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Leland McNamee papers
Creator
Title
Leland McNamee papers, 1933-1949 (bulk 1933-1936).
Physical Description
5.8 linear feet (6 boxes)
Language
English
Notes
In English.
Provenance
Purchased from Brian Cassidy on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2017.
Organization
Arranged by type of material.
Access and use
This material is open for research.
Biographical / Historical Note
Leland McNamee (1897-1981), theatrical producer and blackface performer, owned Leland McNamee Productions and produced Leland McNamee's America's Finest Minstrel Show, in Cleveland, Ohio, during the 1930s.
Summary
Music, song texts, and fragments of a scrapbook relating to minstrel shows produced by Leland McNamee; and a small amount other papers relating to McNamee. Disassembled pages from the scrapbook (box 1 and oversize box 6) relate to performances by Leland McNamee's America's Finest Minstrel Show, most 1933-1936, performed at the Hippodrome Theater, Cleveland, Ohio, and for fraternal organizations and other charity benefits in the Cleveland area. Contents include newspaper clippings of advertisements and reviews, printed programs, other ephemera, and correspondence. One newspaper clipping includes a photograph of McNamee in blackface costume. Accompanying the scrapbook is a seven-frame fragment from an unidentified silent motion picture film, circa 1910, showing a group of people including either African Americans or people in blackface costume, and white people, some apparently women wearing police uniforms, with a map of the southern United States displayed on a wall.
Music for minstrel show songs, choruses, and dances, most undated copyist's manuscripts with performance annotations, is organized in portfolios of parts for first violin, first saxophone, tenor saxophone, first trumpet, trombone, and piano (boxes 2-3). Other music (boxes 4-5) consists of vocal scores with piano and parts for additional instruments, most printed, copyright 1900s-1940s and undated. Also present are a few song texts, typescript and typescript mimeograph, undated (box 1).
Other papers (box 1) include blank printed contract forms for minstrel show performances produced by McNamee and Joseph McElhone, undated; a poem by McNamee and writings about personality traits, possibly by McNamee, typescript carbon, undated; and newspaper clippings relating to vaudeville, 1936 and undated.
Format
Archives or Manuscripts / Video & Film
Added to Catalog
March 01, 2019
References
Leland McNamee Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Cite as
Leland McNamee Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Subjects
Genre/Form
Motion pictures (visual works)
Bookmark As
Citation
