Manuscripts

J. Spalding, Graydon

Description: Contains photographs, fliers, programs, and clippings documenting local community theater and the Little Theater movement, including the work of actor Spalding, who appeared in the world premiere of Eugene O'Neill's Lazarus Laughed in 1928 and continued to act at the Playhouse through the 1930s; acted at other San Gabriel Valley venues; and presented one-man shows and workshops for drama classes at Pasadena High School, Pasadena City College, and others. Graydon Spalding later worked in the Rare Books Department of the Huntington Library; his brother, Gordon Spalding, worked as a photographer for the Playhouse, primarily taking publicity photographs.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: Approximately 1928-1984
Call number: mssPlayhouse
Creator: Pasadena Playhouse

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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Programs, performance photos, 1940-1960

Manuscripts

Contains photographs taken by Graydon Spalding, plus contact sheets; also includes Playbox cast lists from 1953-1959 and various theater memorabilia.

mssPlayhouse

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Original scores for various productions

Manuscripts

Contains scores for: Lovely Miss Linley (Lee Gilmore piano score used in 1942 production); Lazarus Laughed (Arthur Alexander original music, 1928, in five parts, some copies and some handwritten); Follies of Pasadena (original scores, blueprint copies, undated); and original music composed in 1939 and undated by Vincent Bowditch for unidentified Pasadena Playhouse productions.

mssPlayhouse

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Items 120-2674, 10738

Manuscripts

Also includes two color glass plate images from Lazarus Laughed, Apri1 1, 1929.

mssPlayhouse

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Items 1684-2016. August 16, 1927-July 24, 1928

Manuscripts

Contains section of photos devoted to Lazarus Laughed (Items 1942-1977.9), including publicity photos, masks and mask creation, sets and scenes, and performers.

mssPlayhouse

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Pasadena Playhouse records

Manuscripts

The collection contains materials documenting the history and activities of the Pasadena Playhouse and its College of Theatre Arts. It includes approximately 15,000 photographs; 5,000 theater programs; 300 scripts; over 100 scrapbooks; 70 set and costume designs; and a few musical scores; as well as board meeting minutes; business records including ledgers, financial records, and correspondence; student catalogs, manuals, and yearbooks; curricular materials; newspaper clippings; theater periodicals; and various subject files. Also included are publications and business records from the Pasadena Playhouse Alumni and Associates, as well as a set of indexes (Series IX) and other research materials compiled by archivists at the Huntington Library (Series IVV). The materials date from approximately 1657-2013, with the bulk of the materials dating from the beginnings of the Playhouse in 1916 through its bankruptcy in 1969. Major areas of interest represented in the collection include the Playhouse Board of Trustees' meeting minutes and correspondence; correspondence and business records of Playhouse executives and administrators, including Gilmor Brown, Fairfax Walkup, and Lenore Shanewise; writings, photographs, scrapbooks, and clippings detailing various aspects of the Pasadena Playhouse's history; catalogs, photographs, and promotional and curricular materials documenting the School of the Theatre (later College of Theatre Arts), its students, and student life; performance photographs, theater programs, original set and costume designs, scripts and scores, and supplementary materials reflecting productions at the Playhouse's venues (Community Playhouse, Mainstage, Playbox, Workshop and Laboratory Theatres, Patio Theatre, and East and West Balcony Theatres) as well from various student, traveling, and special events productions; and the holdings of the Playhouse's library and museum. Along with Brown, Prickett, Walkup, and Shanewise, other key figures surfacing within the collection include Maurice Wells, assistant director of the Playbox; Charles Lane, actor in many Playhouse productions; Ralph Freud, a director at the Playhouse; Catherine Turney, a member of the School of the Theatre's first class who went on to become director of the Workshop; Dorothy Arzner, a filmmaker from the silent film era into the 1940s and cinema instructor at the Playhouse; Gail Shoup, a Playhouse staff director; Bobker Ben Ali, a writer and director whose productions included Manya: The Story of Marie Curie (circa 1938) and The People Win Thru (1952); Board chairs David Crandall and Earl Messer; and actors Maudie and Oliver Prickett, Charles Prickett's spouse and brother, respectively. The core records are strengthened by the complementary personal paper collections of directors, performers, and others associated with the Playhouse, including ben Ali; Graydon Spalding; Gail Shoup; and more (see Series VIII, Related Personal Collections). The collection features the work of photographers including Jerome Robinson, Jack Powell, Gordon Spalding, Kim Spalding, and A. E. Arnold, and the original set and costume designs of James Hyde; Jānis Muncis; Rita Glover, who was the first woman to be admitted to the Designers Guild of California; and Robert Redington Sharpe, among many others.

J. Spalding, Graydon

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Series VIII. Related personal collections

Programs, performance photos, 1940-1960

Original scores for various productions

Items 120-2674, 10738

Items 1684-2016. August 16, 1927-July 24, 1928

Pasadena Playhouse records