- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"15 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"34 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*MGZMD 173", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"19825", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1907-1999", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1907/1999"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1907
- date_inclusive_end
-
1999
- keydate
-
1907
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Stella Bloch papers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</span> <span class=\"subarea\">Jerome Robbins Dance Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"><span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Stella Bloch was an ethnic dancer and artist. Bloch took dance lessons from the Isadorables and then learned native dances of the Near East during a year long trip in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s she wrote film scripts. In the 1950s with a move to the East Coast, she began to concentrate more on drawing and painting her surroundings. Her work captures Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. Included in the collection are correspondence, personal papers, writings and photographs."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Stella Bloch papers, *MGZMD 173. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Bloch, Stella", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Stella Bloch was born in 1897 in Tarnow, Poland, but raised in New York City. At an early age she began to draw, but it was a performance of Isadora Duncan in 1914, that changed her life. Bloch became the first American student of the Isadorables, the six women who were the company of dancers for Duncan.</p> <p>At the age of 17, she accompanied Ananda Coomaraswamy on a trip to India and the Far East. While there, she learned the native dances of Bali, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, and Java. She spent a year in the palace of the Prince of Solo learning the Javanese dance. Upon her return to the United States, she performed these dances to enthusiastic crowds and headlined at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, NY.</p> <p>Bloch married Coomaraswamy in 1922. It was Coomaraswamy’s third marriage. The couple spent most of their married life in different cities; he in Boston as the curator of Indian and Muhammadan Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and she in New York City. The couple divorced in 1930.</p> <p> While working on and off Broadway, Bloch met the lyricist Edward Eliscu. The couple married in 1931. They moved to Hollywood soon after, where they both worked in the movies. Because of the House Committee on Un-American Activities of the 1950s, Eliscu was blacklisted and the family moved back to New York City. Eliscu worked in television until he was again blacklisted. The couple moved to Newtown, Connecticut in 1966, where they remained until their deaths.</p> <p>Throughout her life, Bloch continued her art work. It was during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s that Bloch sketched and painted pieces that would later be hailed as her best; subjects include Josephine Baker, Bessie Smith, Thelonious Monk as well as Harlem street scenes. One of her pieces was used as the logo art of the Broadway musical <span class=\"title\">Black and Blue</span> in 1989.</p> <p>Her artwork has been featured in Dance Magazine and shown at the Library for the Performing Arts and The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, both part of The New York Public Library. Other exhibitions have been at the Montross Gallery, New Macy Galleries, and Touchstone Galleries in New York City and Braxton Gallery, Warner Galleries, and Putzel Gallery, of Hollywood, California. Beginning in 1983 she was represented by the Beaux Arts Gallery in Woodbury, Connecticut, where retrospectives were shown in 1996 and 2000.</p> <p>The Eliscu’s had two sons, David and Peter, and six grandchildren. Edward died in June 1998. Stella Bloch died in January 1999 just one day short of her 101st birthday.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p> The Stella Bloch Papers span the years 1907-1999 and include correspondence, writings, personal papers, and photographs.</p> <p>The collection is important in its documentation of Bloch’s career as both a performer and an artist. Especially interesting is her professional and personal relationship with director George Cukor and photographer Mortimer Offner.</p> <p>The most personal material is in the correspondence between Bloch and her immediate and extended families. Of significance is the correspondence between the Eliscu’s and the Lehac’s (Ned and Jane Sherman). The Lehac’s were close friends and the wide-ranging correspondence between the two couples reflect concerns about schooling their children, finding work during the Red Scare of the 1950s, and later careers including reviving dances from the pioneers of the modern dance (Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis). The correspondence between Stella and Edward and their children, David and Peter, begins while the boys were in early teens and continues through their early middle age.</p> <p>Missing from the collection is information about Bloch’s career as a film script writer and her first marriage.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Stella Bloch papers are arranged in five series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19825#c403127'>Series I: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1907 - 1997</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>15 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains correspondence, primarily from family members, including husband Edward, sons David and Peter and their children, Jed, Jenny and Michael. There is also extensive correspondence with extended family members including cousins Mortimer Offner, Olga Offner, Edna Leopold and Olga Auerbach. Also included are letters from friends Ned and Jane (Sherman) Lehac.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19825#c403290'>Series II: Writings and Notes</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1950 - 1994</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>9 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series includes notebooks, note cards and notes created and used by Stella Bloch. There are also unpublished scripts, skits and stories, including preliminary drafts of a book about the life of Isadora Duncan. Where possible the notebooks are titled with what was written on the cover in the author’s handwriting, few are dated. The remainder of the notebooks have been numbered by the archivist.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19825#c403341'>Series III: Personal Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1907 - 1999</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>8 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series includes personal papers of Stella Bloch. The largest sections of this series are the calendars-yearbook diaries describing daily events. There are also clippings from magazines and newspapers, divorce papers from her first marriage, material about associations and membership, information about her art exhibits through the years and programs from several Isadora Duncan performances ca. 1919.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19825#c403462'>Series IV: Photographs</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1919 - 1990</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains photographs, snapshots, slides, and negatives. The photographs are mostly publicity stills and portraits taken by Mortimer Offner. The snapshots are mostly of a personal nature, including times with family and friends.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19825#c403474'>Series V: Oversized Material</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1915 - 1997</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains oversized material, including artwork, clippings and posters from art exhibitions. Of special interest is a handwritten family tree of the Offner clan from Poland in the 1800s to present day United States. It was dictated by Stella Bloch.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p> <ul> <li>Series I: Correspondence, 1907-1997</li> <li>Series II: Writings, 1950-1994</li> <li>Series III: Personal Papers, 1907-1999</li> <li>Series IV: Photographs, 1919-1990</li> <li>Series V: Oversized Material, 1915-1994</li></ul></p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p> The Stella Bloch Papers were donated to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division in 2002 by David Eliscu and Michael Coleman.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p>Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Leslie Reyman; Machine-readable finding aid created by Leslie Reyman.</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
15 linear feet (34 boxes)
- date_start
-
1907
- date_end
-
1999