Yolande Oglesby Theater Programs and Kitty Cheatham Papers

Overview

Scope and Contents

Biographical Note

Subject Terms

Administrative Information

Detailed Description

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Finding Aid for Yolande Oglesby Theater Programs and Kitty Cheatham Papers, 1900-1970 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

By Nolan Vallier

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Collection Overview

Title: Yolande Oglesby Theater Programs and Kitty Cheatham Papers, 1900-1970Add to your cart.View associated digital content.

ID: 12/9/119

Primary Creator: Oglesby, Yolande (1917-2012)

Other Creators: Cheatham, Kitty (1864-1946)

Extent: 1.75 cubic feet

Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by city and alphabetically by theater or subject therein, with personal papers at the beginning.

Date Acquired: 11/19/1996. More info below under Accruals.

Subjects: Boston, Massachusetts, Chicago, Illinois, Concert Programs, Concerts, Depression, 1929 United States, Films, Musical Repertoires, New York, Opera, Photographs, Prohibition, Theater orchestra music, Theatre, Theatrical Productions, Vaudeville, Vaudeville songs -- United States, Vocal music

Languages: English, French, Italian

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Consists of personal papers, including one piece of sheet music and two photographs, belonging to Kitty Cheatham. Also includes concert programs and theater playbills collected by Kitty Cheatham between 1917-1920 and Yolande Oglesby between 1930 and 1970. There is no clear distinction between these two bodies of programs and playbills, so they remain interfilled as one collection of programs. The concert programs and theatre playbills come from theaters and concert halls in Boston, New York, Paris, Chicago, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Denver.

Of particular note are Vaudeville and Ziegfeld Follies programs featuring Eddie Cantor, W. C. Fields, Ed Wynn, Al Jolson, Rudee Vallee, and Ethel Merman.  In addition, many playbills include premieres and early off-broadway runs of musicals and opera-musicals by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Lew Brown, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert, George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, Gian Carlo Menotti, Kurt Weill, Marc Blitzstein, Leonard Bernstein, and Meredith Wilson.  Several souvenir programs from the premieres of films are included; among these are: Le Miracle des Loups (1924) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The collection also includes premiere playbills for plays by the following playwrights: Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Dubose Heyward, Eugene O'Neil, and George S. Kaufman.  Many of these premiers feature such actors as: Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, Walter Hampden, Helen Hayes, Ed Wynn, Fred Astair, George Cohen, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, Boris Karloff, and Christopher Plummer. There are also many dance programs, including performances by: the Ballet Russes, Shawn, Uday Shankar, and Veloz and Yolande. A smaller number of fine art music programs are included as well, and feature performances by Serge Kousevitsky, Serge Rachmaninoff, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Yehudi Menuhin, and Moriz Rosenthal.

See also 35/3/68, Box 3, Folder 41, "Yolande Oglesby".

Biographical Note

Yolande Oglesby (1917-2012) was born in Chicago Illinois on January 13, 1917. She was the daughter of Frederick Wainwright Perkins, a wealthy architect from Chicago, and Yolande Vandeveer Perkins, whose family descended from the Vandeveer Family (one of the first families to settle in New Netherlands). At the age of 2, her family retired to the country in Morrisonville, Illinois. While her father continued his architectural practice in Morrisonville, he also co-owned a sugar plantation in Cuba with his brother that he managed from abroad. Two years later, the family moved to Boston. At the time, her sister Emily, who was four years older than Yolande, enrolled in the Brimmer School near Boston College. Yoldane would enroll shortly thereafter. Outside of school, the girls were raised by a governess and rarely saw their parents. At the age of 6, Yolande's father sent both sisters to the Lebec Boarding School in Paris, France. While attending the boarding school, the girls' father died and their mother transferred them to a boarding school in Sheffield, England for the remainder of the school year. At age 13, the girls moved back to Boston where they attended Windsor School. Oglesby seems to have participated in school plays around this time, which may have later inspired her love for theatrical and musical productions later in life. The Great Depression seems not to have affected the family's lavish lifestyle, Oglesby claims that she never needed to work for a living and that her mother purchased several acres of land in Illinois during the Depression. They even spent several summers away from Boston in order to ride horses at their ranch in Wyoming. After graduating high school, Oglesby did not enroll in college, but instead moved to New York City. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Oglesby traveled exstensively as is noted by the location and dates of the concert programs and theatre playbills after 1930.

Oglesby was married three times during her life. At age 25, she married Tom Ponting; the two were divorced soon after they were wed. In 1943, she married, Dick Oglesby, with whom she had two children; the two were divorced by the late 1940s. After moving to Florida in the early 1950s, she married Mark Lasswell, with whom she had one child. After an unhappy and abusive marriage, the two divorced in 1953. Sometime after the 1960s, she moved back to her family's estate in Morrisonville, Illinois. Oglesby died in 2012.

Throughout her life, Oglesby attended numerous theatrical, musical, and dance programs in theatres around the world. Although it is unclear how she came to be in the possession of Kitty Cheatham's personal materials, it seems she not only collected programs attended by Cheatham but also amassed her own collection of theater programs.

Subject/Index Terms

Boston, Massachusetts
Chicago, Illinois
Concert Programs
Concerts
Depression, 1929 United States
Films
Musical Repertoires
New York
Opera
Photographs
Prohibition
Theater orchestra music
Theatre
Theatrical Productions
Vaudeville
Vaudeville songs -- United States
Vocal music

Administrative Information

Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Accruals: December 20, 1996.

Acquisition Source: Yolande Olgesby

Acquisition Method: Gift

Related Materials:

See 35/3/68, Box 3, Folder 41, "Yolande Oglesby" contains original control file created by MPAL.

See also Kitty Cheatham Personal Papers at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. http://tsla.tnsosfiles.com.s3.amazonaws.com/history/manuscripts/findingaids/CHEATHAM_KITTY_PAPERS_1892-1946.pdf

Related to Yolande Oglesby, see the Frederick Wainwright Perkins Papers at the University of Illinois, Illinois History and Lincoln Collections: https://www.library.illinois.edu/ihx/archon/?p=collections/controlcard&id=851

As well as the Oral History of Yolande Oglesby, located at the University of Illinois at Springfield: http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collection/uis/id/4752

For Theatre Programs related to Chicago Theatres see: https://www.chipublib.org/fa-chicago-theater-collection-historic-programs/

For Theatre Programs related to Boston and New York see: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/htc AND https://collections.mcny.org/Explore/Highlights/Broadway%20Productions/


Box and Folder Listing


Browse by Box:

[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[Box 3],
[Box 4],
[All]

Box 1Add to your cart.
Folder 1: Kitty Cheatham Photographs and Sheet Music, ca. 1900-1933Add to your cart.
Contains "Spring Greeting" for voice and piano with music by Kitty Cheatam and words by Mary Baker Eddy; and two photographs of Kitty Cheatam
Folder 2: Yolande Perkins Oglesby Personal Papers and School Programs, ca. 1928-1933Add to your cart.
Folder 3: Boston, Colonial Theatre Programs, 1922-1934Add to your cart.
Of Note: Jerome Kern's "Sally," 1922; Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's "Sweet Adeline," 1930; Richard Roger's and Lorenz Hart's "Ed Wynn," 1930; Zieglfeld Follies, "The American Girl," 1931; Jerome Kern's "Roberta," 1934; Fred Astaire in "The Band Wagon Revue," 1934; Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," 1934.
Folder 4: Boston, Copley Theatre Programs, 1922-1932Add to your cart.
Folder 5: Boston, Hollis Street Theatre Programs, 1929-1933Add to your cart.
Of Note: Dubose Heyward and Dorothy Heyward's "Porgy," 1929; Uday Shankar program of dance, 1933.
Folder 6: Boston, Majestic Theatre Programs, 1929-1931Add to your cart.
Of Note: Victor Herbert's "Mlle. Modiste," 1930.
Folder 7: Boston, Opera House Programs, 1934Add to your cart.
Of Note: Col. de Basil's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, 1934.
Folder 8: Boston, Plymouth Theatre Programs, 1930-1933Add to your cart.
Of Note: Ethel Barrymore in "The School for Scandal," ca. 1925.
Folder 9: Boston, Sam S. Schubert Theatre Programs, 1930-1934Add to your cart.
Of Note: Oscar Hammerstein and Sigmund Romberg's "The New Moon," 1930; Irving Berlin's "Face the Music," 1932; Lew Brown's "Calling All Stars," 1934.
Folder 10: Boston, Symphony Hall Programs, 1921-1935Add to your cart.
Of Note: Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Programs featuring: Fritz Kreisler, violin, 1929; Serge Rachmaninoff, piano, 1931; Georges Laurent, 1933; Jascha Heifetz, 1934; Arthur Fiedler conducting Hector Berlioz, 1934.
Folder 11: Boston, Tremont Theatre Programs, 1930-1931Add to your cart.
Of Note: George M. Cohan in "The Tavern," 1930; George M. Cohan's "Friendship," 1931.
Folder 12: Boston, Various Theatre Programs, 1921-1934Add to your cart.
Of Note: Ford Hall Forum, featuring lecture concert series Soap Box Forum - lectures include Serwood Eddy, "Russia Today: what Th NRA can learn from the U.S.S.R.," Dorothy Thompson (Mrs. Sinclair Lewis) "The Author of 'I Saw Hitler' Evaluates 'My Battle'," Prof. Friedrich Schoenemann "Why I believe in the Hitler Government," 1934.
Folder 13: Boston, Ye Wilber Theatre Programs, 1930-1932Add to your cart.
Of Note: Ethel Barrymore in "The Love Duel," 1930; Walter Hampden in "Richelieu," 1930.
Folder 14: Boston Journals, The Boston Stage Vol. 1, No. 2, October 10, 1930Add to your cart.
Folder 15: Boston Journals, Boston Theatre Magazine, 1933-1934Add to your cart.
Folder 16: Chicago, A. H. Woods Theatre Programs, 1918-1919Add to your cart.View associated digital content.
Of Note: Color Program Cover Design.
Folder 17: Chicago, Blackstone Theatre Programs, 1917-1970Add to your cart.
Of Note: Color Program Cover Design.
Folder 18: Chicago, Cinestage Theatre Programs, 1958-1963Add to your cart.
Folder 19: Chicago, Civic Theatre Program, 1945Add to your cart.
Of Note: Tennessee William's "The Glass Menagerie" Opening Season, 1945.
Folder 20: Chicago, Colonial Theatre Programs, 1919-1920Add to your cart.View associated digital content.
Of Note: Ziegfeld Follies 12 Edition, featuring music by Louis A. Hirsch and Dave Stamper with Interpolations by Irving Berlin and Victor Jacobi, performers include Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers, Allyn King, Frank Carter, and W.C. Fields, 1919; Ziegfeld Follies 13th Edition, featuring music of Irving Berlin, Gene Buck, Rennold Wolf and Dave Stamper with Ballet by Victor Herbert, performers include Eddie Cantor, Bert Williams, Johnny Dooley, Eddie Dowling, 1920.
Folder 21: Chicago, Cort Theatre Programs, 1920-1921Add to your cart.View associated digital content.
Of Note: Color Program Cover Designs.
Folder 22: Chicago, Erlanger Theatre Programs, 1945-1951Add to your cart.
Of Note: Oscar Hammerstein and Georges Bizet "Carmen Jones," 1945; Paul Robeson in "Othello," 1945; Ethel Waters in "The Member of the Wedding," 1951.
Folder 23: Chicago, Garrick Theatre Programs, 1917-1921Add to your cart.View associated digital content.
Of Note: "Passing Show of 1917," music by Sigmund Romberg and Otto Motzan, 1917; Lionel Barrymore in "The Copperhead," 1918.
Folder 24: Chicago, Grand Opera House Programs, ca. 1918-1937Add to your cart.View associated digital content.
Of Note: George M. Cohan's "A Prince There Was," 1919. Color Program Cover Designs.
Folder 25: Chicago, Harris Theatre Program, 1957Add to your cart.
Folder 26: Chicago, Illinois Theatre Programs, 1919-1920Add to your cart.View associated digital content.
Of Note: Ed. Wynn's "Ed Wynn Carnival," 1920.
Folder 27: Chicago, Olympic Theatre Programs, 1918-1919Add to your cart.
Folder 28: Chicago, Orchestra Hall Programs, 1918-1947Add to your cart.
Of Note: Jascha Heifetz, violin recital, 1918.
Folder 29: Chicago, Powers Theatre Programs, 1917-1920Add to your cart.View associated digital content.
Of Note: Ethel Barrymore in "The Off Chance," 1919; Ethel Barrymore in "Declassee," 1920. Color Program Cover Designs.
Folder 30: Chicago, Schubert Princess Theatre Programs, 1919-1970Add to your cart.
Of Note: Richard Bennett in Eugene O'Neil's "Beyond the Horizon," 1920; Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein's "South Pacific, 1951; Gerome Ragni and Galt MacDermot's "Hair," 1970.
Folder 31: Chicago, Studebaker Theatre Programs, 1917-1921Add to your cart.
Of Note: Jerome Kern's "Love O' Mike," 1917; Leslie Stuart and Paul Rubens' "Florodora," 1921. Color Program Cover Designs.
Folder 32: Chicago, Various Theatre Programs, 1918-1963Add to your cart.
Of Note: Victor Herbert's "The Red Mill," 1947.
Folder 33: Denver, Elitch Theatre Program, 1933Add to your cart.
Folder 34: Dublin, Abbey Theatre Program, 1928Add to your cart.
Folder 35: Edinburgh, Ross Bandstand Program, 1938Add to your cart.
Folder 36: London, Various Theatre Programs, 1917- 1949Add to your cart.
Folder 37: New York, Adelphi Theatre Programs, 1945-1947Add to your cart.
Of Note: Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town," 1945; Franz Steininger's adaptation of "Tchaikovsky Music in My Heart," 1947.
Folder 38: New York, Alvin Theatre Programs, 1931-1957Add to your cart.
Of Note: George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin's "Girl Crazy," 1931; George M. Cohan in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's "I'd Rather Be Right," 1937; Gertrude Lawrence in Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill's "Lady in the Dark," 1941.
Folder 39: New York, Belasco Theatre Programs, 1918-1954Add to your cart.
Of Note: Howard Teichmann and George S. Kaufman's "The Solid Gold Cadillac," 1954.
Folder 40: New York, Bijou Theatre Programs, 1918-1957Add to your cart.
Folder 41: New York, Biltmore Theatre Programs, 1947-1951Add to your cart.
Of Note: Louis O. Coxe and Anthony B. Farrell's "Billy Budd," 1951.
Folder 42: New York, Booth Theatre Programs, 1918-1949Add to your cart.
Of Note: Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's "You Can't Take it With You," 1937. Color Program Cover Designs.
Folder 43: New York, Broadburst Theatre Programs, 1919-1938Add to your cart.
Folder 44: New York, Broadway Theatre Programs, 1931-1951Add to your cart.
Of Note: Cole Porter's "The New Yorkers," 1931; Frank Loesser's "Where's Charley?" 1951.
Folder 45: New York, Carnegie Hall Programs, 1935-1956Add to your cart.
Of Note: Artur Schnabel and Hans Lange recitals, 1935; Moriz Rosenthal and Yehudi Menuhin recitals, 1938; Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra and Jascha Heifetz and Joseph Schuster recital, 1938; Ted Sawn Dancers, 1940; Egon Petri recital, 1942; Charles Muench conducting the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York, 1946; Charles Muench conducting the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York, 1947.
Folder 46: New York, Center Theatre Programs, 1934-1949Add to your cart.
Of Note: Johann Strauss and Moss Hart's "The Great Waltz" 1934; George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's "The American Way," 1939.
Folder 47: New York, Charles Dillingham's Globe Theatre Program, 1932Add to your cart.
Of Note: Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach's "The Cat and the Fiddle," 1932.
Folder 48: New York, Coronet Theatre Programs, 1950-1957Add to your cart.
Folder 49: New York, Cort Theatre Programs, 1933-1946Add to your cart.
Of Note: Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan," 1946.
Folder 50: New York, Empire Theatre Programs, 1932-1952Add to your cart.
Of Note: Moliere's "The School for Husbands," with music by Edmond W. Rickett, 1933.
Folder 51: New York, Ethel Barrymore Theatre Programs, 1936-1952Add to your cart.
Of Note: Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill's "Knickerbocker Holiday," 1938; Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Telephone," and "The Medium," 1947.
Folder 52: New York, Forty-Fourth Street Theatre Programs, 1931-1942Add to your cart.
Of Note: Richard Addensell's "The Good Companion's," 1931; Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's "Music in the Air," 1933; Johann Strauss's "Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus)," 1942.
Folder 53: New York, Forty-Sixth Street Theatre Programs, 1933-1940Add to your cart.
Of Note: Cole Porter's "Du Barry Was a Lady," 1940.
Folder 54: New York, Forty-Eighth Street Theatre Programs, 1919-1952Add to your cart.
Folder 55: New York, Guild Theatre Programs, 1932-1939Add to your cart.
Of Note: George M. Cohan in Eugene O'Neil's "Ah, Wilderness!" 1933; Devi Dja Balinese and Javanese Dancing with Gamelan, 1939.
Folder 56: New York, Helen Hayes Theatre Program, 1959Add to your cart.
Of Note: Helen Hayes in Eugene O'Neil's "Touch of the Poet," 1959.
Folder 57: New York, Henry Miller's Theatre Programs, 1932-1955Add to your cart.
Folder 58: New York, Hudson Theatre Programs, 1919-1946Add to your cart.
Folder 59: New York, Imperial Theater Programs, 1932-1957Add to your cart.
Of Note: Ed Wynn's "Laugh Parade," music by Harry Warren, 1932; George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin's "Let 'Em Eat Cake," 1933;  "Song of Norway," Music by Edvard Grieg adapted by Robert Wright, George Forrest, and Arthur Kay, 1945; Frank Loesser's "The Most Happy Fella," 1957.
Folder 60: New York, Longacre Theatre Programs, 1938-1959Add to your cart.
Of Note: Jean Anouilh's "The Lark" starring Brois Karloff and Christopher Plummer, 1956.
Folder 61: New York, Lyceum Theatre Programs, 1942-1951Add to your cart.
Of Note: John P. Marquand and George S. Kaufman's "The Late George Apley," 1945.
Folder 62: New York, Majestic Theatre Programs, 1930-1959Add to your cart.
Of Note: Otto Harbach and Sigmund Romberg's "Nina Rosa," 1930; Lew Brown and Ray Henderson's "Strike Me Pink," 1933; Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man," 1959.
Folder 63: New York, Martin Beck Theatre Programs, 1943-1957Add to your cart.
Of Note: Tennesse Williams' "The Rose Tattoo," 1951; Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending," 1957.

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