- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"7 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"12 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*T-Mss 1994-002", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"21760", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1896-1993", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1896/1993"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1896
- date_inclusive_end
-
1993
- keydate
-
1896
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Jay Gorney papers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. <span class=\"subarea\">Billy Rose Theatre Collection.</span></span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Collection documents the life and career of musical theater composer, producer and teacher, Jay Gorney."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Jay Gorney Papers, *T-Mss 1994-002. Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Gorney, Jay, 1896-1990", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Composer, producer, writer and teacher, Jay Gorney was born Abraham Jacob Gornetzky in Bialystok, Russia on December 12, 1896. In 1906 he and his family fled a pogrom and came to the United States, settling in Detroit, Michigan. While in high school, Gorney organized and led the school orchestra and played the piano in a local movie theater. In 1913, the year he graduated from high school, he became a U.S. citizen due to his father's naturalization. At the University of Michigan (B.A., 1917, LL.B., 1919) he studied music at the University's School of Music, organized and led a jazz band and wrote several of the school's musical shows. During World War I, he enlisted in the navy and led a band at the Great Lakes Training Center.</p> <p>After a year of practicing law in Michigan, Gorney moved to New York to focus on his real love, songwriting. It was at this point that he changed his name legally to Abraham J. Gorney and professionally, to Jay Gorney. In the 1920s he wrote the scores for a number of Broadway shows including <span class=\"title\">Top Hole</span>, <span class=\"title\">Vogues of 1924</span>and <span class=\"title\">Merry-go-Round</span>. In the early 1930s he wrote music for Earl Carroll's <span class=\"title\">Vanities</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Ziegfeld Follies</span>and the Shuberts' <span class=\"title\">Americana</span>. For this last show he wrote perhaps his most famous song, the Depression anthem, <span class=\"title\">Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?</span>with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg. During this period, Gorney also worked for Paramount Studios in New York, coordinating musical stories and ideas, and wrote songs with lyricist, Howard Dietz.</p> <p>In 1933 Gorney went to Hollywood to work at Fox Studios. It was here that he discovered Shirley Temple for whom, with Lew Brown, he wrote the song, <span class=\"title\">Baby, Take a Bow</span>which she sang in the movie, <span class=\"title\">Stand Up and Cheer</span>.</p> <p>Gorney's greatest stage success was <span class=\"title\">Meet the People</span>, a revue he wrote and produced with Edward Eliscu and Henry Myers that opened in Hollywood in 1939 and on Broadway on Christmas night 1940. A number of performers who rose to stardom including Nanette Fabray and Jack Gilford, began here. The revue was revived in 1943-1944 and again in 1955.</p> <p>In the 1940s Gorney worked in both California and New York. He was a composer and producer for Columbia Pictures, writing the scores for <span class=\"title\">Hey, Rookie</span>and <span class=\"title\">The Gay Senorita</span>, among others. He also wrote <span class=\"title\">They Can't Get You Down</span>, a musical play and the Broadway musicals, <span class=\"title\">Heaven on Earth</span>and <span class=\"title\">Touch and Go</span>, the latter with sketches and lyrics by Jean and Walter Kerr. Gorney also did some television work as a writer-composer-producer.</p> <p>Gorney began teaching his craft of writing for musical theater beginning in 1948 when he and his wife Sondra created a musical play department at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School in New York City. They ran the department for three years producing five student productions. In 1952 they joined the faculty of the American Theatre Wing's professional training program where they produced <span class=\"title\">On the Wing</span>, an original student musical. Gorney also taught writing for musical theater at Hunter College.</p> <p>In 1953 Gorney was subpoened by the House Un-American Activities Committee where he declined to answer any questions invoking both the Fifth and the Sixth Amendments. Instead he serenaded the Committee with his musical version of the First Amendment, a song he called <span class=\"title\">The Bill of Rights</span>. For this he was blacklisted in the entertainment industry, fired from his contract at CBS-TV and from his position teaching writing for musical plays at Hunter College.</p> <p>Gorney continued to teach, however, even setting up his own school, the Jay Gorney School of Musical Comedy which offered classes and private lessons in his Manhattan home. He also continued to compose musical scores including <span class=\"title\">The Happiest Girl in the World</span>, an adaption of the music of Offenbach with lyrics by Harburg, the children's shows <span class=\"title\">Kris Kringle Rides Again</span>and <span class=\"title\">The Geografoof</span>and he wrote the music for the NBC-TV 1961 series, <span class=\"title\">The Frontiers of Faith</span>.</p> <p>Gorney received a number of awards including a special Tony Award for his dedicated teaching at the American Theatre Wing in 1962, a citation for 40 years of creativity from the Yale Drama School in 1965, the Songwriters Hall of Fame outstanding song award in 1976, and the ASCAP/Richard Rodgers Award for his outstanding contribution to the American musical theater in 1986.</p> <p>Gorney was married twice. In 1922 he married Edaleine Rodin with whom he had one son, Roderic. They were divorced in 1942. On January 27, 1943 he married Sondra Karyl with whom he had two children, Karen and Daniel. Jay Gorney died on June 14, 1990 at the age of 93.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>Collection consists of personal and professional papers, production files and teaching materials documenting the life and career of composer Jay Gorney. The bulk of the collection consists of professional files relating to productions. The general files (personal and professional) contain biographical material, correspondence, legal documents, articles by Gorney, publicity, photographs, programs and certificates. Production files including correspondence, scripts, notes, lyrics, story ideas, contracts, photographs, programs and clippings illustrate Gorney's work primarily for theater and film, though there is also a small amount from radio and television. Teaching materials reflect Gorney's efforts to teach the writing of musical theater to others and include lectures, notes, correspondence, contracts, publicity and clippings. Oversized ephemera includes diplomas, certificate and posters.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Jay Gorney papers are arranged in four series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21760#c452729'>Series I. General files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1913-1993</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>2 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The general files consist of personal papers followed by professional material not connected to a specific production.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21760#c452766'>Series II. Productions</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1927-1979 and n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>7 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The largest series in the Jay Gorney Papers, the productions series contains scripts, both clean and revised, notes, song lyrics, correspondence, memos, contracts, plans, story ideas, programs, photographs and clippings documenting Gorney's work in radio, the theater, television and film. The bulk of the material pertains to stage productions including <span class=\"title\">Meet the People</span>, <span class=\"title\">Heaven on Earth</span>, <span class=\"title\">They Can't Get You Down</span>and <span class=\"title\">Touch and Go</span>. There are also screenplays for <span class=\"title\">Gay Senorita</span>, <span class=\"title\">Hey, Rookie</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Serenade on the Seine</span>, scripts for the television series, <span class=\"title\">Frontiers of Faith</span>, and over a box of drafts, stories, and synopses of ideas that were never produced.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21760#c452887'>Series III. Teaching</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1947-1971 and n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>2 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Contains correspondence, contracts, publicity and teaching materials filed under a particular school or program followed by general material (lectures, notes and clippings) on teaching musical theater</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21760#c452918'>Series IV. Oversize materials</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1896-1993 and n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Miscellaneous ephemera includes diplomas, certificate and posters.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection is organized into four series and nine sub-series. They are:</p> <p> <ul> <li>Series I: General files <ul> <li>Sub-series 1: Personal papers</li> <li>Sub-series 2: Professional papers</li></ul></li> <li>Series II: Productions <ul> <li>Sub-series 1: Radio</li> <li>Sub-series 2: Theater</li> <li>Sub-series 3: Television</li> <li>Sub-series 4: Film</li> <li>Sub-series 5: Proposed, not produced</li></ul></li> <li>Series III: Teaching <ul> <li>Sub-series 1: Schools</li> <li>Sub-series 2: Teaching materials and lecture notes</li></ul></li> <li>Series IV. Oversize materials</li></ul></p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Jay Gorney Papers described here were a gift to the Billy Rose Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library from his widow, Sondra Gorney, in 1994 and 1995. They are part of a larger collection: The Jay Gorney papers, scores and sound recordings, held by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and divided into three groups. The papers are in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, the musical scores are in the Music Division and the sound recordings are in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Photocopying prohibited.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Collection.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Jay Gorney papers, scores and sound recordings</p>", "type"=>"host"}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Elisabeth Elkind; Machine-readable finding aid created by Elisabeth Elkind.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Elisabeth Elkind; Machine-readable finding aid created by\n Elisabeth Elkind .</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
7 linear feet (12 boxes)
- date_start
-
1896
- date_end
-
1993