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Creator
Lehac, Ned, 1899-1999
Call number
JPB 14-07
Physical description
.25 linear feet (1 box)
Preferred Citation

Ned Lehac papers, JPB 14-07. Music Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Music Division
Access to materials
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Ned Lehac (née Ned Levin, 1900-1999) was a composer who contributed to several Broadway revues between 1930 and 1942. The Ned Lehac papers, dating from 1920 to 1997, document Lehac’s music career through scores, correspondence, performance programs, clippings, and a historical essay.

Biographical/historical information

Ned Lehac (née Ned Levin, 1899-1999) was a composer of popular song. He attended City College of New York, where he began writing and presenting material with Edward Eliscu. As a professional, Lehac contributed to 14 revues from 1930 to 1942, including Nine Fifteen Revue, Let’s Play Fair, Garrick Gaieties, Sing for Your Supper (written for the Federal Theatre Project), and Of V We Sing. His collaborators included Edward Eliscu, Billy Rose, Harold Rome, Allen Boretz, Robert Sour, and Joe Darion, among others. In 1940, he married the dancer and writer Jane Sherman. In the early 1940s, he retired from professional theater work and taught high school science. In the 1990s, Lehac and Sherman moved to the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey, where Lehac resumed songwriting. He died on January 23rd, 1999.

Scope and arrangement

The Ned Lehac papers, dating from 1920 to 1997, document Lehac’s music career through scores, correspondence, performance programs, clippings, and a historical essay. The scores consist primarily of manuscript and published lead sheets or piano/vocal scores. They include songs written with lyricists Edward Eliscu, Joe Darion, Allen Boretz, Robert Sour, Joey Faye, and Billy Rose, some of which are from the revues Garrick Gaieties (1930) and Sing for Your Supper (1938). The manuscripts include lead sheets for which no lyrics were written, as well as lyrics by Joe Darion and Jane Sherman Lehac which were never set to music. They also hold Lehac’s last completed composition, Attention Please (1996), with lyrics by Joey Faye, and an orchestration by Maurice Previn of the Lehac - Allen Boretz song Beauty (from Garrick Gaieties).

The remainder of the collection holds an essay by Lehac titled The Story of Sing for Your Supper (1981); a written list of Lehac’s published songs; correspondence with Lehac’s co-authors, publisher, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) regarding songs, copyrights, and contracts; a letter from Ira Gershwin supporting Lehac’s membership in ASCAP; performance programs; and clippings. The earliest program is for a satirical musical by Lehac and Edward Eliscu presented at City College of New York in 1920 (the program, which also contains clippings about the show, credits Lehac as Ned Levin). Other programs are for Nine Fifteen Revue (1930), Of V We Sing (1942), Sing for Your Supper (1939), and Let’s Play Fair (1938).

Arrangement

All content formats are mixed together.

Administrative information

Custodial history

Ned Lehac maintained the collection. His wife, Jane Sherman Lehac, donated it to the Music Division a few months after his death.

Source of acquisition

Donated by Jane Sherman Lehac in 1999.

Processing information

Compiled by Matthew Snyder, 2014

Original order was maintained. Some content was rehoused in new folders.

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.