Research Catalog

[Interview with Doris Eaton Travis : raw footage]

Title
[Interview with Doris Eaton Travis : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
Publication
New York, 2002.

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Moving imageRestricted use NCOX 2131Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT

Details

Additional Authors
  • Travis, Doris Eaton, 1904-2010
  • Kantor, Michael, 1961-
  • Squires, Buddy
  • Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.
  • Thirteen/WNET, donor.
Description
1 videocassette (VHS) (39 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.
Summary
Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Broadway and film performer, dance instructor, author and last surviving Ziegfeld girl Doris Eaton Travis discusses her experiences in the American musical theater. Interview begins with a few minutes of footage of Travis onstage at the New Amsterdam Theatre, where she performs part of a dance routine. Topics of discussion include her beginnings as a chorus girl in the 1918 Ziegfeld Follies, becoming a "special girl" in 1919 as an understudy to Marilyn Miller, and then a principal dancer in 1920 with her own solo performance; her impression, as a teenaged dancer, of producer Florenz Ziegfeld; Ziegfeld's meticulousness over the appearance, costumes and movements of his show girls; the prestige and importance of The New Amsterdam Theatre, where she performed with the Follies; her colleagues Bert Williams, Eddie Cantor and Fanny Brice, whose acts she saw during the Follies; the 1919 Follies, which featured the signature song by Irving Berlin A pretty girl is like a melody; the qualities of elegance and refinement which characterized Ziegfeld's productions; the dancing of Miller; being part of a supportive and enthusiatic community of Broadway performers during the 1910s and 20s; Broadway as a center of opportunity, creativity and activity; the dancing performed in all-Black revues from Harlem, which featured syncopated tap, jazz and other innovations, and the impact it had on Broadway; the groundbreaking musical Shuffle along, one of the first all-Black musicals on Broadway; popular dances like The Charleston, Black Bottom and Shimmy, which Broadway came to embrace; Ziegfeld's competitors George White and Earl Carroll, whose revues failed to match the elegance of the Follies; her performances in Vitaphone talkies, an early form of sound film; the tableau, a creative technique used in Follies productions, which used live performers to form a vivid, seemingly still picture; the use of military themes in Follies productions.
Alternative Title
  • Broadway, the American musical
  • Doris Eaton Travis : New Amsterdam Theatre
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Documentaries and factual works.
  • Musicals.
  • Unedited footage.
Note
  • This interview is one 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.
  • 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.
  • Time code on frame.
  • Contains various takes, at occasional brief intervals, audio continues without sound.
Credits (note)
  • Cameraman: Buddy Squires.
Performer (note)
  • Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Doris Eaton Travis.
Event (note)
  • Videotaped at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York, N.Y. on May 7, 2002.
Biography (note)
  • Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, 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, archival 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.
Call Number
NCOX 2131
OCLC
123540139
Title
[Interview with Doris Eaton Travis : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
Imprint
New York, 2002.
Credits
Cameraman: Buddy Squires.
Performer
Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Doris Eaton Travis.
Event
Videotaped at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York, N.Y. on May 7, 2002.
Biography
Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, 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, archival 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
Gift of Broadway Film Project, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET, 2005.
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Added Author
Travis, Doris Eaton, 1904-2010, interviewee.
Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.
Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.
Squires, Buddy, cameraman.
Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.
Thirteen/WNET, donor.
Research Call Number
NCOX 2131
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