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Creator
Simms, Hilda, 1918-1994
Call number
Sc MIRS Simms 1994-08
Physical description
17 audio_recordings. 1 video_recording
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Hilda Simms audio and moving image collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

Actress Hilda Simms (1918-1994) hosted the WOV New York City radio program Ladies' Day from 1953 to 1962, featuring music and interviews with figures in entertainment and public affairs. The collection dates from 1953 to 1956 and consists of eighteen items. Simms's radio program Ladies' Day makes up the bulk of the collection, while one video recording and one sound recording are excerpts from Simms's film and television roles.

Biographical/historical information

Actress Hilda Simms (1918-1994) hosted the WOV New York City radio program Ladies' Day from 1953 to 1962, featuring music and interviews with figures in entertainment and public affairs. She is best known for playing the title role in the American Negro Theatre's production of Anna Lucasta that moved successfully to Broadway in 1944. The play became a movie in 1958 with Eartha Kitt playing the same role.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Simms attended the University of Minnesota and Hampton Institute. After studying drama and voice independently, Simms moved to New York City in 1943 where she joined the American Negro Theatre. She found work at the Caribbean desk for the Office of War Information where she wrote, produced, and acted in radio dramas for troops abroad. She continued to sing and act in plays, television, and film throughout the 1950s. From the 1960s through the 1990s, Simms focused on social issues, becoming the director of the Creative Arts Program for the New York State Commission for Human Rights. She went on to work as a vocational specialist at the Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation. Her work has been recognized by organizations such as the New York City YMCA, the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, and the National Council of Negro Women, among others.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of seventeen sound recordings and one video recording. Simms's radio program Ladies' Day makes up the bulk of the collection. The recordings are arranged chronologically by air date.

The Hilda Simms audio and moving image collection is arranged in two series:

  • SERIES I: LADIES' DAY RADIO PROGRAM

    Sixteen audio recordings of Simms's radio program interviews with musicians, actors, and public figures speaking about their lives and careers, dating from 1954 to 1956. Some of the interviews are punctuated by jazz music curated by Simms or requested by listeners. Interviewees are Mae Barnes, Billy Eckstine, Reginald Gardiner, Peggy Ann Garner, Althea Gibson, Chico Hamilton, Gina Lollobrigida, Nellie Lutcher, Cameron Mitchell, Hugh O'Brian, Bill O'Shields, Johnnie Ray, Art Tatum, Oliver [Tingling] and Tom Daugherty of the Boy Scouts of America, Billy Ward and Milton Murrill of the Dominoes, and Joan Weber. A second interview with Billy Eckstine promotes the Exposition of Progress.

  • SERIES II: EXCERPTS

    One video recording of an excerpt from the 1953 film The Joe Louis Story starring Hilda Simms as Marva Louis. One audio recording of an excerpt of the 1955 NBC television broadcast of A Man is Ten Feet Tall starring Hilda Simms as Lucy Tyler.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by the estate of Hilda Simms, 1994; addition from Evelyn B. Sharpe, 1994.

Revision History

Item scope and content notes and AMI identifiers revised for clarity by Lyric Evans-Hunter. (2024-04-12)

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Stacey Doyle Ference. Collection processed and described by Lyric Evans-Hunter, archivist; and Shola Lynch, curator. Finding aid published in 2024.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Hilda Simms Papers, Sc MG 539.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for the Hilda Simms photograph collection [graphic], Sc Photo Hilda Simms Collection.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.