The New York Public Library will be closed from May 25 to May 27.
Selinsky, Wladimir, 1910-
The Wladimir Selinsky papers consist primarily of scripts for the radio and television productions for which Selinsky composed music, and the scores for that music. Radio programs with scripts and scores include the anthologies CBS Electric Theatre, CBS Helen Hayes Theatre and CBS Textron Theatre, and the educational series The Jeffersonian heritage and People under communism. Television productions documented by scripts and/or scoresinclude the series Lux video theater and Kraft television theater, and the network television films Forbidden city, Miles to go before I sleep and Family reunion. The collection also contains stock film music composed by Selinsky, some of which may have appeared in the Ed Wood film Plan 9 from outer space. There is also a set of arrangements by Selinsky of popular songs presumably used for Strings in swingtime broadcasts, as well as recordings. In addition to scores and scripts, the collection has a small amount of papers, mainly productionnotes and music timings, and a few financial papers.
Wladimir Selinsky (b. Kiev, Russia, Feb. 15, 1910; d. New York City, Sept. 6, 1984) was born into a musical family. His family immigrated to the United States in 1925. He started his career on Broadway as a concert master and assistant conductor. He also performed in various orchestras conducted by Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, and Pierre Monteux. In the 1930's, Selinsky began an active career as a composer and conductor for radio shows produced by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and theNational Broadcasting Company (NBC). He worked with Helen Hayes on two dramatic anthology programs, Textron Theatre and Helen Hayes Theatre, collaborating with Hayes to create the background music for adaptations of plays by such authors as Sinclair Lewis and Thornton Wilder. Selinsky also worked on educational programs sponsored by National Association of Educational Broadcasters (N.A.E.B.), including The Jeffersonian heritage and Peopleunder communism, and also worked on programs for the Voiceof America. Throughout the 1940's, Selinsky also had his own NBC radio program, Strings in swingtime, which featured his own string quartet and orchestra. He recordeda number of violin pieces for Columbia Records, and composed and conducted music for CBS and NBC radio auditions and a radio and television workshop sponsored bythe Ford Foundation in 1957. He also wrote stock film music under the pseudonym "Ward Sills" for the company Video Moods, Inc., some of which was used in the famed Ed Wood film Plan 9 from outer space (1959). In the mid-1950's, Selinsky began his career on television. The programs he worked on included dramatic anthologies such as Du Pont show of the week, Kraft television theatre, Luxvideo theatre, and U. S. steel hour, and several television movies in the 1970s and 80s, including Forbidden city, The Arthur Peach story, Miles to go beforeI sleep and Family reunion. Selinsky died of heart failureat the age of 74.
Shadows (1826). NYPL Art and Architecture Collection.
One of 700,000 pictures in the NYPL Digital Gallery
