Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Cronyn, Hume
2. Kantor, Michael, 1961-
3. Squires, Buddy
4. Ghost Light Films
5. Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor
6. Thirteen/WNET, donor

Description

1. 3 videocassettes (VHS) (106 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.

Summary

1. Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Canadian/American stage, film and television actor Hume Cronyn discusses long and distinguished career in the American theater. Cronyn speaks about Broadway during the 1930s; attending burlesque and vaudeville performances; flubbing his first professional stage acting role; acting while at McGill University and his studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts; the importance of Alfred Hitchcock and George Abbott to his career; his work at the Lakewood Theatre Company in Skowhegan, Maine under the direction of Sam Bird; performing with his wife Jessica Tandy in the two-character plays The four poster and The gin game; Elia Kazan as an actor; being directed by Harold Clurman in the play Retreat to pleasure for the Group Theatre; his friend John Gielgud's performance as Hamlet; his role in the thriller Mr. Big, directed by George S. Kaufman, which included a risky stunt; his forays into theatrical producing of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams; directing Tandy in Williams' Portrait of a Madonna; Tandy's work in England with notable Shakespearean actors; Kazan's naming of names during the McCarthy era; the difficulty for young dramatic actors to gain experience with few straight plays being produced at present; the necessities of taking risks in order to be a performer; the possibility of a play changing a person's life; Broadway during his heday in comparison with now; his dresser Malcolm Wells; how his childhood loneliness lead him to acting.

Alternative title

1. Broadway, the American musical
2. Cronyn : Broadway film project.

Subject

1. Cronyn, Hume -- Interviews
2. Cronyn, Hume -- Childhood and youth
3. Cronyn, Hume -- Friends and associates
4. Tandy, Jessica
5. Kazan, Elia
6. Wells, Malcolm
7. Williams, Tennessee, 1911-1983
8. Sheekman, Arthur, 1901-1978
9. Coburn, D. L
10. Clurman, Harold, 1901-1980 -- Friends and associates
11. Kaufman, George S. 1889-1961
12. Theater -- New York (State) -- New York
13. Musical theater -- New York (State) -- New York
14. Theater -- Production and direction
15. Acting -- Technique
16. Acting -- Study and teaching
17. Theater and society
18. Actors -- Interviews
19. Actresses
20. Blacklisting of entertainers -- United States
21. Broadway (New York, N.Y.)

Genre/Form

1. Documentaries and factual works.
2. Musicals.
3. Unedited footage.

Call number

1. NCOX 2097

Note

1. Videocassette one: 45 min. Videocassette two: 46 min. Videocassette three: 15 min.
2. This interview forms part of a group of interviews with 90 individuals used in making the documentary Broadway, the American musical. The completed production is available on NCOX 2058.
3. Credits for completed production from pbs.org: A film by Michael Kantor ; produced by Jeff Dupre, Michael Kantor and Sally Rosenthal ; written by Marc Fields, Michael Kantor, Laurence Maslon, and JoAnne Young ; directed by Michael Kantor.
4. Time code on frame.
5. Contains various takes; audio continues without image following final takes on each reel.

Credits (note)

1. Cameraman: Buddy Squires.

Performer (note)

1. Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Hume Cronyn.

Event (note)

1. Videotaped in New York, N.Y., probably at Hume Cronyn's residence, on March 25, 1997.

Biography (note)

1. Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archive news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Linking entry (note)

1. Forms part of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Title

1. [Interview with Hume Cronyn : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor] ; Ghost Light Films.

Imprint

1. New York, 1997.

Credits

1. Cameraman: Buddy Squires.

Performer

1. Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Hume Cronyn.

Event

1. Videotaped in New York, N.Y., probably at Hume Cronyn's residence, on March 25, 1997.

Biography

1. Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archive news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Local note

1. Gift of Broadway Film Project, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET, 2005.

Linking entry

1. Forms part of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Connect to:

1. Request Access to Theatre on Film and Tape Archive Special Collections material

Added author

1. Cronyn, Hume, interviewee.
2. Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.
3. Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.
4. Squires, Buddy, cameraman.
5. Ghost Light Films.
6. Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.
7. Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research call number

1. NCOX 2097