Finding Aids

Oral History Finding Aid - This includes a complete list of the Oral History Interviews and how to access the collection.

Bill Dana Papers Finding Aid - This includes a complete biographical sketch of Bill Dana, a historical timeline of his career, and the complete box listing for his manuscript collection (including scripts from The Steve Allen Tonight Show and The Bill Dana Show) at Emerson.

The Rev. Warren Debenham Comedy Sound Recordings Collection - Documents American comedy from the early 1930s through 2006 and consists of long playing albums and compact discs of live performances, spoken word recordings, musical theater, and film soundtracks. In addition to recordings of individual comics, the collection also contains compilations of various comedians as well as compilations of radio series that were broadcast during the early 1930s through the mid 1950s. Among the comics whose work is included in the collection are Abbott and Costello, Red Skelton, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Steve Martin, Adam Sandler, Gilda Radner, Pauly Shore, and Richard Pryor. The comedy of Belle Barth, LaWanda Page, Spike Jones, Steve Allen, Sandra Bernhard, and Redd Foxx is also included. Subjects cover topics such as politics, relationships, religion, parenting, adolescence, current events, and celebrity and popular culture. Genres include adult entertainment, satire, political, comedy songs and humorous music, improvisational, stand-up, telephone pranks, party jokes, regional, ethnic, and dark humor.

Howard Storm Scripts Collection - The Howard Storm Scripts Collection contains the unbound scripts of television episodes that Howard Storm directed. A large number of the scripts in this collection are from the television series "Mork and Mindy" that aired from 1978-1982. The "Mork and Mindy" scripts in this collection are from 1978-1981. The rest of the collection consists of scripts from twenty-seven other series of episodes he directed. These range from one to five episodes per series. Also included are a few screenplays that were Oscar hopefuls in 2002.

Phil Leslie Scripts Collection - The Phil Leslie Script Collection consists of unbound scripts written by Phil Leslie, the bulk of which are from the radio show Fibber McGee and Molly, that aired from 1935-1956 on WMAQ/Chicago and then on the NBC Monitor until 1959. There are also some bound scripts from the earlier show Smackout, which also featured Jim and Marian Jordan.

The collection also contains unbound scripts of the television show Dennis the Menace and there are unbound scripts from other shows that Phil Leslie wrote for including ten radio programs and twenty-five television series. These files include sketch ideas, outlines and draft scripts as well as final versions.