Scrapbooks

1930-1967

An entertainer born in Buffalo, N.Y., Bruce Raeburn began his career in vaudeville, but was primarily a pianist singer. He toured in the operettas BLOSSOM TIME and MY MARYLAND, served in the Navy, acquired a 15-minute daily radio program and, in 1944, obtained a regular engagement as a singing pianist at the Monkey Bar (New York, N.Y.) where he stayed for eight years. Raeburn also appeared in bit parts on stage and television and performed at various clubs in the United States and elsewhere including Brazil, Argentina and the Virgin Islands. The collection, which was housed in two scrapbooks, is almost entirely photographs. The first scrapbook consists of professional photographs; the second is mostly personal photographs and programs from the summer of 1953 season of the Theatre-By-The-Sea (Matunuck, R.I.), where Raeburn performed at the Theatre-Inn-by-the-Sea supper club in the evenings and posed with actors such as Marlon Brando and Carol Channing during the day.