Theater playbills
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Scope and Content
The Theater playbills consists primarily of theater programs and other printed ephemera from twentieth century New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. Also included are late nineteenth and early twentieth century theater programs from the Midwestern United States, scrapbooks of playbills and annotated prompt books from the same time period, and souvenir programs. A few miscellaneous publications (mostly related to the theater) are also present in this collection. It appears as though the collection was created through the combination of a number of smaller collections with differing provenances, including ones put together by Constance McCormick, Milton Lewis, and William J. Williams.
Dates
- Creation: 1866-1999
- Creation: Majority of material found within
Language of Materials
Most of the materials in this collection are in English; however, there are also programs in Spanish, German and French.
Conditions Governing Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.
Conditions Governing Use
The collection contains published materials; researchers are reminded of the copyright restrictions imposed by publishers on reusing their articles and parts of books. It is the responsibility of researchers to acquire permission from publishers when reusing such materials. The copyright to unpublished materials belongs to the heirs of the writers. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.
Historical Note
The programs and playbills in the Theater playbills demonstrate the evolution of one-sheet playbills into modern, multi-page theater programs.
Extent
14.67 Linear Feet (15 boxes)
Abstract
This collection primarily consists of twentieth century theater programs from New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. However, it also includes nineteenth century prompt books, souvenir programs, and theater programs from the Midwest (especially Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota).
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Playbills -- Collections
- Theater -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
- Theater -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Archival resources
- Theater -- New York (State) -- New York -- Archival resources
- Theaters -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
- Theaters -- England -- London -- Archival resources
- Theaters -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Archival resources
- Theaters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Archival resources
- Title
- Finding Aid of the Theater playbills
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Rebecca Hirsch and Sarah Guidas
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- The processing of this collection and the creation of this finding aid was funded by the generous support of the National Historic Publications and Records Commission.
Repository Details
Part of the USC Libraries Music Library Repository
Doheny Memorial Library, G-24
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-1822 United States
music@usc.edu