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Creator
Bohen, Thomas
Call number
*T-Mss 2008-008
Physical description
.25 linear feet (1 box)
Preferred Citation

Thomas Bohen Papers Regarding Motley, *T-Mss 2008-008. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
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A small collection of correspondence of Thomas Bohen with Motley members, Percy Harris and Elizabeth Montgomery, Motley designs (mainly copies), and printed material about Motley offers a glimpse of the work of the theatrical design firm.

Biographical/historical information

Motley, a theatrical design team consisting of Margaret (Percy) Harris, her sister Sophia, and their friend, Elizabeth Montgomery, designed sets and costumes in England and the United States from 1932-1976. Beginning with their design work for John Gielgud in 1932, Motley came to dominate theatrical design in London in the 1930s. During the Second World War, Margaret Harris and Elizabeth Montgomery worked in New York. Montgomery stayed on after the war working on Broadway musicals and for the Metropolitan Opera and the American Shakespeare Festival as well as painting commissioned portraits of opera stars. She returned to London in 1965. Harris had returned years earlier continuing her design work at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the English National Opera and the avant-garde Royal Court among others. In all, Motley designed sets and costumes for over three hundred productions across the spectrum of drama and including film. The women also established a theatrical design school in England. Thomas Bohen was a design assistant and friend.

Scope and arrangement

Collection consists of correspondence of Thomas Bohen with Percy Harris and Elizabeth Montgomery of Motley, primarily from their later years, his correspondence with Chris Rodgers who administered Harris' Motley Theatre Design Course in the 1990s, copies of some Motley costume and set designs and portraits, mostly by Montgomery, miscellaneous material pertaining to Motley including receipts written by Bohen when he worked with Motley in the 1950s, programs, clippings and obituaries, a draft memorial tribute to Harris by Alec Guinness, Harris' posthumously published "An Illustrated Dictionary of Traditional Theatre Terms," and a framed self-portrait by Montgomery.

The Thomas Bohen papers regarding Motley is arranged in four series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Thomas Bohen, May 2008.

Processing information

Processed by Elisabeth Elkind; Machine-readable finding aid created by Elisabeth Elkind.

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.