- unitid
-
{"value"=>"20864", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Sc MG 599", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b14995353", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1913-1983", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1913/1983"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Sidney Easton papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"3 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1.08 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Sidney Easton (1886-1971) was an actor, playwright, and songwriter. This collection contains personal and professional papers including letters, writings by Easton, legal documents regarding his suit against 20th Century-Fox Corporation, and research notes."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Easton, Sidney, 1885-1971", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Actor, playwright, and songwriter, Sidney Easton, was from Savannah, Georgia, the first born of six children of King and Eva Easton. His father worked on the railroad and for the Merchant and Miners Steamship Company. Easton ventured into show business for the first time at the age of twelve when he and his friends produced an animal tent show with stray cats and a kazoo band. Shortly thereafter, Easton went to work for the John Robinson Circus and later the A.G. Allan Minstrel Show. In 1913, Easton married Sarah Dooley, a fellow performer, who he met while they both worked at the Savannah Theatre. He performed with his wife for a number of years, until she died in the 1920s. Devastated by his loss, Easton took six months off from show business.</p> <p>During the 1930s and 1940s, Easton's career was on an upswing; he collaborated with Tom Delaney to write a song called \"Jump Steady Ball,\" which was the first recording by Ethel Waters. Easton and Waters went on to collaborate on \"Go Back to Where You Stayed Last Night,\" a song Waters included in her repertoire. Pearl Bailey also recorded this tune in later years. Other songs written by Easton include \"When the Melon's Ripe in Dixie,\" \"That's When I'm Coming Home,\" and \"Who's Dat Says 'Who's Dat.\"</p> <p>Throughout his fifty years in show business, Easton brushed shoulders with a number of show business luminaries such as W. C. Handy, Canada Lee, Leigh Whipper, and Tim Moore (\"Kingfish\" from the television show <span class=\"title\">Amos and Andy</span>), and also worked with the parents of the Nicholas Brothers.</p> <p>Easton appeared as an actor and musician in many films, plays, and a few television shows and programs. The films include <span class=\"title\">His Woman</span> (1931), starring Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert; <span class=\"title\">In the Garden of Eatin'</span>, a short with Ethel Merman; <span class=\"title\">Drums of the Night</span>, with Sheldon Leonard and Fredi Washington; and <span class=\"title\">Othello in Harlem</span>, <span class=\"title\">Murder on Lenox Avenue</span> (1935) and <span class=\"title\">Killer Diller</span> (1948) with Dewey Pigmeat Markhan and Babe Matthews.</p> <p>He appeared in the road company of <span class=\"title\">Shuffle Along</span> as the lead, 'Steve Jenkins,' and in <span class=\"title\">Sons of the Rest</span> (1927). The latter was produced by Easton and Joe Simms, with music and lyrics by Easton and Robert Warfield. Also in the 1930s, Easton toured with a number of acts including Kilpatrick's \"Minstrels,\" which was staged by J.A. Shipp. It was during this time that he married Harriet G. Hill, with whom he had one child, Sidney, Jr.</p> <p>Other plays in which Easton appeared include <span class=\"title\">How Have You Been</span>, <span class=\"title\">Darktown Scandals</span>,<span class=\"title\"> Miss Trudie Fair</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Green Pastures</span>. The first three plays were written by Easton and directed by Stanley Greene. Easton appeared as a guest artist with Eva Jessye's Choir in \"Minstrelsy U.S.A.\" at Pennsylvania State University. In television, Easton had a role on the series <span class=\"title\">The Black Robe</span> (1950) and played Isaac in the Hallmark sponsored production of <span class=\"title\">The Green Pastures</span>.</p> <p>Easton formed a number of comedic acts and musical partnerships during his career including Easton and Easton (featuring Bob Ricketts and others), Easton and (Jimmy) Stewart, Easton and Baby Goins Joyce, and Easton and (Bert) Howell. The last duo, Easton and Howell, which occasionally featured singer and dancer Martha Copeland, had the longest collaboration.</p> <p>In the 1940s, Easton sued 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, charging them with having used his play, <span class=\"title\">Lifeboat #13</span>, as the basis for the film <span class=\"title\">Lifeboat</span>, starring Tallulah Bankhead and co-starring Canada Lee. In his memoirs, Easton claims that Leigh Whipper took the play to Hollywood and sold it without his permission. Easton settled four years later with the film company for a few thousand dollars, and relinquished the copyright for the play.</p>"}
- custodhist
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection was donated to Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research by Easton's widow, Harriet, in the mid 1970s. It was subsequently donated by Helen Armstead-Johnson, along with other theater-related collections to the Schomburg Center.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Sidney Easton collection spans the years, 1913-1980, and partially documents aspects of Easton's long and varied career in show business. The Personal and Professional papers series includes printed materials that contain information about Easton's career. The Career Information File includes sheet music written by Easton, Bert Williams, Alex Rogers, Sheldon Brooks, and Clarence Muse. In addition, there is a list of performers with whom Easton associated over the span af fifty years, and a scrapbook. Included in the Writings series are Easton's typescript autobiography and various undated playscripts, skits, monologues, short stories, television scripts, a screenplay, and a small file of manuscript music. The legal series includes information regarding the lawsuit he filed against 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation. There are also notes by Helen Armstead-Johnson on Easton and his career.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p>Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: photographs.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Sidney Easton papers are arranged in three series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20864#c655501'>Personal and Professional Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>PERSONAL and PROFESSIONAL PAPERS, 1913-1983, n.d., contains Easton's marriage license to Sarah Dooley, his first wife. Other materials in this series are a small amount of career related documents including advertisements for Easton and Howell that appear to have been taken from a scrapbook. This file also includes three programs, one featuring Easton and Howell in Quebec, Canada. The clippings contain information about Easton's performances and activities. There is also a file of sheet and manuscript music written by others that Easton probably performed. Included here are two copies of sheet music for the Alex Rogers and Bert Williams' classic \"Nobody,\" autographed by Eva Jessye. In addition, there are two pieces of manuscript music of \"Judge Roy Hyde\" by Sheldon Brooks, Jr. and Edgar J. Hayes, and \"I'm Taking Back All Those Clothes\" by Sheldon Brooks, Jr. and Clarence Muse. There is also a list of all the performers with whom Easton had some association over the span of fifty years in show business.</p> <p>The Miscellaneous file contains letters from Easton's second wife, Harriet to Helen Armstead-Johnson regarding Sidney Easton's papers. This file also contains printed materials. Of interest is a scrapbook, 1928-1934, n.d., essentially containing numerous reviews of performances by Easton and Howell, Easton and Easton, Easton and Stewart, and Easton and Baby Goins Joyce in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In addition, there is a souvenir program from the S.S. Haiti, aboard which he sailed to Haiti to film a sequence of Drums of the Night, and an article on C. Luckeyth \"Lucky\" Roberts, one of Easton's songwriting contemporaries, by George S. Schuyler.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20864#c655507'>Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>WRITINGS, 1920-1950, n.d., series is divided into four subseries: Autobiography, Play Scripts, Other Writings and Music. These subseries represent the different genres of Easton's work. The Autobiography file, c.1966, contains Easton's 316-page typescript memoir. There is also a 30-page synopsis of the autobiography.</p> <p>The Play Scripts, n.d., subseries includes the plays Lifeboat #13, Miss Trudie Fair, The Obliging Burglar, Shanty Car and the playlet She Never Heard of the Blues.</p> <p>In the Other Writings, n.d., file there are monologues, short stories, skits and television scripts, in addition to a partial list of songs written by Easton.</p> <p>The Music, 1920, 1932, 1950, n.d., subseries consists of both manuscript and sheet music. There is manuscript music for \"Shanty Car,\" parts of the songs \"Rhythm of Song,\" \"I Ain't Poor No More,\" \"Enjoy Yourself,\" and a few untitled pieces. Also found here are a number of pieces of sheet music written by Easton including \"Who's Dat Says 'Who's Dat,\" \"When the Melon's Ripe in Dixie, That's When I'm Coming Home,\" and a book of sheet music,\"Ten Original Jazz Tunes,\" all of which were written by Easton.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20864#c655523'>Legal</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>LEGAL, 1944-1947, n.d., series documents Easton's claim against Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. It contains correspondence between Easton and his lawyers B. Leo Schwartz and Charles S. Rosenschein, an affidavit given by Easton, settlement documents pertaining to the case, and clippings. In addition there are two versions of Lifeboat, a manuscript by John Steinbeck and a screenplay by Jo Swerling. Easton's Lifeboat #13 can be found in the WRITINGS series.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Helen Armstead-Johnson, December 1996.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Steven G. Fullwood, 1996; revised by Latchmi Bishunnath.</p><p>Processed by Steven G. Fullwood, August 2000.</p>"}
- note
-
{"value"=>"This collection forms part of the Helen Armstead-Johnson Theater collection."}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"Schomburg NEH Blacks on Stage: African American Theater Arts Collection Project"}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark.", "date"=>"2022 September 9"}
{"value"=>"Finding aid updated by Allison Hughes.", "date"=>"2023 August 8"}
- date_start
-
1913
- keydate
-
1913
- date_end
-
1983
- date_inclusive_start
-
1913
- date_inclusive_end
-
1983
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"[Item], Sidney Easton papers, Sc MG 599, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library"}