Sombrero Playhouse papers 1961-1964

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Sombrero Playhouse papers 1961-1964

http://archives.nypl.org/the/21643

The Sombrero Playhouse, founded in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1949, was for many years a popular venue for touring productions featuring prominent performers, including a number of Hollywood luminaries. Founded by artistic director Richard Charlton, the Sombrero Playhouse became during its heyday perhaps the major performing arts center between Dallas and Los Angeles, attracting celebrity players such as Groucho Marx, Tallulah Bankhead, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Bob Cummings, Celeste Holm, Shelley Winters, Margaret O'Brien, ZaSu Pitts, Pat O'Brien, Walter Pidgeon, John Raitt, and others. These actors usually toured in established works, but new plays were occasionally tried out at the Sombrero, such as William Inge's NATURAL AFFECTION, which premiered in Phoenix in 1962, a year prior to its Broadway run. The Sombrero Playhouse papers consist mostly of clippings from Arizona newspapers and magazines dated between 1961 and 1964, but primarily from 1962 and 1963, concerning current productions at the Sombrero Playhouse. Much of the material consists of feature stories on the star performer of the current show, usually including biographical information about the performer along with excerpts from a recent, local interview. There is also general information about the theater and its founding artistic director Richard Charlton, about the Galaxy Gallery, an art gallery adjacent to the theater operated by Richard's wife Helen Charlton, and the Backstage Club, a restaurant in the same complex which began as a club for actors appearing in Sombrero productions. The material from 1964 speaks of plans to build a new Phoenix Performing Arts Center.

.25 lf (1 box)

The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6317894

Related Entities

There are 17 Entities related to this resource.

Raitt, John, 1917-2005

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69k505m (person)

O'Brien, Margaret, 1937-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tj2v71 (person)

Marx, Groucho, 1890-1977

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60g3vws (person)

Humorist and actor. Real name: Julius Henry Marx. From the description of Groucho Marx papers, 1930-1967 (bulk 1950-1965). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70982543 Biographical Note 1890, Oct. 2 Born Julius Henry Marx, New York, N.Y. 1920 Married Ruth Johnson (divorced 1942) ...

Rogers, Ginger, 1911-1995

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xd1623 (person)

Performer and trick roper who used various surnames. Not to be confused with the film actress. From the description of Collection. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 166508253 Actress. From the description of Reminiscences of Ginger Rogers : oral history, 1980. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309724057 ...

Bankhead, Tallulah

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66h4w95 (person)

Actress. From the description of Papers, [ca. 1920]-1968. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155507628 Tallulah (Tallulah Brockman) Bankhead was born 1902 Jan. 31 to William B. and Ada Eugenia Sledge Bankhead in Huntsville, Madison Co., Ala. She attended primary school in Montomery, Ala., while living with her uncle and aunt, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Owen. She later attended Convent of the Sacred Heart (N.Y.), 1912-1913; Mary Baldwin Seminary (Va.), 1913; Convent of t...

Cummings, Robert, 1908-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69g74cp (person)

Swanson, Gloria Borseth

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6096m87 (person)

Holm, Celeste, 1917-2012

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dv4krk (person)

Actress. From the description of Reminiscences of Celeste Holm : oral history, 1959. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122565549 ...

Sombrero Playhouse (Phoenix, Ariz.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z97z2r (corporateBody)

Pitts, ZaSu, 1898-1963

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fn33zb (person)

Backstage Club (Phoenix, Ariz.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6md7jkf (corporateBody)

O'Brien, Pat, 1899-1983

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w390xf (person)

Pidgeon, Walter, 1897-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n303qd (person)

Galaxy Gallery (Phoenix, Ariz.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60s87xs (corporateBody)

Charlton, Richard

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vn441r (person)

The Sombrero Playhouse, founded in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1949, was for many years a popular venue for touring productions featuring prominent performers, including a number of Hollywood luminaries. Founded by artistic director Richard Charlton, the Sombrero Playhouse became during its heyday perhaps the major performing arts center between Dallas and Los Angeles, attracting celebrity players such as Groucho Marx, Tallulah Bankhead, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Bob Cummings, Celeste...

Winters, Shelley

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s18qfv (person)

Inge, William

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rc96nv (person)

William Motter Inge (1913-1973) was born in Independence, Kansas. He studied speech and drama at the University of Kansas and graduated in 1935. He received his Master's degree from George Peabody College at Nashville, Tennessee in 1938. He worked as a teacher, laborer, and theater critic. He is best-known as a playwright and novelist. In his lifetime he earned both a Pulitzer Prize for Picnic and an Academy Award for the screenplay to the motion picture Splendor in the Grass. His later works di...