Research Catalog

Title

Joan Chandler papers, 1923-1959.

Author

Chandler, Joan, 1923-1979.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

2.18 linear feet (6 boxes)

Summary

Joan Chandler (1923-1979, née Cheeseman) was a dancer and actor who appeared in theater, film, and television in the 1940s and 1950s. She studied dance at the Bennington School of the Arts, and was a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company in the early 1940s. She first appeared on Broadway in The Late George Apley (1944), and began acting in films in the mid-1940s. The Joan Chandler papers (1923-1959) consist of photographs, clippings, programs, scrapbooks, contracts, correspondence, and other papers documenting her career, her secondary and post-secondary schooling, and her family. Chandler's upbringing and schooling in Butler, Pennsylvania are represented by yearbooks, photographs, class notes, programs, sheet music, clippings, and memorabilia, mostly from the late 1930s and 1940. Materials from the Bennington School of the Arts date from 1939 to 1941 and include class notes on the Graham technique, orientation materials, performance programs, sheet music ("Modern Dance Technique Accompaniments" by Zoe Williams), and a script (The King and the Duke by Francis Fergusson). There are several programs from Chandler's performances with Graham and with the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, as well as two photographs of a Neighborhood Playhouse school production of Heart of a City. Photographs consist mostly of promotional images of Chandler, though there are also photographs of her as a child and photographs of her family members. Theater and film productions she appeared in are represented by clippings, production photographs, programs, contracts, and correspondence. There are photographs from the set of Alfred Hitchcock's film Rope (1948). The best-represented theater productions are My Three Angels (1953) and The Late George Apley. Materials concerning the latter production include a scrapbook. The collection contains a small number of letters and telegrams, most of which are congratulatory notes, but which also include a short 1953 letter from José Ferrer talking about his acting style and his sense of being out of place among young actors. There is a script for a 1959 Actors Studio production of Herr Biedermann and the Arsonists, a directed by Mordecai Gorelik, and a pamphlet about the Actors Studio. The collection includes an audio recording.

Subjects

• Bennington School of the Arts
• Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre
• Clippings (information artifacts)
• Programs (documents)
• Dance > Study and teaching
• Acting > Study and teaching
• Rope (Motion picture)
• Actresses
• Photographs

Genre/Form

• Clippings (information artifacts)
• Photographs.
• Programs (documents)

Access (note)

• Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required. Inquiries regarding audio recordings in the collection may be directed to the Billy Rose Theatre Division (theatre@nypl.org). Audio recordings will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.

Terms of Use (note)

• The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Theatre Division at theatre@nypl.org.

Source (note)

• Unknown.

Call Number

*T-Mss 2013-140

OCLC

900614326

Author

Chandler, Joan, 1923-1979.

Title

Joan Chandler papers, 1923-1959.

Restricted Access

Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required. Inquiries regarding audio recordings in the collection may be directed to the Billy Rose Theatre Division (theatre@nypl.org). Audio recordings will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.

Terms Of Use

The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Theatre Division at theatre@nypl.org.

Source

Unknown.

Connect to:

Finding Aid

Request Access to Theatre Division Special Collections material

Occupation

Actresses.

Research Call Number

*T-Mss 2013-140