\"title\">Over and Over</span>, had regional theater productions after that. One project, <span class=\"title\">Curtains</span>, that Kander, Ebb and librettist Peter Stone worked on for 20 years, was produced after Ebb and Stone's deaths in 2006 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.</p> <p> Fred Ebb died of a heart attack on September 11, 2004 in New York, NY. On September 14, the lights of Broadway were dimmed in his honor.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p> This collection includes materials from 1927 though 2004, when Ebb died. The collection contains scripts, scores and production files pertaining to Ebb's musicals as well as photographs, awards and personal and business files. One of the highlights is the collection of extensive scrapbooks Ebb kept on each of his shows and other aspects of his life and career, containing playbills, programs, photographs, correspondence, press coverage and various souvenirs of the shows.</p> <p> The collection also includes many score sheets and lyric drafts for songs that were cut from famous Kander and Ebb productions like <span class=\"title\">Cabaret</span>, <span class=\"title\">Chicago</span> and <span class=\"title\">Kiss of the Spiderwoman</span>, as well as scores and script drafts for unproduced Kander and Ebb projects, including <span class=\"title\">Golden Gate</span> and <span class=\"title\">Santa Teresa</span>, a musical about Eva Peron. Also represented are several projects Ebb was working on until his death, such as <span class=\"title\">The Skin of Our Teeth</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Visit</span> and <span class=\"title\">Curtains</span> . In addition to Ebb's many projects with John Kander, this collection also covers Ebb's early career, with other composers, such as Paul Klein and Phil Springer.</p> <p> Another notable feature of this collection is the script series, which documents many of Ebb's shows through several drafts of extensive revisions. This collection mainly covers Ebb's professional life and only includes a few personal items. The scrapbooks and scripts make up the bulk of this collection.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Fred Ebb papers are arranged in eight series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20346#c592147'>Series I: Scrapbooks</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1951-2004</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of Ebb's scrapbooks, which contain playbills and programs for Broadway, regional and international productions of Ebb shows, photographs, correspondence, press coverage, such as newspaper clippings, reviews, interviews, ticket stubs and various souvenirs of the shows. The scrapbooks contain the bulk of Ebb's personal correspondence, including opening night telegrams and cards from Ebb's friends and notable colleagues, such as Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Chita Rivera and John Kander. Ebb made scrapbooks for each show as well as many scrapbooks covering his career in general, his early works, honors and the special material he wrote for various performers. Items that could not be viewed in their entirety as placed in the scrapbooks have been moved to envelopes at the front of the scrapbooks.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20346#c592208'>Series II: Scripts</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1927-2004</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p> This series largely consists of scripts for Ebb's stage musicals, but also includes motion picture and television projects. In addition to Ebb's famous works, many unproduced shows are represented here. There are also a few scripts for projects not written by Ebb. There are also scripts for specialty acts written by Ebb for such performers as Liza Minnelli, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra and Mikhail Baryshnikov. As well as representing lesser-known works by Ebb, this series is notable for its documentation of Ebb and his collaborators' very extensive revision process.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20346#c592610'>Series III: Scores</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1931-2002</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p> This series largely consists of scores for Ebb's stage musicals, but also includes motion picture and television projects. There are also sheets for songs written by Ebb with various composers in the 1950s prior to his long collaboration with John Kander.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20346#c593062'>Series IV: Production Files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1960-2002</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p> This series consists of articles, audition notes, budgets, business files, cast lists, contact sheets, contracts, correspondence, costume plots, drafts of lyrics, essays and papers, invoices, itineraries, memos, notebooks, outlines, playbills, programs, productions notes, prop lists, proposals, public relations materials, research materials, schedules song lists, sound cues, telegrams and various other production files pertaining to particular shows. The bulk of materials that would be classified as production files were arranged in Ebb's scrapbooks and are subsequently in Series I.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20346#c593305'>Series V: General Files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1961-1998</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p> This series includes business files and correspondence that do not pertain to a particular Ebb show as well as personal files and correspondence.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20346#c593379'>Series VI: Awards</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1955-2003</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p> This series contains certificates of various awards, award nominations and honors, that Ebb received throughout his career.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20346#c593418'>Series VII: Photographs</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1962-1998</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains photographs of Ebb, various colleagues and associates and includes backstage shots and production shots from Ebb shows. The majority of the photographs in this collection are in the scrapbooks, so researchers should also consult Series I.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20346#c593436'>Series VIII: Oversized Items</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1955-2002</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p> This series consists of oversized awards, one poster and one album cover.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection is organized into 8 series. Series I: Scrapbooks, 1951-2004 Series II: Scripts, 1927-2004 Series III: Scores, 1931-2002 Series IV: Production Files, 1960-2002 Series V: General Files, 1961-1998 Series VI: Awards, 1955-2003 Series VII: Photographs, 1962-1998 Series VIII: Oversized Items, 1955-2003</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Fred Ebb Papers were donated to the New York Public Library in a 2004 bequest by Fred Ebb.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Diana Bertolini; Machine-readable finding aid created by Diana Bertolini.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Chief, Music Division.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1927
- keydate
-
1927
- date_end
-
2004
- date_inclusive_start
-
1927
- date_inclusive_end
-
2004
- extent_statement
-
86 linear feet (109 boxes)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Fred Ebb papers, LPA Mss 2005-001. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts"}