Scope and arrangement
The George Grizzard papers document the professional and personal life of American actor George Grizzard (1928-2007). Production files document Grizzard's theatre, film, and television appearances, with scripts, correspondence, photographs, programs, and publicity materials. Personal materials include correspondence between Grizzard and family members, honors, awards and tributes to Grizzard, friends, and colleagues; photographs of Grizzard's family, himself as a child, and his professional head shots; and writings.
This collection also includes live performance audiocassettes. Audio/visual materials may be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access. Inquiries regarding audio materials in the collection may be directed to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound at rha@nypl.org.
This collection includes Grizzard's Emmy Award and his Theatre World Award, which have been separated to the T-Cabinet, and will be available to researchers on request.
The George Grizzard papers are arranged in two series:
-
1955-200721 boxes. Arranged in alphabetical order
Production files cover the theatre, film, and television projects, in which Grizzard appeared. Production files consist mainly of scripts. There are also photographs, programs, contractual negotiations, and publicity materials, such as, interviews, feature articles, flyers, and posters. Other Productions consist of materials from unidentified productions, or unsorted materials from productions which are not represented extensively.
-
circa 1900-200711 boxes. Arranged in alphabetical order
Personal materials are divided into four categories: Correspondence; Honors, Awards, and Tributes; Personal miscellany; and Writings. Correspondence contains letters, cards and telegrams to and from Grizzard from 1951 to 2007. Correspondents include family members, such as Grizzard's mother, Mary Grizzard; father, George Cooper Grizzard, Sr.; and his cousin, Vernette Dean. There is also correspondence from theatre notables such as Edward Albee, Lauren Bacall, Noel Coward, Hume Cronyn, John Gielgud, Guthrie McClintic, Roddy McDowall, Ellis Rabb, Jason Robards, and Budd Schulberg; and from politicians, such as Robert F. Kennedy, and President Lyndon B. Johnson. Honors, Awards and Tributes include those honoring Grizzard himself, as well as for friends, colleagues, and other artists, including Edward Albee, Bella Bartok, Tyrone Guthrie, Julie Harris, Helen Hayes, John Houseman, William Inge, Jason Robards, Maureen Stapleton, and Charles Strouse. Also included are materials on organizations such as HB Studios, the International Poetry Forum, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Honors, awards, and tributes are documented with programs, invitations, and other correspondence; photographs; and awards certificates. Personal miscellany includes early 20th century family photographs and materials relating to Grizzard's family, childhood, and youth. There are documents from his high school and college years, the latter of which were spent at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Also included here are programs from theatrical performances Grizzard attended in the 1940s, clippings on his career in general, biographies, interviews, professional headshots, and samples of his personalized stationary and Christmas cards. Grizzard's writings include drafts of letters, drafts of speeches, rehearsal notes and logs, fiction, and memoir excerpts.