Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Bennett, Michael, 1943-1987.
2. Ebb, Fred.
3. Hepburn, Katharine, 1907-2003.
4. Kander, John.
5. Lansbury, Angela, 1925-2022.
6. Nichols, Mike.
7. Prince, Harold, 1928-2019.
8. Sondheim, Stephen.

Description

1. 31 linear ft. (82 boxes)

Summary

1. This collection extensively covers the personal life and professional career of Dorothy Loudon, including materials relating to stage, film and television productions, albums, and nightclub performances as well as personal correspondence.

Subject

1. Television actors and actresses
2. Photographs
3. Musicals
4. Popular music
5. Video recordings
6. Musical theater > New York (State) > New York
7. Scrapbooks
8. Actresses
9. Sound recordings
10. Awards
11. Jazz
12. Theater > United States
13. Revues
14. Women singers
15. Posters
16. Singers > United States

Genre/Form

1. Awards.
2. Photographs.
3. Posters.
4. Scrapbooks.
5. Sound recordings.
6. Video recordings.

Call number

1. *T-Mss 2005-006

Access (note)

1. Collection is open to the public. Advance notice may be required. Artifacts in Series VII are not currently available. For more information, please contact theatre@nypl.org. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply.

Terms of use (note)

1. For permission to publish, please email theatre@nypl.org.

Indexes/finding aids (note)

1. Collection guide available in repository and on the internet.

Author

1. Loudon, Dorothy.

Title

1. Dorothy Loudon papers, 1885-2003, (bulk 1940-2003).

Restricted access

1. Collection is open to the public. Advance notice may be required. Artifacts in Series VII are not currently available. For more information, please contact theatre@nypl.org. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply.

Terms of use

1. For permission to publish, please email theatre@nypl.org.

Biography

1. Dorothy Loudon (1925-2003) was a singer, comedienne and Tony Award-winning actress, who appeared in supper clubs, television shows, films, summer stock and on Broadway. Born in Boston, she moved to Manhattan in the early 1950s, working as a nightclub singer and eventually headlining at such clubs as Jimmy Ryan's, The Blue Angel and the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel. She sang with Louis Armstrong and toured in concert with Ray Bolger and George Burns. Loudon made her first appearance on the legitimate stage in the 1962 Off-Broadway production of The World of Jules Feiffer, directed by Mike Nichols. Her first Broadway show was the 1962 musical Nowhere to Go but Up directed by Sidney Lumet and her first Tony nomination was for her performance in the 1969 musical, The Fig Leaves are Falling, directed by George Abbott. Loudon's big break came in 1977 when her campy performance as Miss Hannigan in the 1977 blockbuster Annie, garnered her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for best performance by an actress in a musical and catapulted her to stardom. This was followed by Michael Bennett's Ballroom, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. In 1980 she was chosen to succeed Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical Sweeney Todd. In 1985 she co-starred with Chita Rivera and Leslie Uggams in Jerry's Girls, a revue of Jerry Herman songs. In 1981 she co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in The West Side Waltz on Broadway and on tour and had another smash hit in Michael Frayn's farce Noises Off (1983.) Loudon released cabaret albums, such as Broadway Baby (1986), Saloon (1991) and Something to Remember Me By (2003) and made numerous concert appearances.

Indexes

1. Collection guide available in repository and on the internet.

Connect to:

1. Request Access to Theatre Division Special Collections material
2. Finding aid

Added author

1. Bennett, Michael, 1943-1987.
2. Ebb, Fred.
3. Hepburn, Katharine, 1907-2003.
4. Kander, John.
5. Lansbury, Angela, 1925-2022.
6. Nichols, Mike.
7. Prince, Harold, 1928-2019.
8. Sondheim, Stephen.

Research call number

1. *T-Mss 2005-006