The Rosenstock Theater Programs collection is organized alphabetically by city and within each city, chronologically. Programs from unknown cities and/or dates appear at the end of the collection. The collection contains 181 distinct programs and handbills. There are some multiple copies, as well as a paper and a scrapbook, bringing the total number of items to 238. The collection includes late nineteenth century and early twentieth century (1864-1936) theater and symphony performances in Denver and Central City, Colorado; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Deadwood, South Dakota; Portland, Oregon; and Salt Lake City, Utah. Denver materials make up most of the collection; only 14 of the 181 different programs are from cities other than Denver. Several prominent Denver theaters are represented in the collection including the Tabor Grand Opera House, the Broadway Theatre, Elitch's Gardens, and the Orpheum Theatre. The performances are varied and include Shakespearian plays, vaudeville acts, and concerts by John Philip Sousa. Two programs from Central City, Colorado list Hollywood actors: a 1932 program lists Lillian Gish, and a 1934 program lists Walter Huston, respectively. In addition to the programs and playbills, the Rosenstock Theater Porgrams collection contains a paper titled "Story of Denver's Theaters," written by an unknown author. The first sixteen pages of the forty-three-page paper are absent. The paper discusses the Denver theater scene from the 1880s to the 1930s and includes information about the Tabor Grand Opera House, the Music Hall, the Metropolitan, dime museums, vaudeville (including the Orpheum Circuit, and the Lyceum), Elitch's Gardens, Lakeside, the Broadway Theater, the City Auditorium, the Denham, motion picture houses, the WPA Federal Theater Project, and the Central City Play Festival. "Story of Denver's Theaters" cites The Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post among other sources. It is located at the end of Box 2, file 182. Another additional item is a scrapbook; approximately two-inches thick, with handbills, cast lists, and other theater related clippings pasted inside. It contains materials from a variety of theaters, many of which are not located in Western states. Some of the book's materials are not identified by place or date. Due to the poor condition of the scrapbook's binding it is housed in Box 3.
