Research Catalog

Mortimer Offner photographs

Title: Mortimer Offner photographs, 1930-1934.
Author: Offner, Mortimer

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Item details
Status	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.	Still image	Supervised use	*T-Vim 1963-004	Performing Arts Research Collections - Theatre

Details

Description

1 box (37 photoprints) : silver gelatin, black and white; 37.5 x 48 cm

Summary

Collection primarily contains portrait photographs of American film directors and performers, including Adrienne Ames (Paramount), Heather Angel (Fox), Claudette Colbert (Paramount), Bing Crosby, Muriel Evans (M.G.M.), William Gargan, Jetta Goudal, Lilian Harvey (Fox), Ben Hecht, Miriam Hopkins (Paramount), Leslie Howard, Miriam Jordan (Fox), Gail Patrick (Paramount), George Raft (Paramount), Seymour Robinson, Sylvia Sidney (Paramount), Helen Twelvetrees (Paramount), and Elizabeth Young (Paramount).

Subject

Genre/Form

Gelatin silver prints.
Photographic prints.

Source (note)

Stella F. Simon, 1963.

Location of Other Archival Materials (note)

Additional photographs and correspondence related to Offner may be found in the Stella Bloch papers, (S) *MGZMD 173, held in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the Library for the Performing Arts, and also in the *T-Pho files held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Contents

Box 1: Folder 1. Adrian; Ames, Adrienne -- Folder 2. Angel, Heather -- Folder 3. Colbert, Claudette -- Folder 4. Crosby, Bing -- Folder 5. Cukor, George with Ben Hecht, Ernst Lubitsch, David O. Selznick, King Vidor (group) -- Folder 6. Evans, Muriel; Gargan, William; Goudal, Jetta -- Folder 7. Harvey, Lilian; Hecht, Ben -- Folder 8. Hopkins, Miriam; Howard, Leslie -- Folder 9. Jordan, Miriam; Lewis, Clarence -- Folder 10. Patrick, Gail; Raft, George -- Folder 11. Sidney, Sylvia -- Folder 12. Twelvetrees, Helen; Young, Elizabeth -- Folder 13. Unidentified Woman; Empty mount.

Call Number

*T-Vim 1963-004

OCLC

965638008

Author

Offner, Mortimer, photographer.

Title

Mortimer Offner photographs, 1930-1934.

Type of Content

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

sheet

Location of Other Archival Materials

Additional photographs and correspondence related to Offner may be found in the Stella Bloch papers, (S) *MGZMD 173, held in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the Library for the Performing Arts, and also in the *T-Pho files held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division. 8-MWEZ+++ n.c. 8918

Biography

Born in New York City in 1900, Mortimer Offner studied at Columbia University before enrolling at the noted Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York City during the early 1920s. In 1930, he went to Los Angeles on assignment from Vanity fair to photograph film stars and decided to make Hollywood his professional home. During this period Offner moved away from portrait and studio photography and established himself as a contract screenwriter for RKO, with numerous scripts produced between 1934 and 1939. During the 1930s, Offner also became active in left-wing politics and joined the Communist Party. Offner served in the Army during World War II and returned to Hollywood after the war. However, his radical political views made employment there difficult and he moved back to New York in the late 1940s to work in theatre and television. Offner was blacklisted by the early 1950s and was subpoenaed to testify before the HUAC in 1953. Offner worked as an insurance salesman for the remainder of his career and died in New York City in 1965.

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Research Call Number

*T-Vim 1963-004

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