Abe Burrows Collection Comes to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Archive of Author/Director/Performer Documents a Golden Era Spanning Fifty Years and Five Different Aspects of American Entertainment

Correspondence with such Luminaries as the Allens-- Fred, Steve & Woody, Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, and George S. Kaufman -- Is at the Heart of the Far-Reaching Collection of the Guys and Dolls Author

New York City, October 20, 2000 -- "Doing a show is not unlike bringing up a child," wrote writer/director/performer Abe Burrows in a 1953 letter to songwriter Cole Porter. "The child develops a life of its own. The parents do their best but certain things remain immutable, and the child is what he is -- cantankerous, attractive, disobedient, intelligent, annoying ­ but still your child." Burrows was parent to such major Broadway musicals as Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. From the 1930s through the mid 1980s, he played a nurturing, pivotal role in theatre,  radio, television, motion pictures, and cabaret.  His archive of letters, scripts, photographs, posters, business documents, recordings, and other materials, documenting his 50-year career in American entertainment, has recently been donated to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.  Given by Burrows's children, James Burrows and Laurie Burrows Grad, the Abe Burrows Collection is part of the Library's Billy Rose Theatre Collection and will be accessible to the public after it is processed over the next two years.

"It is rare to gain an inside view of the creative process that led to a landmark artistic work," said William D. Walker, Senior Vice President and Andrew W. Mellon Director of The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library, "but the materials in the Burrows Collection, particularly his working correspondence with collaborators like Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, and George S. Kaufman, provide a tangible sense of the development of new works for stage, film, television, and radio."

Reflecting on their selection of The New York Public Library to house the Abe Burrows Collection, his son James Burrows noted, "Abe was the ultimate New Yorker and would be thrilled to have this collection preserved at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts."  His daughter Laurie Burrows Grad added, "The family is delighted.  His materials are in the company of several manuscripts of his good pal and collaborator Frank Loesser who worked with him so successfully on Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed.  Why wouldn't he kvell?"  Burrows not only created memorable entertainment, but also started an entertainment dynasty. His son James Burrows has been instrumental in creating such hit TV comedies as Taxi, Cheers, and Will and Grace. His daughter has been an on-air host for national TV programs, and his grandson Nicholas Grad carries on the show biz tradition as Vice President of Comedy at Columbia Tri-Star.

"We are enormously proud that the Library was selected as the home for this important archive," commented Jacqueline Z. Davis, The Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.  "These materials will help generations of future researchers gain insight into the world of entertainment at a time when radio was dominant, Broadway was at its artistic height, and television's seismic influence was just being recognized."

The Abe Burrows Collection includes a trove of materials that will be invaluable to performing arts researchers.  These include scripts to all of Burrows's theatrical productions, including revisions and unused scenes that reflect the evolution of such works as Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Say, Darling, and Cactus Flower.  There also is a set of bound scripts for Duffy's Tavern, the highly regarded radio show for which he was head writer, and scripts for many of his other programs, like Breakfast with Burrows and The Abe Burrows Almanac.

Business and legal correspondence includes contracts, royalty statements, correspondence, and other materials relating to original productions of his works and revivals presented throughout the world.  The collection also includes vinyl and acetate disks with recordings of his radio program The Abe Burrows Show, as well as tapes of various TV appearances and private family audio recordings. Also in the collection are appointment books, speeches, drafts for unpublished articles and stories, and sheet music to the songs he wrote and performed at parties and in nightclubs throughout the country. The collection also includes materials Burrows saved regarding his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The cornerstone of the collection is the correspondence with scores of major artists with whom Burrows worked or was affiliated and with whom in some cases he became close friends. In addition to Porter, Loesser, and Kaufman are such luminaries as George Abbott, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, Noel Coward, Bing Crosby, Julie Harris, Oscar Hammerstein II, Groucho Marx, Mike Nichols, Jack Paar, Gregory Peck, Phil Silvers, John Steinbeck, and Rudy Vallee.

"Abe Burrows was one of the creative geniuses behind two of the greatest musicals in Broadway history: Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying," said Bob Taylor, Curator of the Library's Billy Rose Theatre Collection. "That alone is enough to make him welcome at any archive. Researchers who come to The New York Public Library will find not only Abe's papers, but also the papers of many of his colleagues and contemporaries: Vivian Blaine, Alex Cohen, Hal Prince, Comden and Green, Yip Harburg, Richard Rodgers. Abe is still hanging out with theatre's elite. I'm grateful to his children for selecting The New York Public Library as the reposi-tory for these historic papers and I know that researchers will thank them for generations to come."

Abe Burrows
Abe Burrows was born in New York City on December 18, 1910. He graduated from New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn and attended both City College and New York University. While at NYU he began working as a runner on Wall Street and also worked in an accounting firm. In 1938 he met Frank Galen and the two eventually wrote and sold jokes to an impersonator who appeared on the Rudy Vallee radio program. Burrows's career as a writer for radio grew from there until in 1941 he became chief writer for the popular program Duffy's Tavern. He quit in 1945 to join Paramount Pictures but soon returned to radio.

Meanwhile Burrows became a popular guest on the Hollywood party circuit, where he would perform satirical songs he wrote, like "Darling Why Shouldn't You Look Well Fed, ‘ Cause You Ate Up a Hunka My Heart?" and "The Girl with the Three Blue Eyes."   These informal performances led to a nightclub act and regular appearances as a performer on CBS radio and then on television starting in 1949.

In 1950 Burrows was asked to write the book for a new musical, Guys and Dolls, a comic tale of colorful Times Square gamblers and ne'er do wells facing the reform efforts of a sweet Salvation Army missionary. Based on a short story by Damon Runyan, the show had a score by Frank Loesser and was directed by George S. Kaufman. Guys and Dolls ran for nearly three years on Broadway and was the first of a string of theatrical hits that established Burrows as one of the theatre's leading creators. His other musicals included Can-Can, Silk Stockings, Say, Darling, What Makes Sammy Run, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, for which he and Loesser were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1962. Burrows wrote and/or directed several straight plays, including Forty Carats and Cactus Flower. His direction of musicals included Two on the Aisle and Happy Hunting. Burrows also became known as one of Broadway's leading play doctors, coming in to help re-write or re-stage problematic productions before they opened in New York. Burrows's autobiography, Honest Abe, was published in 1980. He died of pneumonia in Manhattan on May 17, 1985.

Guys and Dolls 50th Anniversary
Items from the Abe Burrows Collection and other items from The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will be included in "Guys and Dolls:  The Fabled Musical of Broadway," an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of Guys and Dolls that will be on view at The Museum of the City of New York from November 24, 2000 through June 10, 2001.

The Temporary Relocation of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
During the renovation of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts's Lincoln Center facility,  the Library has relocated to temporary sites: the Circulating Collections are available on the fourth floor of the Mid-Manhattan Library at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street; the Research Collections are accessible at the Library Annex at 521 West 43rd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.  For more information about Library services and hours, telephone 212-870-1630.

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