Scope and arrangement
The Tony Marshall photographs, dating from 1970 to 1991, depict mostly behind-the-scenes and rehearsal shots of theater, dance, and music performances filmed for public television. The collection is composed of digitized images of Marshall's black-and-white prints. The photographs often show performers in or out of costume rehearsing or relaxing on the set or stage. Some shots include the camera crew and television directors. Present also are a small amount of shots of music concerts, crowds at events, actors at various restaurants, New York City street musicians, New York City apartment windows, circus performances, and television shows.
The bulk of the collection constitutes theater, dance, and music performances filmed for the public television station WNET/Thirteen. Most of the theater performances consist of plays (such as Antigone, The Year of the Dragon, The Patriots, and The Time of Your Life), television movies, or adapted short stories produced for the public television shows Great Performances: Theater in America and American Playhouse. The collection also holds shots from one-act plays filmed for The General Motors Playwrights Theater that aired on the Arts & Entertainment Cable Network. There are also photographs from the television movie Joseph Papp Presents: The Dance and the Railroad and shots from the filming of the theatrical dance company American Dance Machine. Actors appearing in the performances include Jeff Daniels, Olympia Dukakis, Anthony Edwards, Edward Herrmann, Swoozie Kurtz, Agnes de Mille, Cynthia Nixon, Ann Reinking, Chita Rivera, George Takei, and Annette O'Toole.
Dance performances depicted in the photographs were filmed for various public television programs, including Great Performances: Dance in America, Making Television Dance, Live at Lincoln Center, Gala of Stars, and Summercast Live. Dancers and dance companies appearing in these performances include Merrill Ashley, Alexander Godunov, Sean Lavery, Natalia Makarova, Charles Moulton Dance Company, Twyla Tharp Dance, and unidentified dancers from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.
Music performances appearing in the photographs are grouped by venue (such as the Fillmore East and the Waldorf-Astoria Nightclub), location (Central Park), concert name ("Music for UNICEF Concert: A Gift of Song"), or production (La Bohème). The performances depicted in the photographs range from operas at the Metropolitan Opera to popular music benefit concerts. Musicians appearing in the performances include ABBA, the Bee Gees, Leonard Bernstein, Judy Collins, John Denver, Albert King, James Levine, Olivia Newton-John, Luciano Pavarotti, Sha Na Na, Beverly Sills, Isaac Stern, and Ike and Tina Turner.
The photographs also include behind-the-scenes looks at events that combine dancers, actors, singers, and musicians (such as the 1981 two hour gala The Stars Salute the President); a Woody Allen television comedy called Men in Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story that was never broadcast; two television mini-series aired to celebrate the American Bicentennial; and various comedic, talk, and children's television shows. Of note are photographs from Sesame Street featuring Jim Henson and Frank Oz puppeteering Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear.
Be advised, some titles contain words that can be harmful and offensive.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged by production, television show, event, or location, and then alphabetically within each topic. Unidentified photographs are listed last.