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Ada "Bricktop" Smith papers, 1926-1983

Title: Ada "Bricktop" Smith papers 1926-1983

Internationally known cabaret personality Bricktop, was born Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith in Alderson, West Virginia in 1894. Nicknamed "Bricktop" for her red hair, she began her career as an entertainer at the age of 16, performing on the vaudeville circuit with Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles in McCabe's Georgia Troubadours minstrel show, then later with the Oma Crosby Trio, and the Panama Trio with Florence Mills and Cora Green. She also performed in saloons in Chicago such as the Roy Jones' saloon and Cabaret de Champion, also known as Café Champ owned by boxer Jack Johnson, and in Harlem at Barron's Exclusive Club and Connie's Inn. Bricktop went on to own her own nightclubs in Paris (1920s and 30s), Mexico City (1940s), and Rome (1950s). Towards the end of her career she made appearances on radio broadcasts, performed at various establishments such as The Club Tango in Chicago, and introduced Josephine Baker for her "come-back" engagement at Carnegie Hall in 1973. She co-authored "Bricktop" (1983), her autobiography, with James Haskins. The Ada "Bricktop" Smith DuConge Papers, 1920s-1984, primarily document the latter part of Bricktop's life and career. The Papers consist of letters and cards, daily planners and address books, notes on religious thoughts and other subjects, financial papers, sheet music, and news clippings. The diaries range from the 1920s to 1983 and in some instances serve as daily planners and account books. The volumes hold information pertaining to both her personal and professional life. The earliest letters date from the 1950s, after she moved to Rome. Primarily they are from people Bricktop worked with during her career including Jack Jordan, James Haskins, Hugh Shannon, David Hanna, and Earl Blackwell. Additionally, there are promotional materials that relate to her career as an entertainer, e.g. fliers, programs; invitations, among them two from Bricktop's in Paris in 1937; letters from broadcasting agencies; magazines noting her appearance dates; and news clippings that include featured stories about Bricktop in arts, entertainment and society columns.

ArchivalResource: 7 lin. ft.

http://archives.nypl.org/scm/21877 View

Ada "Bricktop" Smith papers, 1926-1983.

Title: Ada "Bricktop" Smith papers, 1926-1983.

The Ada "Bricktop" Smith DuConge Papers, 1920s-1984, primarily document the latter part of Bricktop's life and career. The Papers consist of letters and cards, daily planners and address books, notes on religious thoughts and other subjects, financial papers, sheet music, and news clippings. The diaries range from the 1920s to 1983 and in some instances serve as daily planners and account books. The volumes hold information pertaining to both her personal and professional life. The earliest letters date from the 1950s, after she moved to Rome. Primarily they are from people Bricktop worked with during her career including Jack Jordan, James Haskins, Hugh Shannon, David Hanna, and Earl Blackwell. Additionally, there are promotional materials that relate to her career as an entertainer, e.g. fliers, programs; invitations, among them two from Bricktop's in Paris in 1937; letters from broadcasting agencies; magazines noting her appearance dates; and news clippings that include featured stories about Bricktop in arts, entertainment and society columns.

ArchivalResource: 7 lin. ft.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122485286 View

Lucille Lortel papers

Title: Lucille Lortel papers

The papers of Lucille Lortel relate the details of her life and career from teen years to her death in 1999, and include correspondence, production files, scripts, programs, production photographs, personal and family photographs, organization files, clippings, memorabilia, and scrapbooks. Lucille Lortel's life spanned the twentieth century, so in addition to providing details of her family and personal life her papers encompass many aspects of the theatrical history of her era. Lortel is credited with fostering the Off-Broadway movement and providing a forum for avant-garde and experimental work at her Theatre de Lys. Lortel's productions at the White Barn and the ANTA Matinee Series at the Theatre de Lys brought works by Jean Genet, Sean O'Casey, Athol Fugard, and others to a wider audience. Many of these productions are represented in the collection by correspondence, programs, photographs and clippings. Over the years Lortel also worked closely with several non-profit theaters as a donor and mentor. Her affiliations with Circle in the Square, Circle Repertory Company, Goodspeed Opera House, Yale Repertory Theatre, and other companies are documented in the organization files.

ArchivalResource: 49.61 linear feet; 37 vols. (150 boxes)

http://archives.nypl.org/the/21631 View

Gore Vidal papers, 1850-2020 (inclusive), 1936-2008 (bulk)

Title: Gore Vidal papers, 1850-2020 (inclusive), 1936-2008 (bulk)

Papers of American author, Gore Vidal (1925-), including literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, political papers, legal and business records, and other material. Also includes papers of his companion, Howard Austen (1929-2003).

ArchivalResource: 414 linear feet (449 boxes, cartons, and film reels)

http://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/hou01943/catalog View

1907-1983. Papers. Series I. Correspondence

Title: 1907-1983. Papers. Series I. Correspondence

Includes correspondence, with various enclosures (clippings, photographs, financial or legal documents, script proposals, etc.), from Miss Swanson's family, friends, business associates, acquaintances, and fans, spanning many notables from numerous fields of endeavor. As many relationships overlapped personal, career, business, and other interests, this series should by no means be regarded as purely personal correspondence. The earliest correspondence in the collection is from her family. Most 1920s and 1930s correspondence is film related and located in Series II., Career, especially in the United Artists subseries. The 1940s are most prominently represented in the Multiprises, Inc. subseries of Series III., Business Interests. Among the correspondents are: Roy E. Aitken, Michelle Farmer Amon, Kenneth Anger, Robert Balzer, Tallulah Bankhead, Richard Barthelmess, Earl Blackwell, Virginia Bowker, Charles Brackett, Lewis L. Bredin, Harry A. Bruno, Carol Burnett, George Bush, Francis X. Bushman, Richard E. Byrd, Walter Byron, James Cagney, Eddie Cantor, Carol Channing, Maurice Chevalier, Henri Coanda, Ronald Colman, Noel Coward, Fleur Cowles, Joan Crawford, George Cukor, Michael Curtiz, Gloria Daly, Raymond W. Daum, William M. Davey, Marion Davies, Cecil B. DeMille, Indira Devi, Thomas E. Dewey, Theodore Dreiser, William Dufty, Alan Dwan, Nelson Eddy, David Edstrom, Mamie Doud Eisenhower, Harlan Ellison, Douglas Fairbanks, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Michael Farmer, José Ferrer, Hy Gardner, George, Duke of Kent, George Gershwin, Margaret Ghika, Lillian Gish, Hubert de Givenchy, Elinor Glyn, Edmund Goulding, Gladys Griffith, Alec Guinness, Edmund Gwenn, Forrest Halsey, Oscar Hammerstein II, Helen Hayes, Edith Head, William Randolph Hearst, Ethel Helmsing, Katharine Hepburn, Conrad Hilton, Prince Franz Hohenlohe, Bob Hope, Hedda Hopper, Edward Everett Horton, L. Ron Hubbard, René Hubert, William Bradford Huie, George S. Kaufman, Edward Moore Kennedy, Harold J. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jean Kerr, Ed Koch, Kathryn Kuhlman, Michio Kushi, Henri de La Falaise, Henri Langlois, Beatrice LaPlante, Rod LaRocque, Jesse L. Lasky, Evelyn Laye, Vivien Leigh, Mervyn LeRoy, Clare Boothe Luce, Joel McCrea, Roddy McDowall, Frances Norton Manning, Arlette Marchal, Stanley Marcus, Frances Marion, Gene Markey, Herbert Marshall, James Michener, Marshall Neilan, David Niven, Richard M. Nixon, Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Louella Parsons, Mary Pickford, ZaSu Pitts, Rosa Ponselle, Harold Prince, Ram Gopal, Ronald Reagan, Ginger Rogers, Eleanor Roosevelt, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Elsa Schiaparelli, Gustave Schirmer, David O. Selznick, Joseph Sharfshin, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, R. Lawrence Siegel, Herbert K. Somborn, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Steichen, Preston Sturges, Ed Sullivan, Joseph Patrick Swanson, Joseph Theodore Swanson, Bess Truman, Valentina, Erich Von Stroheim, Raoul Walsh, Barbara Walters, LeRoy P. ("Sport") Ward, Clifton Webb, Orson Welles, Dan Werlé, Billy Wilder, Lois Wilson, Walter Winchell, Sam Wood, Adelaide Woodruff, Florenz Ziegfeld, Adolph Zukor, and others. Among some of the more intriguing pieces of correspondence are: a letter from a twelve year old John F. Kennedy, thanking Miss Swanson for a Christmas present; a signed, self-caricature note from George Gershwin; René Hubert's voluminous, illustrated correspondence; early papers of Herbert K. Somborn's company, Equity Pictures; and a series of mail from Kenneth Anger, which arose from a lawsuit involving his book Hollywood Babylon. There is relatively little correspondence with Joseph P. Kennedy; most of it is found in Series II., Career, and it is generally characterized by business dealings. Also included is a large group of fan mail, and fans' addresses kept on index cards, with carbons of responses, or notations that photographs or letters were sent, or perhaps a phone call was made.

ArchivalResource: 85 boxes (35 linear feet).

https://search.lib.utexas.edu/permalink/01UTAU_INST/be14ds/alma991024011069706011 View