Research Catalog

Title

Max Liebman papers, 1903-1981.

Author

Liebman, Max.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

7.1 lf. (17 boxes)

Subjects

• Legal documents
• Reiner, Carl, 1922-2020
• Coca, Imogene
• Liebman, Max
• Television > New York (State) > New York
• Scripts
• Your show of shows (Television program)
• Photographs
• Clippings
• Correspondence
• Caesar, Sid, 1922-2014
• Personal papers
• Television > Production and direction

Genre/Form

• Correspondence.
• Scripts.
• Clippings.
• Legal documents.
• Photographs.
• Personal papers.

Access (note)

• Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required.

Source (note)

• Liebman, Sonia

Biography (note)

• Producer, director, and writer Max Liebman is best remembered for his work in the fledgling medium of television in the 1950s, most especially for the landmark comedy-variety program YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, which ran from 1950 to 1954.

Indexes/Finding Aids (note)

• Finding aid available in repository and on the Internet.

Processing Action (note)

• Processed

Call Number

*T-Mss 1981-006

OCLC

NYPW02-A43

Author

Liebman, Max.

Title

Max Liebman papers, 1903-1981.

Restricted Access

Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required.

Summary

The papers of Max Liebman contain correspondence, scripts, drafts of scripts and rewrites, production files, production notes, clippings, legal documents, and personal papers including bills, photographs, and artwork that document his production career from 1949 to 1977. The bulk of the collection is a group of 127 scripts from the celebrated television production YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, which starred Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, and Carl Reiner. Other scripts included are from the ADMIRAL BROADWAY REVUE, STANLEY, and the 'Special Series' Liebman produced for NBC-TV between 1954 and 1956. There is also considerable correspondence with the William Morris Agency regarding contract negotiations for performers who appeared in these productions.

Biography

Producer, director, and writer Max Liebman is best remembered for his work in the fledgling medium of television in the 1950s, most especially for the landmark comedy-variety program YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, which ran from 1950 to 1954. Max Liebman grew up in New York, and got his start in show business performing vaudeville acts he had written. He produced and directed the Tamiment Theatrical Workshop, a summer stock playhouse, in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, and in 1939 brought the company's show to Broadway as THE STRAW HAT REVUE, starring Danny Kaye in his Broadway debut. Liebman wrote material for Kaye for a number of years. In 1949 he entered the field of television as producer of the ADMIRAL BROADWAY REVUE, which was broadcast live and starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. The following year this program was reshaped and renamed YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, and became enormously popular, making stars of its lead performers and launching the careers of its staff writers, who included Neil Simon, Mel Brooks and Larry Gelbart. In the years following YOUR SHOW OF SHOW's last broadcast in June 1954, Max Liebman produced a number of television specials and the series STANLEY with Buddy Hackett and Carol Burnett. In 1973 he produced the theatrical film TEN FROM YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, a compendium of skits from the show. Max Liebman died on July 21, 1981.

Indexes

Finding aid available in repository and on the Internet.

Connect to:

Finding Aid

Research Call Number

*T-Mss 1981-006