Manuscripts

Frederick Blanchard painting of stage set

Description: Framed color painting titled The Play of the Man who Married a Dumb Wife. Captions on back note that Blanchard, who taught and worked at the Playhouse during the 1930s and 1940s, also wrote the play, and that the painting hung in the Playhouse faculty lounge during the 1950s and 1960s.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: Approximately 1945
Call number: mssPlayhouse
Creator: Pasadena Playhouse(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Pasadena Playhouse Alumni and Associates,; Additional gifts have been supplemented by former affiliates of the Playhouse over the years.

Negatives. Buildings and painting sets

Manuscripts

This collection contains the records of the Pasadena Playhouse, a community theater established in Pasadena, California, in 1917. Materials consist primarily of theater programs, scrapbooks, business records, correspondence, clippings, scripts, school catalogues, brochures and ephemera, indexes, photographs, original drawings of set and costume designs, and research materials originally housed in the organization's library. The materials document the performance history of the various theaters of the Playhouse and also contain partial administrative records and school records, with particular strength in coverage for the "Mainstage" theater and an extensive run of programs and performance photographs. The core records are strengthened by the complementary personal paper collections of directors, performers, and others associated with the Playhouse.

mssPlayhouse

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B. Blanchard, Frederick

Manuscripts

Contains one scrapbook and scores, scripts, and other materials that appear to have belonged to actress Helena Modjeska (1840-1909). Their connection to Blanchard is not identified.

mssPlayhouse

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Stage Whispers

Manuscripts

mssPlayhouse

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Series VIII. Related personal collections

Manuscripts

Contains personal papers of people affiliated with the Playhouse. Included are the papers of writer, producer, director, and actor Bobker Ben Ali (1921-1985), whose play, Manya: The Story of Marie Curie, helped to launch the career of William Holden; actor, director, and artist Frederick Blanchard (1878-1948); actor and staff director Vincent Yardley Bowditch (1916-1985), who also served as co-director at its College of Theatre Arts; dancer and actor Phil Cook, who studied at the Playhouse before embarking on a career in touring theater; actress, writer, director, and singer June Evans, who was active at the Playhouse from approximately 1930-1960; Ambassador Hotel Theater manager William "Uncle Bill" Haas; actor Graydon Spalding (1911-1993); set designer Helen Howell, active at the Playhouse from approximately 1927-1936; actor and teacher Oliver Prickett (1905-1992); actor Graydon Spalding (1911-1993); actress and associate director Eloise Sterling, active at the Playhouse from approximately 1916-1925; and writer Philip Van Dyke.

mssPlayhouse

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Scrapbook set

Manuscripts

The scrapbooks, which contain playbills, clippings, photographs, advertisements, reviews, various ephemera, and occasionally correspondence concerning the Pasadena Community Playhouse and Pasadena Playhouse, were compiled by an unidentified person. Many of the volumes have indexes of plays covered on title page versos. Twenty volumes from the set (Scrapbooks 59-67, 69, and 71-80) have been incorporated into Series V, Theater performance and related photographs. Note: Series V was previously known as photCL 327 or Album 327.

mssPlayhouse

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B. Set and costume designs

Manuscripts

mssPlayhouse

Frederick Blanchard painting of stage set

Opening Hours

Admission Info and Tickets

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Negatives. Buildings and painting sets

B. Blanchard, Frederick

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B. Set and costume designs