Visual Materials

Parker Twins collection of photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera

Description: This collection documents the Parker Twins (June and Jane Cheney), performers with Fanchon and Marco, a brother and sister theatrical production team who staged live, original performances that toured throughout California and the United States. The twins were born in 1914 and started performing with Fanchon and Marco in 1930, when they were 16. The materials include: photographs of the twins in costume and in studio portraits; Jane Cheney's scrapbook of performance newspaper clippings and snapshots; handwritten notes on 34 weeks of performances, with names and costume details; and work permits, tutoring schedules, and contracts related to minors performing in a theater company.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: approximately 1930-1933.
Call number: photCL 652
Creator: Parker Twins (Dancers)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Elizabeth and Timothy Mount, May 2021.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
Rights: The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.
Find out more: View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

Parker Twins collection of photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera

Visual Materials

This collection documents the Parker Twins (June and Jane Cheney), performers with Fanchon and Marco, a brother and sister theatrical production team who staged live, original performances that toured throughout California and the United States. The twins were born in 1914 and started performing with Fanchon and Marco in 1930, when they were 16. The materials include: photographs of the twins in costume and in studio portraits; Jane Cheney's scrapbook of performance newspaper clippings and snapshots; handwritten notes on 34 weeks of performances, with names and costume details; and work permits, tutoring schedules, and contracts related to minors performing in a theater company.

photCL 652

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Fanchon and Marco collection of photographs and ephemera

Visual Materials

The Fanchon & Marco collection contains approximately 1400 photographs depicting hundreds of Fanchon and Marco Inc. sets and performers between approximately 1925 and 1938. The collection also includes three boxes of ephemera, dated from around 1912 to 1940, that consist of newspapers clippings, scrapbooks of clippings, musical scores, miscellaneous photographs, and the supplemental press books that were included with Fanchon & Marco's promotional magazine, Now (later The Idea), dating from 1930 and 1931. The 16 volumes (now disbound) of photographs in this collection served as a visual inventory for hundreds of Fanchon & Marco sets and performers. The images document the actors, dancers, costumes, sets, and concepts and appear to have been primarily photographed during rehearsals before the shows premiered in Los Angeles theaters such as Loew's State Theater and the Paramount Theater. The first volume contains some photographs presumably taken in San Francisco and later volumes include a few photographs by New York-based photographers.Accompanying descriptive information is scant with few performers identified by name. A typescript inventory with Idea titles precedes volumes 1-8. The production name appears in pencil on the back of many of the pages in Volumes 1-12. Volume 13 contains stage and lighting directions in typescript on the backs of some photographs.Photographers represented in the collection are: Archer's Art Shop of Los Angeles (Volume 6, 8, 11, 13); Hollywood photographers Irving Archer (Volume 12, 13, 14), Archer's Studios (Volume 8, 11, 13, 14); Curt Fox (Volumes 5-6); Paralta Studios (Volumes 2-4); and Harry Wenger (Volumes 1, 2-4, 6). A few photographs include the imprints of Peerless Photo of Los Angeles (Volume 13), John Sirgio (Volume 13), H.W. Steward of San Francisco (Volume 1), Talbot of New York (Volume 12), Weaver of Los Angeles (Volume 1), and White Studio of New York (Volume 9).

photCL 487

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Reva Howitt Clar collection of Fanchon and Marco photographs and ephemera

Visual Materials

Journals of Reva Howitt Clar (a.k.a. "Lollipop"), a performer or "Fanchonette" for the wildly popular - and short-lived - touring theatrical company, Fanchon & Marco. Correspondence and papers include descriptions of the prep work for Lollipop, personal letters, promotional material for Fanchon & Marco, an autograph book of fellow performers, one 35mm film (2-3 minutes; see link to digitized version on the Internet Archive), newspaper clippings, and approximately 200 photographs. Also included are two hand-colored lobby cards measuring approximately 30 x 40 inches each.

photCL 606

C.B. Bishop comedian in Twins

Visual Materials

Image of a head-and-shoulders portrait of American comedian Charles B. Bishop in formal dress; border decorated with leaves, palm fronds, and comedy and tragedy masks; with date information for performances beginning on April 6, [1885], at the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco, California, at top; the poster advertises the English farce comedy "Twins."

priJLC_ENT_000277

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II. Ephemera

Visual Materials

The Fanchon & Marco collection contains approximately 1400 photographs depicting hundreds of Fanchon and Marco Inc. sets and performers between approximately 1925 and 1938. The collection also includes three boxes of ephemera, dated from around 1912 to 1940, that consist of newspapers clippings, musical scores, miscellaneous photographs, and the supplemental press books that were included with Fanchon & Marco's promotional magazine, Now (later The Idea), dating from 1930 and 1931. The 16 volumes (now disbound) of photographs in this collection served as a visual inventory for hundreds of Fanchon & Marco sets and performers. The images document the actors, dancers, costumes, sets, and concepts and appear to have been primarily photographed during rehearsals before the shows premiered in Los Angeles theaters such as Loew's State Theater and the Paramount Theater. The first volume contains some photographs presumably taken in San Francisco and later volumes include a few photographs by New York-based photographers. Photographers represented in the collection are: Archer's Art Shop of Los Angeles; Hollywood photographers Irving Archer; Archer's Studios; Curt Fox; Paralta Studios; and Harry Wenger. A few photographs include the imprints of Peerless Photo of Los Angeles, John Sirgio, H.W. Steward of San Francisco, Talbot of New York, Weaver of Los Angeles, and White Studio of New York.

photCL 487

Fanchon & Marco, Volume 3

Visual Materials

103 album pages, each with four photographs per page, depicting sets, performers, and concepts from live variety stage shows performed before feature films. These shows, known as "Ideas," were produced by the Los Angeles-based theatrical production team of Fanchon and Marco. The photographs document stages, often with ornate set designs, rehearsals, dance and musical numbers, costumes, and group and single portraits of dancers, musicians, and actors for shows performed around 1929. There is also one 8 x 10 inch group portrait of individuals including Fanchon Wolff and Marco Wolff, photCL 487 vol 3 (103). Identified photographers include Harry Wenger and Paralta of Los Angeles. The photographs were originally housed in a custom binder and comprise volume 3 of a 16-volume set that served as a visual inventory for hundreds of Fanchon & Marco performances.

photCL 487

Parker Twins collection of photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera

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Parker Twins collection of photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera

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II. Ephemera

Fanchon & Marco, Volume 3