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Creator
Kranz, Benjamin
Call number
*T-Mss 2013-135
Physical description
5.6 linear feet (12 boxes, 1 volume, 3 oversized folders)
Preferred Citation
Benjamin Kranz professional files, *T-Mss 2013-135. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Benjamin Kranz (circa 1911-1983) was an American theatrical stage manager. The Benjamin Kranz professional files date from 1922 to 1981 and contains production files, correspondence, contracts, and other materials relating to his career as an actor and stage manager.

Biographical/historical information

Benjamin Kranz (circa 1911-1983) was an American theatrical stage manager. He began his career as an actor and, from 1929 to 1930, appeared in Stanley Bell's touring production of Journey's End. For the next fifty years, Kranz stage managed several Broadway and touring theatrical productions, including Having Wonderful Time, The Two Bouquets, O Evening Star, The Little Foxes, The Moon is Down, My Three Angels, The Green Pastures, Inadmissible Evidence, The Searching Wind, Porgy and Bess, and Annie. Kranz also staged industrial shows for Ford and Nabisco, as well as the American National Theater and Academy's (ANTA) Album shows in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Scope and arrangement

The Benjamin Kranz professional files date from 1922 to 1981 and contain production files, correspondence, and other materials relating to Kranz's career as an actor and stage manager.

Production files comprise the bulk of the collection. They are arranged alphabetical by title and document theatrical productions that Kranz acted in or stage managed. The degree to which each production is documented varies, though the majority of the files contain only scripts or prompt books. Production files may also include notes, stage plans, cast lists, programs, prop plots, and clippings. Among the more thoroughly represented titles are The Little Foxes, The Green Pastures, The Grass Harp, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Rugged Path, Call Me Mister, and My Darlin' Aida. Prompt books for The More the Merrier; Flowers of Virtue; Kiss Me, Kate; The Two Bouquets; and Inadmissible Evidence are heavily annotated. Files for 1776 only contain production photographs and two certificates of recognition for Kranz.

Correspondence consists primarily of incoming letters regarding the planning, production, and reception of plays and musicals, such as Annie; Porgy and Bess; Kiss Me, Kate; and The Moon is Down. Also present are several congratulatory notes and letters of appreciation from colleagues, such as Ezra Stone, Oscar Serlin, Moss Hart, Dorothy Rodgers, Edwin Lester, Greer Garson, and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.

The collection also contains articles, clippings, photographs, contracts, contact and cast lists, and one scrapbook. Contracts thoroughly document Kranz's professional activities between 1929 and 1980. Cast lists are sometimes accompanied by rehearsal attendance sheets. The scrapbook contains clippings and programs for Journey's End.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged by format with Production Files further arranged alphabetically by title.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Unknown.

Processing information

Compiled by Robyn Hjermstad, 2015

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

The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Theatre Division at theatre@nypl.org.