Found 3 collections related to Kalich%2C Bertha%2C 1874-1939

This collection comprises the papers of the Polish singer and actress Bertha Kalich who immigrated to the United States in 1895. Once in the United States, she became a celebrated star of the Yiddish theater, with active roles in theater as well as cinema, until 1928 when she succumbed to illness. One of her best known roles was the title character of the play Magda and Lilla Olrick in Jacobi's Riddle Woman. The collection consists of correspondence, personal and professional papers, and theatrical memorabilia from Bertha, her husband, Leopold Spachner, and daughter Lillian Kalich Spachner concerning her stage career and is primarily in English with some materials in German, Yiddish, and Hebrew. less

Gustav Blum (d. 1963) was an American theater director, producer, actor, and teacher. In 1916, he founded the East-West Players, a group that performed one-act plays, including English translations of Yiddish plays. The East-West Players won the Belasco Cup at the first Little Theater Tournament in 1923. Blum also produced and staged Broadway plays and worked as a drama teacher in high schools from 1909 until his retirement in 1958. The Gustav Blum papers (1912-1988, bulk 1915-1953) contain a scrapbook, contracts, scripts, photographs, clippings, correspondence, and other papers documenting Blum's career. The scrapbook dates from 1916 to 1923 and contains clippings and programs of the East-West Players. There are scripts for four plays that Blum produced: The Shame Woman (1923), Gertie (1926), My Son (1924), and Walk Hard (1946). The script for Walk Hard is a heavily annotated prompt copy; the other scripts have minimal or no annotation. There are also three scripts written or co-written by Blum: Against the Current, Eden, and A Sleepless Night. Contracts date from 1927 to 1946. The collection includes a statement of receipts and disbursements for Walk Hard and an estimated budget for Laughter in the Courtyard. Photographs consist of images of Blum, an unidentified production photograph, and signed photographs of Bertha Kalich and David Belasco. The collection also contains biographical information, clippings, and copyright records related to Blum's career, dating from 1912 to 1988. less

Theatrical director, producer, and performer Agnes Morgan (1879-1976) and her life partner Helen Arthur (1879-1939) were integral to the development of the theatre and dance productions at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. The Neighborhood Playhouse was founded as a theater in 1915 by sister philanthropists Alice Lewisohn Crowley (1883-1972) and Irene Lewisohn (1892-1944). Originally intended as a home for the Neighborhood Players, an amateur acting troupe for adults and children, the theater was housed in the Henry Street Settlement House and is considered one of the first to be given the designation "off-Broadway." By 1920 the theater had gone from amateur to professional and gained attention for its avant-garde and experimental work, as well as its popular revue The Grand Street Follies. The theater was under Arthur'smanagement from 1915 to 1927, and during this time Morgan was one of the theater's most significant directors. In 1940, Morgan became associate director of the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J., and retired from that position in 1972. She died in San Bernardino, Calif., in 1976. This collection documents the relationships that Morgan and her partner Helen Arthur had with many other dancers, actors, and artists in their New York circle and associated with the Neighborhood Playhouse theatre in New York City. Included in the collection are photographs, artworks, programs, correspondence, and other ephemera. Of particular note is a group of original fine art designs by dancer and artist Angna Enters, sent to Morgan and Arthur as holiday greetings in the 1930s. Also of note are numerous autographed portrait photos of leading actors and dancers of that period and a grouping of original costume designs for a production of Petrouchka at the Neighborhood Playhouse. less