Research Catalog

Title

Chamberlain and Lyman Brown papers, 1849-1961.

Author

Brown, Chamberlain.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Brown, Lyman.
• Barrymore, Ethel, 1879-1959.
• Carter, Leslie, Mrs., 1862-1937.
• Chamberlain, Samuel E. (Samuel Emery), 1829-1908.
• Cohan, George M. (George Michael), 1878-1942.
• Cukor, George, 1899-1983.
• Gable, Clark, 1901-1960.
• Horton, Edward Everett.
• Luce, Clare Boothe, 1903-1987.
• Russell, Rosalind.
• St. Denis, Ruth, 1880-1968.
• Scheff, Fritzi, 1879-1954.
• Shubert, Lee, 1873?-1953.
• Shawn, Ted, 1891-1972.
• Stanwyck, Barbara, 1907-1990.
• Actors' Equity Association.
• Chamberlain and Lyman Brown Theatrical Agency.

Description

• 351.25 lin. ft. (851 boxes and additional items)
• 104 reels of microfilm

Summary

The Chamberlain and Lyman Brown papers consist of approximately 351 linear feet and contain business and personal correspondence, legal and financial papers, over 600 scrapbooks, production materials, clipping files, scripts, and photographs which cover the history of the entertainment industry from the end of the nineteenth century through the middle of the twentieth century.

Subject

• Brown, Chamberlain
• Brown, Lyman
• Chamberlain, Samuel E. 1829-1908
• Scheff, Fritzi, 1879-1954
• Carter, Leslie, Mrs., 1862-1937 > Correspondence
• Horton, Edward Everett > Correspondence
• Actors' Equity Association > Correspondence
• Actors > United States
• Actresses > United States
• Press agents > United States
• Prisoners > Correspondence
• Summer theater > United States
• Summer theater > Connecticut > Greenwich
• Theater > New York (State) > New York > 19th century
• Theater > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Theatrical agents > United States
• Theatrical producers and directors > United States
• World War, 1939-1945 > Correspondence

Genre/Form

• Autographs (manuscripts)
• Clippings.
• Printed ephemera.
• Financial records.
• Legal records.
• Correspondence.
• Photographs.
• Scrapbooks.
• Scripts (documents)

Access (note)

• Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required.

Location of Other Archival Materials (note)

• Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Biography (note)

• Theatrical casting agents, producers, and writers, brothers Chamberlain and Lyman Brown were born in Hartford, Connecticut in the 1890s of a prominent New England family. Chamberlain, the elder of the two brothers, was educated at Harvard and while there he began a career as an actor. He formed his own stock company and became an owner and manager of a theater in Lowell, Massachusetts while still in his teens. Chamberlain also had begun collecting posters as a young child and this collecting habit escalated to include autographs, photographs, and programs. He also subscribed to many theatrical periodicals, thus forming the basis of what became an extensive collection. By 1913, Chamberlain had come to New York and performed in The Yellow Jacket at the Fulton Theatre, as well as in vaudeville. He also had begun working as a press representative and soon opened his own company, which his brother Lyman also joined. Chamberlain, who died in 1955, discovered and represented many stars of theater, radio, and film during his career. Among those performers he claimed to have discovered were: Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Alfred Lunt, and Rudolph Valentino. Brown agency clients included Ruth Chatterton, Miriam Hopkins, Fritzi Scheff, and Spencer Tracy. Lyman Brown became a co-owner of the Chamberlain Brown Agency and worked primarily casting summer stock productions throughout the United States and Canada. He died in 1961.
• In addition to their agency activity, the Brown brothers made numerous and financially disastrous attempts at producing.

Call Number

*T-Mss 1961-002

OCLC

166295003

Author

Brown, Chamberlain.

Title

Chamberlain and Lyman Brown papers, 1849-1961.

Restricted Access

Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required.

Biography

Theatrical casting agents, producers, and writers, brothers Chamberlain and Lyman Brown were born in Hartford, Connecticut in the 1890s of a prominent New England family. Chamberlain, the elder of the two brothers, was educated at Harvard and while there he began a career as an actor. He formed his own stock company and became an owner and manager of a theater in Lowell, Massachusetts while still in his teens. Chamberlain also had begun collecting posters as a young child and this collecting habit escalated to include autographs, photographs, and programs. He also subscribed to many theatrical periodicals, thus forming the basis of what became an extensive collection. By 1913, Chamberlain had come to New York and performed in The Yellow Jacket at the Fulton Theatre, as well as in vaudeville. He also had begun working as a press representative and soon opened his own company, which his brother Lyman also joined. Chamberlain, who died in 1955, discovered and represented many stars of theater, radio, and film during his career. Among those performers he claimed to have discovered were: Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Alfred Lunt, and Rudolph Valentino. Brown agency clients included Ruth Chatterton, Miriam Hopkins, Fritzi Scheff, and Spencer Tracy. Lyman Brown became a co-owner of the Chamberlain Brown Agency and worked primarily casting summer stock productions throughout the United States and Canada. He died in 1961.

In addition to their agency activity, the Brown brothers made numerous and financially disastrous attempts at producing. Kept (1926), at the Comedy Theatre, was Chamberlain Brown's initial Broadway production. The Brown brothers' first stock company in the metropolitan area was at the Greenwich Theatre in Connecticut. Under the auspices of the Chamberlain Brown Players (also known as the L. Chamberlain Brown Players), between 1929 and 1930 they presented over thirty plays. The company would hold subsequent summer seasons at other locations with varying degrees of success through the mid-1930s. Beginning in 1926, Chamberlain also hosted radio programs discussing the theater or presenting talent on various New York stations. He also embarked upon a number of professional activities that dovetailed with the agency business, including founding membership clubs, as well as initiating several unsuccessful publications. Perhaps because of an inability to evolve professionally with the changing times, or owing to Chamberlain Brown's lifestyle, the Brown agency floundered, despite family financial support for the brothers. Chamberlain declared bankruptcy in 1934 and was the defendant in numerous lawsuits for collection of funds spanning several decades.

Location of Other Archival Materials

See also Chamberlain and Lyman Brown theater diaries (*T-Mss 2002-010) in the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Request Access to Theatre Division Special Collections material

Finding Aid

Occupation

Press agents.

Theatrical producers and directors.

Theatrical agents.

Added Author

Brown, Lyman.

Barrymore, Ethel, 1879-1959.

Carter, Leslie, Mrs., 1862-1937.

Chamberlain, Samuel E. (Samuel Emery), 1829-1908.

Cohan, George M. (George Michael), 1878-1942.

Cukor, George, 1899-1983.

Gable, Clark, 1901-1960.

Horton, Edward Everett.

Luce, Clare Boothe, 1903-1987.

Russell, Rosalind.

St. Denis, Ruth, 1880-1968.

Scheff, Fritzi, 1879-1954.

Shubert, Lee, 1873?-1953.

Shawn, Ted, 1891-1972.

Stanwyck, Barbara, 1907-1990.

Actors' Equity Association.

Chamberlain and Lyman Brown Theatrical Agency.

Research Call Number

*T-Mss 1961-002

*ZAN-*T213 [microfilm]

MWEZ+ n.c. 23238

MWEZ+ n.c. 23667-23668

*ZC-293 [microfilm]