Skip to main content Skip to main navigation

Edward Farbenblum and Orly Lieberman collection of photographs

Call Number

PR 378

Date

1924-1993, inclusive

Creator

Farbenblum, Edward

Extent

4.7 Linear feet in 6 boxes

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

This collection, assembled and donated by Edward Farbenblum and Orly Lieberman, contains New York Theatre and Hollywood Film portraits and production photos dating from 1924-1993, as well as a small amount of ephemera.

Arrangement

This collection is organized into two series:

Series I: New York Theatre

Series II: Hollywood Film

Series I: New York Theatre is organized into 4 subseries. The first 3 subseries correlate to the 3 different photography studios that produced the photographs related to New York theatrical productions: Friedman-Abeles Studio, Martha Swope Studio, and Vandamm Studio. The fourth subseries consists of ephemera related to theatrical productions. Each subseries is arranged alphabetically by subject.

Series II: Hollywood Film is arranged alphabetically by subject.

Scope and Contents

This collection, assembled and donated by Edward Farbenblum and Orly Lieberman, contains photographs of and a small amount of ephemera related to New York theatre and Hollywood film productions and personalities. It is organized into two series:

Series I: New York Theatre

Series II: Hollywood Film

Series I: New York Theatre is organized into 4 subseries. The first 3 subseries correlate to the 3 different photography studios that produced the photographs related to New York theatrical productions: Friedman-Abeles Studio, Martha Swope Studio, and Vandamm Studio. The fourth subseries consists of ephemera related to theatrical productions. Each subseries is arranged alphabetically by subject

Most productions depicted in the collection are from Broadway, though some national tours, international troupes such as France's Theatre National Populaire, and off-Broadway programming such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival appear. The collection documents the original runs of iconic musicals My Fair Lady, A Little Night Music, A Chorus Line, Oklahoma!, 1776, and Cats (the title most substantially represented in the collection), in addition to new plays, revivals, and multiple iterations of productions such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana. Notable subjects include theatre stalwarts such as Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt (in Quadrille) and Robert De Niro (in Last Stand, with Diane Ladd, and later Cuba and His Teddy Bear).

Also present are portraits of Judy Holliday, Helen Hayes, and others, along with a small selection of Swope's ballet and dance photography, including the New York City Ballet and its star ballerina Patricia McBride.

All materials are stamped with photographer's credit and variously include subject name, date, and other information. Some photographs also feature press clippings or publicity captions on the verso.

Series II: Hollywood Film includes publicity and glamour portraits, on-set production shots, and special photography from a variety of studios and photographers such as Clarence Sinclair Bull, George Hurrell, Frank Powolny, and John Egstead. Stars depicted include Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Lena Horne, Laurence Olivier, Ava Gardner, Linda Darnell, Ginger Rogers, Lassie the dog, Eve Arden, and Catherine Deneuve.

This series also features an Annie Leibovitz photoshoot with Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek, and Jessica Lange on the set of Crimes of the Heart (1986), and George Hurrell coverage of the red carpet arrivals at the film premiere of The Rose Tattoo (December 2, 1955), held at the Hotel Astor in New York City.

This series is arranged alphabetically by subject.

Conditions Governing Access

Available by advance appointment only. To schedule an appointment, contact the Print Room Librarian at printroom@nyhistory.org. Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to twenty exposures of stable, unbound material per day. (Researchers may not accrue unused copy amounts from previous days.)

Conditions Governing Use

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to:

Department of Rights and Reproductions The New-York Historical Society 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194 rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org 212-485-9282

Permission to reproduce or quote text from this collection in a publication must be requested from and granted in writing by the Library Director, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as Edward Farbenblum and Orly Lieberman Collection of Photographs, PR 378, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Edward Farbenblum and Orly Lieberman, 2013 and 2016.

Collection processed by

Marybeth Kavanagh

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:43 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

This material was originally included in the finding aid for the Michael Sonnenfeldt Collection of Theatre, Film, and Entertainment Photography PR 305, which was processed by project intern Brynn White in 2014. This material was separated into a discrete collection and finding aid in 2019 by processing archivist Marybeth Kavanagh.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024