Research Catalog

[Interview with Ernest Harburg : raw footage]

Title: [Interview with Ernest Harburg : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
Publication: New York, 1999.

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Status	Vol/Date	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	Videocassette 2	Moving image	Restricted use	NCOX 2121 Videocassette 2	Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	Videocassette 1	Moving image	Restricted use	NCOX 2121 Videocassette 1	Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT

Details

Additional Authors

Description

2 videocassette (VHS) (67 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.

Summary

Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Author Ernest Harburg, son of lyricist E. Y. (Yip) Harburg, speaks about his father's life and career as a songwriter who worked with many well-known composers. Topics of discussion include Yip's poverty as a child growing up in a tenement on New York's Lower East Side; his friendship and professional relationship with lyricist Ira Gershwin; his decision to become a full-time lyrcist after the failure of his electrical appliance business following the stock market crash in 1929; his introduction to composer Jay Gorney, and his first hit "I'm yours," which was recorded by Johnny Green; Yip's learning the craft of lyric writing by working with many composers; the creation of his hit song "Brother, can you spare a dime?" originally written for the Broadway musical Americana, including how the song came to be published, its meaning and structure, and its initial reception; Broadway as a bastion of artistic freedom; the artistic achievements of the immigrant Jewish community on the Lower East Side, including its second generation, particularly in songwriting; changes in the economics of producing shows on Broadway during the 1980s in comparison with the 1950s; the business tactics of producer David Merrick for the show 42nd Street; the "vintage period" of musicals produced on Broadway from the 1930s to the 1960s; Yip's desire to entertain as well as communicate social messages through his lyrics, as he does in his anti-war song Hooray for what?; the show Bloomer girl, about a suffragette who invented bloomers, and musical Finian's rainbow, one of the first to contain a racially integrated chorus line; Yip's gifts as a collaborator who worked with over 60 composers; songwriting as a collaboration dependent equally on lyricist and composer; how rock music, after 1964, affected the popularity of Broadway show tunes; Broadway's formula which requires mixing commerical interests with artistic ones; the collaborative nature of creating shows on Broadway, the difficulties, and the rarity of success. Interview concludes with audio only for last six minutes, with discussion on how words and music unite to make a good song; and the continuing relevance and popularity of "Brother, can you spare a dime?"

Alternative Title

Broadway, the American musical
Broadway: the American musical : Ernie Harburg interview

Subjects

Genre/Form

Documentaries and factual works.
Musicals.
Unedited footage.

Note

Videocassette one: 12 min. Videocassette two: 55 min.
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: Ernest Harburg.

Event (note)

Videotaped in New York, N.Y. , probably in Ernest Harburg's residence, on April 23, 1999.

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 2121

OCLC

123086275

Title

[Interview with Ernest Harburg : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]

Imprint

New York, 1999.

Credits

Cameraman: Buddy Squires.

Performer

Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Ernest Harburg.

Event

Videotaped in New York, N.Y. , probably in Ernest Harburg's residence, on April 23, 1999.

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.

Connect to:

Request Access to Theatre on Film and Tape Archive Special Collections material

Added Author

Harburg, Ernest, interviewee.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.

Squires, Buddy, cameraman.

Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.

Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research Call Number

NCOX 2121

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