- Creator
- McClendon, Ernestine, 1913-1991
- Call number
- Sc MG 583
- Physical description
- 0.21 linear feet (1 box)
- Language
- English
- Preferred Citation
- [Item], Ernestine McClendon papers, Sc MG 583, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.
The Ernestine McClendon papers contain McClendon's scrapbook of responses from ad agencies to her 1960 letter campaign urging them to hire Black actors and actresses. Included in the collection are her resumes, articles and reviews, some letters, contracts, music and lyrics written by McClendon, and a script and other production material for "Heartbreak by Midnight", a play she wrote which was later made into a screenplay. There are also jokes and other material for McClendon's comedy routine which she launched in 1984 at age 71.
Biographical/historical information
Actress, comedienne, and playwright Ernestine McClendon was best known as New York City's first Black theatrical agent. The McClendon Agency, later the Ernestine McClendon Enterprises, Inc., maintained offices in New York and Los Angeles.
McClendon began her career as an actress during the 1950s and appeared in productions of Raisin in the Sun and Langston Hughes's Simply Heavenly. In 1960, she launched a crusade to get advertising agencies to use Black actors and actresses in commercials, which resulted in her being hired by the agent Lillian Arnold to secure Black talent for Arnold's agency. She would go on to manage Black and white actors for Arnold, as well as for her own agency. Throughout the 1960s, McClendon continued to open doors for Black performers in commercials, television talk shows, and other similar venues.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift of Ernestine McClendon, 1995.
Revision History
Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark. (2022 February 17)
Separated material
Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: photographs.
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor