Special Collections

The Jackson-Dowd Theater Collection includes journals listing theater productions in U.S. and Canadian cities from 1880 to 1977, with the bulk of the journals addressing Boston and New York City productions. It also includes programs, flyers, and newspaper clippings for Boston and New York City productions, with a minimal amount of programs for non-Boston area Massachusetts productions.

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The George McFadden Costume and Set Design Clippings Collection consists of clippings, magazine covers, newspapers, postcards, photographs, and other materials that served as inspirations for his design career. Much of the collection dates from his time as a theater set and costume designer in the 1930s and 1940s. The collection also contains material from his work as a store window display designer.

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Let's Pretend was known as radio's outstanding children's theater program. From 1939 to 1954, it delighted the very young with tales of witches and goblins, princes and princesses, leprechauns, and talking animals.

The Let's Pretend Script Collection consists of scripts for 51 episodes broadcast between 1951 and 1954. The scripts broadcast between 1951 and 1952 were produced by the advertising agency Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborne for the show's sponsor, Cream of Wheat, and those written between 1953 and 1954 are the work of Nila Mack and other CBS writers. A comparison of scripts written in these two periods provides early evidence of the impact of television advertisers on children's programming.

The collection also includes scores and orchestra parts for the Let's Pretend theme song and incidental music composed by Maurice Brown.

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The Martin Shwartz Audio-Visual Collection documents musicals and related sound recordings from the late 1920s through 1989. The collection contains recordings of live performances, films, Tony Awards clips,and various interview sessions with Martin Shwartz as well as with actors and actresses. The collection contains a variety of audio-visual material related to musicals, operas, and soundtracks, including music produced by well known Broadway music producers. There are also some press-related materials. 

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The Norman Lear Script Collection contains scripts written by various authors, most of them related to Norman Lear's production companies, Tandem and T.A.T. Productions. The bulk of the collection consists of 205 scripts from the show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which aired between January 1976 and May 1977, as well as 61 scripts from the show America 2-Night, which aired in 1978. Most scripts are final edits, and also included are alternate scripts for some episodes and a press kit for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. 

These scripts are available for study purposes only, i.e., no performance or photocopying is allowed.

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The collection consists of nearly 300 radio and television scripts that have been given one of Europe's most prestigious media awards. The collection spans the dates 1956 through 1972, with the bulk of the collection falling between 1960 and 1972. Formats include radio and television dramas, documentaries, and musical programs. Geographically, the collection represents work submitted from Europe, North America, and Japan. An index by author, title, format, country, and year is available in the Archives.

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The Sigmund A. Lavine Boston Theatre Collection consists of more than 150 photographs, programs, playbills, newspaper articles, and ephemera that relate to the Boston theater community between the years 1827 and 1960. The collection materials provide visual images of people involved with the production of and acting in plays in the Boston area, programs of performances in theaters local to Boston, materials used in the production of plays, and papers and newspaper articles in dialogue with the theater and its community during the specified time period.

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The Sigmund A. Lavine Gilbert and Sullivan Collection provides a detailed record of the careers of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan and the groundbreaking productions of their works by the D'Oyly Carte players in Great Britain and the United States. The collection spans the period from 1864 to 1989, with the bulk of the material dated between 1870 and 1940. The type of materials in the collection include books, photographs, correspondence, programs, posters, press releases, librettos, scores, orchestral parts, sheet music, trade cards, and newspaper and magazine clippings. The collection also includes information on R.H. Burnside's Boston Comic Opera Company. An index to the collection is available in the Archives.

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The Helen Shea Collection contains photographs, costumes, musical scores, original writings, correspondence, biographical and genealogical information, clippings, and other materials related to the life and stage career of Helen Shea, a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1920s and '30s. Much of the material relates to Shea's original one-act dance, Leda and the Swan, and her attempts to maintain her rights as the copyright holder for Leda and the Swan and other pieces.

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The New York Clipper Registry Collection consists of envelopes containing scripts, songs, comedies, photographs, letters, stage designs, and other materials submitted for copyright protection. The envelopes were labeled using a form found in the New York Clipper Magazine, sealed, and then mailed to the N.Y. Clipper Registry Department.

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The Variety Protected Materials Department Collection consists of envelopes containing scripts, photographs, musical scores, set and costume illustrations, letters, contracts, and other materials submitted for copyright protection. These materials were sealed and submitted by their copyright holders to the Variety Protected Materials Department, and relate mostly to Vaudeville and radio productions.

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