Valentina: Fashion Onstage
“The Theater of Valentina: Costume or Couture?” is a question posed by Kohle Yohannan in his groundbreaking book, Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity.[1] Indeed, it can at … Continue reading
The Chicago story
Last Thursday, November 3rd, in the wee hours of the morning the Chicago Cubs triumphed over the Cleveland Indians breaking a 108 year curse to win the World Series of … Continue reading
Rachel Crothers, Sign of the Times
One of the most successful American playwrights of the early 20th century was an unassuming woman named Rachel Crothers. Though not often revived now, the Broadway stage saw over 30 … Continue reading
The Space is the Place; the Museum’s Collection on Theaters
With Archtober – New York City’s annual Architecture and Design Month – almost upon us, it has got my theater archivist’s mind turning to the city’s history of theater buildings. So this week I offer … Continue reading
My Hand-tinted Summer: The Cabinet Card Collection
The Museum holds an amazing collection of cabinet cards and carte-de-visites featuring an array of Broadway entertainers, opera singers, and popular personalities (as well as some of their pets), … Continue reading
The play within a play’s the thing!
“The play’s the thing…” William Shakespeare’s Hamlet famously says at the end of Act II, “…wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” For Shakespeare’s depressed Danish prince, a group … Continue reading
Shakespeare in the Summer; the Winter’s Tale
For some folks summertime in New York City means free concerts or picnics in the park or just an excuse to get out of town, but for me, summer in … Continue reading
Tea, a New York drink
Okay, coffee is more popular, be it a regular deli cup (hot, light, and sweet) or a compostable cup of slow-drip, cold-brewed, artisanal bean. With your alluring caffeinated goodness and … Continue reading
Ladies and Gentlemen, we now present Sissle and Blake!
Last week, the Museum hosted a conversation with director Rachel Taichman and playwright Paula Vogel on their new theatrical collaboration investigating the performance history of the Yiddish play Got fun nekome … Continue reading
How a Colonial Relic Became a Civil War Memento: Tracing Object History in the Silver Collection
Over the course of digitizing the Museum’s silver collection, we’ve come across many objects with storied histories, but not many can weave a historical path through our collection with the … Continue reading
From the Bowery to Broadway: Women of the Yiddish Stage
Last week, the Museum opened “New York’s Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway,” a fabulous new exhibition that explores the history and influence of Yiddish theater in New York … Continue reading
The short, sad story of actress Clara Bloodgood
On the evening of December 5, 1907, respected actress and society woman Clara Bloodgood fatally shot herself in a Baltimore hotel room. She was in town to star as the … Continue reading
Librettist Harry B. Smith and the thousands of words
In the time it took to pull together images and write this blog, lyricist Harry Bache Smith could probably have written a popular hit song, contributed a number and a … Continue reading
