Tamiment Playhouse Alumni Oral History Collection
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Abstract
The Tamiment Playhouse, located at the Socialist Party's retreat, Camp Tamiment, in Pennsylvania's Pocono mountains, became an important workshop and a major creative outlet for theater, dance, film, and television in the mid-twentieth century. Actors such as Danny Kaye, Bea Arthur, Imogene Coca, and Carol Burnett; directors Max Liebman, Herb Ross, and Joe Layton; choreographer Jerome Robbins; and writers Woody Allen and Neil Simon are a small sampling of the major entertainment figures nurtured at Camp Tamiment. Much of the original material performed at Tamiment found its way to the professional stage, Broadway, and television. All interviewees were involved in the Tamiment Playhouse, mainly in the 1950s. Most of the interviews consist of recollections of the Tamiment summer theater, as well as discussions about the importance of the Playhouse for Broadway. Interviews were conducted between 1980 and 1988 by Andrew Horn of the Tamiment Playhouse Archives and by NYU Performance Studies graduate student Martha S. LoMonaco for her dissertation and subsequent book on the Tamiment Playhouse, entitled Every Week a Broadway Revue. The collection also contains live recordings of shows at the Tamiment Playhouse, dating from 1955-1960.
Historical/Biographical Note
The Tamiment Playhouse was located at Camp Tamiment in Pennsylvania's Pocono Moutains. The camp was a summer resort opened in 1921 by the People's Educational Camp Society and affiliated with the Socialist Party's Rand School of Social Science. Started as a means to entertain campers, the playhouse became an important workshop and a major creative outlet for theater, dance, film, and television in the mid-twentieth century. Actors such as Danny Kaye, Bea Arthur, Imogene Coca, and Carol Burnett; directors Max Liebman, Herb Ross, and Joe Layton; choreographer Jerome Robbins; and writers Woody Allen and Neil Simon are a small sampling of the major entertainment figures nurtured at Camp Tamiment. Much of the original material performed at Tamiment found its way to the professional stage and finally Broadway.
Arrangement note
The collection is arranged in two series. The first series, Oral Histories, is comprised of LoMonaco's interviews taken in the course of researching for Every Week a Broadway Revue. The second series, Shows, are live recordings of performances at the Tamiment Playhouse from 1955-1960.
Scope and Content Note
The Oral Histories series is comprised of sixty-three interviews that were conducted between 1980 and 1988 by Andrew Horn of the Tamiment Playhouse Archives and by NYU Performance Studies graduate student Martha S. LoMonaco for her dissertation and subsequent book on the Tamiment Playhouse, Every Week a Broadway Revue. Most of the interviews consist of recollections of the Tamiment summer theater, as well as discussions about the importance of the Playhouse for Broadway. Of note in the collection are interviews with Woody Allen, Carol Burnett, Imogene Coca, and Neil Simon. Materials in the Shows series were recorded live on reel to reel audiotape at the Tamiment Playhouse from 1955-1960.
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Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Because of the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the collection. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in the collection; these items are expected to pass into the public domain 120 years after their creation. Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives are maintained by New York University. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from repository. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; Tamiment Playhouse Alumni Oral History Collection; OH.031; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by by Martha S. LoMonaco in 1992. The accession number associated with this gift is 1986.006.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access to audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room. . Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Collection was processed, and a finding aid was written sometime after 1992. This finding aid was encoded for online publication and edited for compliance with archival descriptive standards in 2012. Digitization of Series I began in 2011 and was completed in 2015.
