Emerson College Archives.

Martin Shwartz was born in Boston, MA on September 30, 1923. In his pre-theater career, Shwartz held positions in mathematics at different institutions such as Tufts College and the Board of Supervisors of Harvard University in Mathematics. He also served as instructor in Mathematics, Electricity, Electronics and Gunnery for the Advanced Technical Service Schools in the U.S. Navy and as Civilian Mathematician at MIT. However, his true passion seems to have been theater. While teaching mathematics, he was a press representative of the Harvard Dramatic Club (1942-1947), followed by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals (1947), Wellesley Summer Theater (1947) and Reading Theater Guild (1948). In 1948, he gained national recognition as a part of the National Publicity Associates. He contributed to productions such as, "Small Wonder," "The Shop at Sly Corner," "On Approval," "Chas. Weidman Dance Recital" and "NYC Ballet Company." Shwartz also served as press representative for "My Fair Lady" (May 14, 1956-?).

From the description of The Martin Shwartz audio-visual collection 1927-1989 (Emerson College). WorldCat record id: 660156420

George A. McFadden showed an early interest in design when, as a teenager, he created a mechanical store display featuring an Eskimo drinking for his parents' drug store in Maine. Later he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where he studied design, particularly theater design. There he also met his wife Alyce, a costume designer who worked with him throughout his career. Throughout his life McFadden pursued varied interests, as a jeweler, a metalsmith, and a creator of mechanical devices used by clowns in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. He was also a faculty member at Emerson College from 1930-1931. His designs included sets for the Boston Stage Society, the Brattle Theater, the Wharf Players in Provincetown, and the Repertory Theater, as well as window displays for such department stores as Filene's and Jordan Marsh. Some of his store displays are still used in Boston. After his retirement in the 1970s, McFadden began fixing and making clocks in his Winchester, MA home. While he worked with conventional clocks, he also made whimsical cuckoo clocks with quirky takes on traditional themes, some of which are now on display at local museums.

From the description of The George McFadden costume and set design clippings collection 1926-1970 (Emerson College). WorldCat record id: 708624696

Songwriter Arthur Sullivan and librettist W.S. Gilbert collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, under the care of producer Richard D'Oyly Carte. Gilbert and Sullivan first collaborated in 1871 on a piece called Thespis for producer John Hollingshead, but did not cross paths for another four years. At the behest of D'Oyly Carte, they created their first successful opera, Trial by Jury, in 1875. After the successes of The Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance, D'Oyly Carte opened the Savoy Theatre in London in 1881 to showcase their subsequent works. Their collaborations with D'Oyly Carte at the Savoy are known as the Savoy Operas, and are still performed worldwide today. Their partnership ended in 1896, after operating disagreements strained their working relationship. Their final opera, The Grand Duke, was seen as a failure, and the pair did not work together again. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued to tour worldwide, performing exclusively Gilbert and Sullivan works, until it closed in 1982. Their most well-known operas include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado, and today, their works are performed by a variety of groups and are still referenced in popular culture.

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas nearly year-round in the UK, Europe, North America, South Africa, Australasia and elsewhere from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. The company was revived in 1988 and played seasons in London as well as shorter tours until 2003. In 1875, Richard D'Oyly Carte asked Gilbert and Sullivan to collaborate on a short comic opera to round out the evening's entertainment at the Royalty Theatre, which he was then managing. That work, Trial by Jury, became a success, and Carte put together a syndicate to produce a full-length Gilbert and Sullivan work, The Sorcerer (1877), followed by H.M.S. Pinafore (1878). When Pinafore became an international sensation, Carte separated from his current investors and formed a new partnership with Gilbert and Sullivan that became the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Carte's company produced the succeeding ten Gilbert and Sullivan operas and many other operas and companion pieces at the Savoy Theatre in London, which he built in 1881 for that purpose. The company also mounted productions on tour, in the British provinces, in New York and elsewhere, usually running several companies simultaneously.

Sigmund A Lavine was a theatre arts advocate and enthusiast throughout his life. His father was not only the personal representative for John Craig at the Castle Square Opera Repertory Theatre, but Managing Director of the Boston Opera House for the Schubert Organization and general manager for a chain of theatres operated by the forerunner of the General Cinema Corporation. Thus, Lavine grew up immersed in the Boston theatre community and earned a lifelong love of theatre. Lavine wrote for his college newspaper, Boston University's Beanpot, the Boston Transcript, and the Boston Post as a feature and book review writer. It was at Boston University that Lavine first encountered Gilbert & Sullivan and began his long-time fascination with the team and their productions. Lavine began collecting materials that documented the career of Gilbert & Sullivan, and used his knowledge and love of the theatre to assist in productions of musicals at the Mary Curley School and Lake Winnisqaw, NH, displays at the Boston Athenaeum, and lectures at the Boston Public Library. Performers in R.H. Burnside's Boston Comic Opera came to rely on Lavine as a source of information, friend, and mentor. In 1954, Lavine wrote a biography of Gilbert & Sullivan called "Wandering Minstrels We", which contained reproductions of playbills and photographs from Lavine's collection. Lavine was present in the Boston theatre and Gilbert & Sullivan scene until his death in 1996.

From the description of The Sigmund A. Lavine Gilbert and Sullivan collection 1867-1988 (Emerson College). WorldCat record id: 708653512

Howard Storm was born December 11, 1939 in New York City. Storm is a noted director and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the television series "Mork and Mindy" that ran on ABC from 1978-1982. Storm has directed for thirty-eight different television series including "Everybody Loves Raymond", "Major Dad", "Head of the Class", "Sugar and Spice", "Valerie", "Full House", "Faerie Tale Theatre", "Amanda's", "Taxi", "Laverne & Shirley" and many others. He also directed the film "Once Bitten". He acted in twenty-four series mostly in the 1960's and 1970's, and in the mid 1970's wrote four episodes for four different television series. He was an active member of the Director's Guild Association, and served as the awards committee chairman. In 1998 he received an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs for: "Kenan & Kel" (1996) for the episode "Haven't Got Time for the Paint".

From the description of Howard Storm script collection 1977-2003 (Emerson College). WorldCat record id: 526477112

Phil Leslie was a great comedic writer who started in radio and later moved to television. Born in 1909, he first worked in St. Louis, Missouri as bookkeeper for a bank. During this time he married his wife Helen, and they had four children Anne, Jane, Sue, and Phil Jr. In 1939 he left the bank business to pursue his dream as a writer. In 1943 he was hired as an assistant writer, working with Don Quinn, for the radio show Fibber McGee & Molly. Following Quinn's retirement Leslie took over as head writer of the show. He was the head writer until the show's end in 1959. As radio was on its way out and television was on its way in Leslie moved on to write for the new medium. He wrote several scripts for potential small screen adaptation of Fibber McGee & Molly and was approached by NBC in 1959 to write for their television version. According to Tom Price's Fibber McGee's Closet, Leslie declined the network's offer when it became apparent that the producers were not respectful of the material. The first television script he sold was an episode of Bachelor Father in 1957. He wrote the very first episode of The Donna Reed Show in 1958. Leslie started writing for Dennis the Menace in 1960 and stayed with the show until it ended in 1963. Aside from Dennis the Menace, he spent the bulk of his career moving from one television show to the next, writing an episode or two and then going on to the next job. He often worked with a writing partner named Keith Fowler. His last produced work for television is believed to be a pair of scripts for The Brady Bunch in 1971. Leslie died at the age of 79 in 1988 from cancer. In 1998, a new version of The Addams Family went into production. Several scripts written by Phil Leslie and Keith Fowler were adapted for the new show.

From the description of Phil Leslie script collection 1937-1999 (Emerson College). WorldCat record id: 526550675

Helen Shea was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies, and a lifetime resident of 168 West Brookline Street in Boston's South End neighborhood. She was born sometime around 1900, and began dancing at the age of five. She danced in a number of school performances and amateur entertainment shows, and was discovered during one of these performances by Florenz Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld invited her to dance in the Ziegfeld Follies, and in October of 1920, she was billed twice in the program for a performance at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. In the winter of 1921-1922, Shea performed one of the title roles in Mary, Irene, and Sally in Philadelphia and New York, but returned to Follies soon after. It was around this time that she was first billed as Helen O'Shea. In July 1922, she was a principal dancer in Spice of 1922, and in August of 1923 she appeared in the Summer Edition Ziegfeld Follies, performing "the Inspiration". Shea continued to appear in various touring shows until 1926, including Moonlight and the Daughter of Rosie O'Grady. In 1925, she appeared in several shows in London, including Lew Leslie's Whitebirds. In June of 1926, Shea was a featured dancer in Ziegfeld's American Review (later known as Ziegfeld Follies of 1926) in New York, and continued to dance in Ziegfeld's works until his death in 1932.

Shea began working on her own original dances, and in June 1935 she received her first copyright (#D-2-35856) for her work Leda and the Swan, as well as for Leda and the Black Swan. She was a fierce defendant of her rights as a copyright holder, and in February of 1936 issued her first request for another performer to cease using her work. She performed her Swan dance regularly around the country until around 1940. The work was somewhat controversial due to the fact that Shea performed the piece almost completely naked. In 1939, Shea obtained the copyright for a third work, Psyche at Nature's Mirror. From 1940 to 1945, Shea was contracted to appear at various nightclubs in the Boston area, but was eventually placed on the unfair list of the American Guild of Variety Artists because she missed an opening night performance due to a blizzard. After that, it was difficult for Shea to schedule performances, and she seems to have retired from dancing. The remainder of her life was spent running a rooming house in her lifelong home in the South End. In 1981, she was taken to a nursing home and her home was looked after by Eleanor Strong. Shea died on September 28th, 1987, and was cremated at Forest Hills Cemetery.

From the description of The Helen Shea collection 1920-1999 (Emerson College). WorldCat record id: 709581963