Research Catalog

Ivan Black papers

Title
Ivan Black papers, 1887-1979 (bulk 1937-1978)
Author
Black, Ivan, -1979.
Supplementary Content
Finding Aid

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90 Items

StatusContainerFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Box 55Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 55Offsite
Box 54Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 54Offsite
Box 53Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 53Offsite
Box 52Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 52Offsite
Box 51Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 51Offsite
Box 50Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 50Offsite
Box 49Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 49Offsite
Box 48Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 48Offsite
Box 47Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 47Offsite
Box 46Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 46Offsite
Box 45Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 45Offsite
Box 44Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 44Offsite
Box 43Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 43Offsite
Box 42Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 42Offsite
Box 41Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 41Offsite
Box 40Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 40Offsite
Box 39Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 39Offsite
Box 38Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 38Offsite
Box 37Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 37Offsite
Box 36Mixed materialSupervised use JPB 06-20 Box 36Offsite

Details

Additional Authors
  • Lecuona, Ernesto, 1896-1963.
  • Oboler, Arch, 1907-1987.
  • Russo, William
  • Savo, Jimmy
  • Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
  • Café Society (Nightclub)
  • Five Spot (Nightclub)
  • Gregory's (Nightclub)
  • Village Gate (Nightclub)
Description
22.5 linear feet (55 boxes)
Summary
The Ivan Black papers are mostly made up of press releases and clippings from newspapers and magazines documenting the publicity work he did for his clients. Also included are promotional flyers, concert and stage programs, and correspondence. The correspondence is mainly with newspaper reporters and editors, or nightclub owners and managers, rather than with artists. The collection also contains a large section of photographs, which are mostly, but not all, publicity headshots, and a section of published stock musical arrangements for jazz big band with violins.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Press releases.
  • Clippings.
  • Promotional materials.
  • Programs.
  • Photographs.
  • Scores.
Note
  • Includes 35 scrapbooks which were not included in finding aid.
Source (note)
  • Black, Jennie
Location of Other Archival Materials (note)
  • Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Biography (note)
  • Ivan Black (1903-1979) was a publicity agent in New York, from the early 1940s until his retirement in the mid-1970s, representing mainly nightclubs, theatrical productions, and entertainers.
Indexes/Finding Aids (note)
  • Collection guide available in repository and on internet.
Call Number
JPB 06-20
OCLC
163934464
Author
Black, Ivan, -1979.
Title
Ivan Black papers, 1887-1979 (bulk 1937-1978)
Biography
Ivan Black (1903-1979) was a publicity agent in New York, from the early 1940s until his retirement in the mid-1970s, representing mainly nightclubs, theatrical productions, and entertainers. After receiving a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1924, Black worked as an architect in New Jersey and Florida, and then as a journalist in Boston and Philadelphia. After moving to New York in 1932, he was a supervisor in the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project and Federal Theatre Project, before being promoted to head of the Division of Information and Publicity of the F.T.P.'s Radio Division. When the division was dissolved in 1939, Black opened his own publicity office. His first clients were the Café Society nightclub, the radio writer and director Arch Oboler (Lights Out), and The Adventures of the Thin Man radio series. After the Café Society closed in 1948, Black worked for corporate clients such as the Philco Corporation, music publisher Edward B. Marks, Inc., and the magazine True. In the late 1950s, he returned to representing nightclubs, notably the Five Spot, the Village Gate, and Gregory's. In the course of working for the clubs, he publicized appearances by many important musicians and comedians. Black and the Café Society discovered comedian Sam Mostel and gave him his stage name, Zero. Others included the musicians Ernesto Lecuona, Thelonious Monk, Nina Simone, and Josh White, singer-actor Wilbur Evans, and comedian Jimmy Savo. Black occasionally worked directly for entertainers, events, political and social justice organizations, and visual artists, including singer Miriam Makeba, pianists Erroll Garner, Brooks Kerr, and Hazel Scott, composer William Russo, pianist and vibraphonist Dardanelle, the New York Jazz Loft Celebration, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and painter Lumen Martin Winter. He also did publicity for many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, most notably the revue Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, as well as lesser-known shows such as Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta.
Location of Other Archival Materials
See also his Ivan Black collection : scrapbooks (microfilm; *ZB-1936) in the Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Indexes
Collection guide available in repository and on internet.
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Finding Aid
Added Author
Lecuona, Ernesto, 1896-1963.
Oboler, Arch, 1907-1987.
Russo, William.
Savo, Jimmy.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
Café Society (Nightclub)
Five Spot (Nightclub)
Gregory's (Nightclub)
Village Gate (Nightclub)
Research Call Number
JPB 06-20
View in Legacy Catalog