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© John Ambrose. All illustrations used with permission from The Shubert Archive,
unless otherwise noted.

John Ambrose is Professor Emeritus at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College
in Richmond, Virginia. He lives in Richmond with his wife, Barbara, and their five
cats. In his retirement, he is writing a biography of Fred Astaire titled Young Man
of Manhattan: Fred Astaire in New York (1905-1933). He can be reached at
[email protected].

News From the Archive

Over the past year, a diverse group of researchers has consulted the Archive on a wide array of
subjects including the following:

Productions: Angel Street; Artists and Models (1925); At the Barn; Away We Go; The Ballet
of the Jewels; The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel; The Battle in the Skies; The Belle of New York; Ben-
Hur; Blossom Time; The Blue Paradise; The Boys of Company B; Bus Stop; Cabaret; Candide; Carmen
Jones; Cats; Chorus Girls Only; Chorus Lady; A Chorus Line; Chu Chin Chow; Dark at the Top of the
Stairs; Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?; The Dozens; The Dream Girl; Dreamgirls; Eva; Florodora; for
colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf; The Gay Divorce; Geisha; The Ghost
Breaker; The Glass Menagerie; Godspell; The Heidi Chronicles; Hello, Dolly!; His Little Windows;
An Inspector Calls; Jerome Robbins’ Broadway; Jubilee; Katja; The King and I; The Last Waltz; Little
Shop of Horrors; Mamma Mia; Mary Goes First; Maytime; The Midnight Sons; The Mimic World; Les
Miserables; Miss Saigon; Monte Cristo, Jr.; My Fair Lady; The Music Man; Nicholas Nickleby; A Night
in Paris; A Night in Spain; The Night of January 16th; No, No Nanette; Oh, Boy!; Oh Lady, Lady!; Oh
What a Lovely War!; Oklahoma!; On the Town; Over the Top; Othello; Passing Shows of 1912, 1918,
and 1920; The Phantom of the Opera; The Philadelphia Story; Picnic; Poor Little Ritz Girl; Rhinoceros;
Richard III; The Riviera Girl; Shuffle Along; Sinbad; Sly Fox; A Society Circus; Sometime; Sporting Days;
The Straw Hat Revue; Streets of Paris; A Successful Calamity; Sunday in the Park with George; Take
a Bow; Take Me Along; Tiger at the Gates; A Trip to Japan; Under Many Flags; The Vagabond King;
Very Good Eddie; Wang; West Side Story; What Price Glory; Wiener Blut; The Wiz; The Wizard of Oz
(1903); Woman of the Year; and Ziegfeld Follies.

Personalities: Gustav Amberg; Howard Ashman; Fred and Adele Astaire; Harold
Atteridge; Robin Bain; Ralph Benatzky; Guy Bolton; Busby Berkeley; William Brady; George
Broadhurst; Richard Burton; Joseph Caroff; Lincoln J. Carter; Irene Castle; Ray Comstock; Homer
Conant; Delbert Essex Davenport; Marion Davies; Sammy Davis, Jr.; Helen Deutsch; Louise

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Dowdney; Mary Eaton; Louis Epstein; Frank Fay; William Fox; Morris Gest; Grace Glover; F.J.
Godsol; Robert Goulet; William House; J.C. Huffman; Henrik Ibsen; Bernard B. Jacobs; Elsie Janis;
Justine Johnstone; Jerome Kern; Klaw & Erlanger; Father George W. Moore; Ira J. La Motte; Joe
Laurie; Gertrude Lawrence; Lawrence Shubert Lawrence, Jr.; Archie Leach; Rufus LeMaire; Paul
Libin; Ted Lorraine; Elizabeth Marbury; Marceline; H.B. Marinelli; Hale Matthews; Liz McCann;
Carmen Miranda; Charles E. Mitchell; Alla Nazimova; James Nederlander, Sr.; Evelyn Nesbit;
Trevor Nunn; Al Pacino; Antoinette Perry; Ezio Pinza; Richard Pitrot; Robert Preston; Robert
Priest; John Raitt; Florence Reed; Jack Reed; Blanche Ring; Jerome Robbins; Sigmund Romberg;
Adele Rowland; the Roxy Twins; Vincent Sardi, Jr.; Edward J. Scanlon; Gerald Schoenfeld;
Archibald and Edgar Selwyn; Ambrose Small; Philip J. Smith; Lawrence Solman; Leonard
Soloway; J.B. Sparrow; Frank Strauss; Jeffrey Tambor; Laurette Taylor; L. Stoddard Taylor; Conway
Tearle; Marie Tempest; Arthur Tracy; C.P. Walker; Ned Wayburn; Mae West; Roland West; Bert
Williams; Barbara Windsor; P.G. Wodehouse; A.H. Woods; A. Toxen Worm; Ed Wynn; Rida
Johnson Young; and Florenz Ziegfeld.

Theatres: Ambassador; Barrymore; Belasco; Belasco (Washington, D.C.); Booth; Casino;
Cort; Forrest (Philadelphia); 44th Street Theatre/Roof Garden; Gallo; Helen Hayes; Herald
Square; Hippodrome; Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); Longacre; Lyceum; Majestic; Majestic
(Chicago); Maxine Elliott; Morosco; New Amsterdam; Phillip; Plymouth; Princess; Royal
Alexandra (Toronto); Shubert; Shubert (Detroit); Shubert (New Haven); Weber and Fields; and
Winter Garden.

Subjects: Actors’ Equity; audio technology on Broadway; backstage workings of the
theatre; blacklisting and Broadway; Broadway advertising in the 1980s; “Broadway” synonymous
with theatre; burlesque and sexuality; Canadian theatre circuits; copyright of dramatic works;
costumes and advertising; dancers’ shoes; early film distribution; Fox Film Co.; the Futurity
Winner; Goldwyn Pictures Corp.; immigrant performers; Justine Johnstone’s Little Club; Metro
Film Corp.; Motion Picture Corp.; National Association of Theatrical Producing Managers;
one-night-stand theatres; operettas from the German stage; orchestra pits; origins of jazz onstage;
Paramount Pictures; Peerless Features Producing Co.; Portman Hotel (Marriott Marquis); Select
Theatres Corp.; Selznick Corp.; show promotion/advertising (turn of the century); Shubert Feature
Film Co.; Shubert Organization; Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquency; stage
and set furnishings; Stage Door Canteen; Stage Women’s War Relief; Suffrage Matinee; theatre
architecture; theatre circuits; theatre ghosts; theatre lobbies; theatre management; theatre posters;
Theatre World; theatrical booking; theatrical scandals; ticketing history/vintage tickets; Times
Square; Times Square Business Improvement District; TKTS; Trans Canada Theatres; Triumph
Film Corp.; United Booking Office; vaudeville; and World Film Corp.

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Groups and other visitors over the past year included members of the American Theatre
Critics Association; teams of employees from Broadway Inbound; participants in the Broadway League’s
High School Broadway Management Diversity Intensive; the casts and crews of Oh, Hello and The Play
That Goes Wrong; Eddie Foy III; and Nigel Hook (2017 Tony Award Winner for his set design of The
Play That Goes Wrong). Also visiting were groups of students from Columbia University’s Advanced
Seminar in Theatre Management; Columbia University’s summer architecture program; Florida State
University’s theatre program; Simmons College’s Library Sciences program; Wayne State University’s
Library Sciences program; and Baruch College’s Art and Culture of New York City class.

Some recent publications and documentary films that referenced Shubert Archive
materials included Are You Anybody?: A Memoir by Jeffrey Tambor (New York: Crown Archetype,
2017); The Cambridge Companion to the Musical by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, eds.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017); The Eddie Cantor Story by David Weinstein
(Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2018); Greater Gotham by Mike Wallace (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2017); Hello, Broadway! Une histoire de la comédie musicale américaine by
Patrick Niedo (Paris: Les Éditions Ipanema, 2017); IN New York Magazine, June 2017 (Morris
Visitor Publications); Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart directed by Tracy Heather
Strain and shown as part of PBS’s long-running American Masters series; Miracle on 42nd St., an
examination of the history of Manhattan Plaza directed by filmmaker Alice Elliott; The Palgrave
Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers by Laura MacDonald and William Everett, eds. (New York:
Palgrave MacMillan, 2017); Teaching Theatre, November/December 2017 (Educational Theatre
Association); and Treasures of New York: St. George Theatre, a PBS documentary produced by
WLIW in association with WNET.

A nineteenth-century broadside from the Archive’s collection was included in the
ongoing “Windows on the Bowery” exhibition. The Cooper Union partnered with the Bowery
Alliance of Neighbors to present this historic signage project that is comprised of a series of 63
posters in the windows of corresponding buildings on the Bowery from Chatham Square all the
way to Cooper Square.

The Archive was also pleased to provide reproductions of archival materials to adorn
the walls of The Shubert Pavilion, the new three-story addition to The Actors Fund Home in
Englewood, New Jersey. This acclaimed assisted-living and skilled nursing care facility for the
performing arts and entertainment community celebrated the opening of the new addition on
October 6, 2017. Now open for residents, The Shubert Pavilion was made possible by a lead gift
from The Shubert Organization, with major additional support from the Walt Disney Company
and the Mackintosh Foundation. The facility houses a 25-bed sub-acute center for people who
are recovering from illness or surgery, 14 assisted-living beds, and a rehabilitation center with a

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Two views of the Actors Fund
Home's new Shubert Pavilion,
October 2017. Photographs by
Gustavo Monroy.

fully equipped gym for physical, occupational, and speech therapies. To prepare residents for a safe
return to their private homes, the rehabilitation center is outfitted with full kitchens, bathrooms,
and laundry facilities, as well as accessible gardens.

Finally, the Archive would like to acknowledge several generous gifts to its collection:

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an oil and pastel portrait of David Belasco by Eric Pape that has been installed on the mezzanine
level of the Belasco Theatre was donated by Dr. Gregory Conn and his wife Sagrario Ortega; a
program for Dark of the Moon was donated by Louis Krupp; photographs of performers, musicians,
and productions were donated by Jim DiGiovanni; a photograph from Al Jolson’s Robinson
Crusoe, Jr. was donated by Paul Bowers; documents and photographs relating to the Treasurer’s
Club of America were donated by Stephen Hagendorf; vintage playbills were donated by Barbara
Stadtlander; music sheets, programs, photographs, and other historical documents were donated
by Ronald and William Asadorian; a scrapbook assembled by stage carpenter Frank Illo that
documents the Shuberts’ 1929-30 United States and Canada tour of their hit show Bird in Hand
was donated by Mark Illo; a Ten Little Indians program was donated by Debbie Shadd; programs and
ephemera were donated by Alison Thorne; and large-scale photographs of actor Loring Smith were
donated by Gwen Abbott Asmussen.

 2016/2017  Portrait of David Belasco by Eric (née Frederic Louis
Moritz) Pape (1870-1938); pen, pencil, charcoal, and
crayon in original frame. Pape was a versatile American
artist, teacher, book/newspaper/magazine illustrator, and
theatrical designer. An intimate of prominent industrial-
ists, writers, actors, and politicians, his prodigious output
of art was widely exhibited and lauded in Europe and
America. In 1929, Pape began an association with the
Herald Tribune newspaper organization to provide por-
traits for publication in the paper’s Sunday Theatre and
Magazine sections. One of these was this portrait of his
friend, David Belasco, whom he depicted surrounded by
motifs from the impresario’s life as playwright, director,
producer, and performer. Included are characters from
some of Belasco’s most celebrated works: Madame But-
terfly (bottom right) and Girl of the Golden West (bottom
left). The portrait was published in the Theatre Section
of the newspaper’s January 18, 1931 issue.

The Passing Show

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The Passing Show was the original title for a number
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The Passing Show (ISSN 1061-8112) is the
newsletter of the Shubert Archive. An electronic
version is available at www.shubertarchive.org.
Newsletter content is available for full-text searching in
the research database International Biography of Theatre
and Dance (EBSCO Publishing).

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The Shubert Archive The Shubert Foundation

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Director Philip J. Smith Michael I. Sovern

Mark E. Swartz Chairman President
Archivist & Newsletter Editor
Wyche Fowler, Jr.
Helice Koffler Stuart Sobotnick
Processing Archivist
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Assistant Archivist
Please address all correspondence to: Lee J. Seidler

Staff

The Shubert Archive Telephone: 212.944.3895 Vicki Reiss Amy Dorfman Wine
149 West 45th St. Fax: 212.944.4139 Executive Director Program Director

New York, NY 10036 E-mail (Mark E. Swartz):
[email protected]

Visit The Archive on the web at Visit The Foundation on the web at
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No part of this newsletter may be reproduced Illustration on front banner:
without permission of the Shubert Archive. Lyceum Theatre façade as depicted on a souvenir card
issued by Between the Acts Cigars, c. 1910s.
Illustration above:
Shubert Theatre façadeasdepictedonShubertTheatre Corporation
letterhead, 1920s.