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Creator
Bock, Jerry
Call number
JPB 02-10
Physical description
22.31 linear feet (72 boxes, 1 oversized folder)
Preferred Citation

Jerry Bock papers, JPB 02-10. Music Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Music Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Jerry Bock papers primarily document the professional activities of the prime twenty years of his composing career, as well as his later works, and do not offer much, if any, insight into his personal life. Vocal scores, lead sheets, and sketches for all of his musical productions produced on Broadway, including The Apple Tree, The Body Beautiful, Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello!, Mr. Wonderful, The Rothschilds, She Loves Me, and Tenderloin are represented in the papers. Also present are a significant number of pop songs that Bock wrote with Sheldon Harnick and Larry Holofcener in addition to many for which he supplied his own lyrics. Business correspondence can be found within the production it relates to; many productions also include documents such as notes, cast information, ticket stubs, ephemera, and photographs. The collection does not contain Bock's personal correspondence; the few personal papers here are either work or school-related.

Biographical/historical information

Jerry Bock, songwriter and composer of some of Broadway's most successful musicals, was born in 1928. His musical talent was well known by the time he graduated from high school in June 1945. He wrote the score and some of the lyrics for Flushing High School's production My Dream, and his class voted him "Most Likely to Succeed." Then came Big As Life, an amateur musical he helped write while at the University of Wisconsin, which was a large enough hit to tour around the state of Wisconsin and run in Chicago. By 1950 Bock was collaborating with Larry Holofcener, composing music for early television shows, and spending the summer at the Tamiment Playhouse camp in the Poconos. The three seasons he spent at Tamiment under the guidance of producer Moe Hack gave him the ability to churn out songs for musicals. His Broadway debut came in 1955 with three songs for the unsuccessful revue Catch a Star. Bock and Holofcener quickly garnered a hit the following year with two songs for the Broadway production Mr. Wonderful (starring Sammy Davis Jr.). During this time Bock supplemented his income by working as a staff writer for the music publisher Thomas Valando. Music he wrote made its way to the big screen in a Columbia Pictures short called Wonders of Manhattan. In 1958, Bock joined forces with lyricist Sheldon Harnick, with whom he would write seven musicals in the next twelve years. While their first production, The Body Beautiful, ran for less than three months, their work attracted the attention of producer Harold Prince and director George Abbott. They invited Bock and Harnick to do the music for Fiorello!, a Pulitzer Prize-winning production about the former mayor of New York City. Other Bock-Harnick musicals had varying levels of success, but none can compare to Fiddler on the Roof, which ranks up against the most significant works of the twentieth century.

Scope and arrangement

The Jerry Bock papers primarily document the professional activities of the prime twenty years of his composing career, as well as his later works, and do not offer much, if any, insight into his personal life. Vocal scores, lead sheets, and sketches for all of his musical productions produced on Broadway, including The Apple Tree, The Body Beautiful, Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello!, Mr. Wonderful, The Rothschilds, She Loves Me, and Tenderloin are represented in the papers. Also present are a significant number of pop songs that Bock wrote with Sheldon Harnick and Larry Holofcener in addition to many for which he supplied his own lyrics. Business correspondence can be found within the production it relates to; many productions also include documents such as notes, cast information, ticket stubs, ephemera, and photographs. The collection does not contain Bock's personal correspondence; the few personal papers here are either work or school-related.

The Jerry Bock papers are arranged in five series:

  • Series I: Scores
    1945-2003

    This series covers a majority of the scores Bock composed, and the following two subseries, Productions and Songs, break his work into two distinct groups - formal productions versus pop songs.

  • Series II: Production Materials
    1945-2007

    This series contains all of the materials from Bock's theatrical and other productions that are not scores. The first level of organization is an alphabetical arrangement by title of production, and each production is further broken down into the following groups: correspondence; lyrics; libretti; programs; clippings; and production materials. Some of the smaller productions (Big As Life, Man in the Moon, benefit events) include scores because there were not enough pieces to justifiably separate them from the other materials. An item of interest is a diary that Bock kept during the early brainstorming days of Fiddler on the Roof. Also note that the number of songs written for each production often greatly exceeded the number actually used (this is demonstrated in the lyrics for each production, as well as the scores in Series I).

  • Series III: Song Lyrics
    circa 1956-circa 1991

    The lyrics found in this series are primarily by Bock, although there is a group of songs written by Harnick, and another group of other lyricists. Drafts of Holofcener's lyrics are not found in this series; the few drafts that exist are within the songs subseries of Series I. The majority of songs match a score found in Series I, and many lyrics have handwritten drafts in addition to a typescript version.

  • Series IV: Personal Papers
    1942-2008

    These folders contain Bock's high school yearbook, college scrapbook and other early literary work, as well as a children's book prototype based on his son George's name. Also included are articles written by Bock; awards honors and tributes; general correspondence; and contracts and agreements; and photographs.

  • Series V: Oversized Materials
    1971-2004

    Includes oversized Fiddler on the Roof materials (notes and photographs), and an award from the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Jerry Bock.

Processing information

Compiled by Diana Bertolini, 2015

Using the collection

Location

Music Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Chief, Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.