Bella and Samuel Spewack collection
Date Published: 1949 to 1965
Binding: No binding & hard cover
Bella and Samuel Spewack were an American husband-and-wife writing team of plays and screenplays. Their most successful production was Kiss Me Kate with music and lyrics by Cole Porter.
The collection includes 22 items dating from 1949 to 1965, specifically, 10 letters, 1 book, 6 theatre programs, 3 photos, 1 piece of sheet music, and 1 broadside.
10 Letters:
• 4 ALS and 6 TLS from Bella Spewack to Lewis Funke (the well respected New York Times critic for the theatre in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s):
2 February 1954, 9 August 1955, 27 June 1956, 26 January 1957, 7 April 1957, 9 April 1957, 23 May 1957, 24 November 1958, 26 October 1958, and 11 May 1959. Re buying stamps (Richard Strauss German stamp, Vietnam’s Hotel Majestic, Cyprus in wartime, etc.) for Funke, having no money in Paris, the Bird Club and Sanitarium in New York, their parakeet, on the road with My 3 Angels, theatres in Dubrovnik, travelling in France, Boy Meets Girl in Coventry, Kiss Me Kate productions in Europe, Whistler, royalties from Germany and Vienna earmarked for the polio wards and the Bella Spewack Sports Club in Tel Aviv, John Gassner’s 20 Best European Plays, visiting Mexico and Guatemala.
1 Inscribed Book:
My 3 Angels. New York: Random House, 1953. Dark grey patterned paper boards (photo of the 3 angels on the upper board) in price-clipped dust jacket. Very good. Signed presentation copy dated 26 January 1954, New York City.
3 b&w Photos:
• Bella and Samuel Spewack at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios where they will aid in the adaptation of Clear All Wires!, [1933]; “`Kiss Me Kate’ Star Marries”,
• Lisa Kirk, singing star of the musical comedy, toasting the song writer, Bob Wells, her husband, after their marriage, 17 April 1949;
• Samuel Spewack and composer Frank Loesser, “From Turkey to Phoenix”, 1 March 1965, AP Newsfeatures Photo.
8 Ephemera:
• Sheet music. Cole Porter. Kiss Me Kate, a Musical Comedy, Music & Lyrics. New York: Buxton Hill Music Corporation, 1949.
• Program, Kiss Me Kate, the State Fair of Texas, 25 December 1950-1 January 1951.
• 4 theatre programs for Boy Meets Girl. Cort Theatre, New York, 20 January and 2 March 1936; Shaftesbury Theatre, London, [1936]; playbill, 1951.
• Theatre program for Under the Sycamore Tree, Cricket Theatre, New York, March 1960.
• Undated broadside [1950s], “Everyone Agrees.. `Kiss Me Kate’”, quoting reviews of the musical.
Collection on consignment with LDRB.
Very Good. Item #8692
$1,050.00 USD
$1,409.63 CAD