Borowitz Crime Ephemera: Crime-Related Playbills and Programs, [1875-ongoing]

Finding Aid

Scope and Content

This collection consists of playbills from crime-related plays, musicals, operas, etc., fact-based or otherwise. Material is arranged alphabetically by production title. Additional information is included in brackets.

The material was donated to Kent State University by Albert and Helen Borowitz.

NOTE TO RESEARCHERS: The inventory below is only a partial listing of the items in this collection. Additional materials will be added as they are processed. Check back for updates.

Box 1

Folder -- Contents

1. [Billy the Kid]. The Seasons. Cleveland Orchestra with Barbara Bonney, soprano [program], October, 1998. Bonney is a self-proclaimed relative of the Billy the Kid. See p. 43 for biographical note.
2. [Borden, Lizzie]. Fall River Legend. Morton Gould (music) and Agnes de Mille (ballet). American Ballet Theater, Metropolitan Opera House, June 9, 1990.
3. [Borden, Lizzie]. Lizzie Borden. Opera by Jack Beeson. New York City Opera, March 24, 1999.
4. Chevalière by David Trainer. Cleveland Play House, Brooks Theater, December 23-January 22, 1984. [Based on the Chevalier d'Éon who disguised himself as a woman at Court of St. Petersburg in order to gain access to state secrets.]
5. Corpse! by Gerald Moon. The Apollo, London. Beginning July 26, 1984.
6. Count Dracula. The Cleveland Playhouse. 1974/75 season.
7. Dangerous Corner by J. B. Priestley. Avon Theater, New York. 1932.
8. Dead Man Walking. [playbill]. New York City Opera, September 2002.
9. Dead Man Walking. [libretto], 2001.
10. Desperate Hours. [Barrymore Theatre. Special program with pieces on the author, actors, and others involved in the production. It also includes photographs from the play. The play and novel by the same name by Joseph Hayes, was based on news stories that had appeared throughout the country about people being held captive in their homes by criminals], 1955.
11. [Dreyfus Case]. The Dreyfus Affair. Opera by George Whyte. Music by Jost Meier. New York City Opera, April 17, 1996.
12. [Dreyfus Case]. Dreyfus in Rehearsal. A play by Jean-Claude Grumberg. Shubert Theatre, October 1974.
13. Duke Bluebeard's Castle by Bela Bartok and Bela Balazs. The Cleveland Orchestra, Allen Theatre, Cleveland. April 8 and 10, 1999. [Based on Gilles de Rais, the French serial child killer and alchemist who came to be linked with the fairy tale of Bluebeard.]
14. Equus by Peter Shaffer. National Theatre at the Old Vic, London. [1969?] [Based on a true story about George Edalji who was accused of having blinded horse. His innocence was advocated by Arthur Conan Doyle.]
15. Equus by Peter Shaffer. Plymouth Theatre, New York. January, 1975.
16. [Frank, Leo]. Parade by Alfred Uhry. Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Lincoln Center Theater, New York. November 1998. [Musical about Leo Frank, lynching victim. Also included is a Lincoln Center Theater Review magazine about the production and a New York Times review.]
17. Ghosts of Versailles by John Corigliano. Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, New York. January, 1992. [Includes libretto. Opera is based on the "Diamond Necklace Affair." A key plot device concerns the affair of the diamond necklace of Marie Antoinette, and an attempt made in 1784 to falsely procure a lavishly expensive necklace.]
18. Jekyll & Hyde by Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn. Palace Theatre, Cleveland. March 12-17, 1996. [Drawn from the fact-based novella by Robert Louis Stevenson.]
19. [Leopold and Loeb]. Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story. Book, music and lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff. The York Theatre Company, May 2005. [Autographed by Stephen Dolginoff. Also included are an advertising card and New York Times review.]
20. A Little Racketeer by Harry Clarke. Forty-Fourth Street Theatre. New York. [1932?]
21. Machinal by Sophie Treadwell. New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater, Lu Esther Hall. New York. November, 1990. [Based on the 1927 case in which Ruth Snyder of Long Island was convicted of conspiring with her lover, Judd Gray, in the murder of her husband.]
22. The Man Who Shot Lincoln by Luigi Creatore. Astor Place Theater, New York. September, 1989. [Based on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.]
23. Marinka by Emmerich Kalman. Winter Garden performance, September 16, 1945. [Based on the Mayerling suicides].
24. McTeague by William Bolcom. Lyric Opera of Chicago. Beginning October 31, 1992. [Includes libretto. Lyric opera based on the murder of Sarah Collins, killed by her husband Pat in 1893.]
25. The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 by John Bishop. Longacre Theatre, New York. May, 1987.
26. Mutiny! by Richard Crane and David Essex. Piccadilly Theatre, London. Beginning July 18, 1985. [Based on Mutiny on the Bounty.]
27. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Rupert Holmes. Imperial Theatre, New York. Beginning December 2, 1985. [Based on the novel by Charles Dickens. Characters include crooks.] [Accompanied by miscellaneous newspaper clippings about the musical.]
28. [Ness, Eliot]. Eliot Ness ... In Cleveland by Peter Ullian, Robert Lindsey Nassif, and Nick Corley.Denver Theatre Company, State Theatre, Denver. January 15 - March 8, 1998. [Includes ticket stubs. Based on Ness, Cleveland Safety Director and Ness's involvement in the Kingsbury Run murder investigation.]
29. [Ness, Eliot]. "Nightlife and Ness: A Glamorous Gala Evening...[with] Mr. Walter Winchell..." Cleveland Play House, October 14, 2000. [Oversized flyer.]
30. The New Yorkers by Herbert Fields and Cole Porter. B. S. Moss' Broadway Theatre. New York. 1931. [Cast of characters includes criminals.]
31. Racine, Britannicus. Paris, 1999. [Nero as murderer]
32. [Rattenbury-Stoner murder case]. Cause Célèbre by Terence Rattigan. Her Majesty’s Theater, September 1977.
33. [Rattenbury-Stoner murder case]. Alma and Mrs. Woolf by Anne Legault. Blue Heron Theater, New York. March 2003 [also includes advertising cards].
34. The Right Honourable Gentleman by M. Bradley-Dyne. Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Beginning May 28, 1964. [Based on sex scandal involving Sir Charles Dilke, who had an affair with his maid and a colleague's wife in 1885.]
35. [Sherlock Holmes]. Ticket of Leaveman. "Programme, Wednesday Evening, Aug. 4," [1875]. [This play includes an appearance of the character of Hawkshaw the detective, a precursor to Sherlock Holmes.] [Also included on the program are Hidden Hand or, the Mysteries of the Lone House, August 5, and "Sheridan & Mack in their new act..."]
36. Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of Four by Dennis Rosa. The Cleveland Play House, Cleveland. December 4, 1983 - January 17, 1982. [Based on the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.]
37. Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare. Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont. New York. November, 1990. [Based on David Hampton's imposture as son of Sidney Poitier.]
38. Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Uris Theater, June, 1980.
39. Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: A Musical Thriller. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. [Promotional booklet for the Broadway production featuring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou; directed by Harold Prince.], [1979?]
40. [Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit]. Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre of Varieties. New York. 1910. [Program is for Hammerstein's Roof Garden, La Jardin des Fleurs, variety show and includes Evelyn Nesbit Thaw's first post-trial appearance on a New York City stage. Her act was a performance of "original dances" with Mr. Jack Clifford. See page 29 of program.]
41. [Thaw, Harry Kendall and Evelyn Nesbit Thaw]. My Sweatheart's the Man in the Moon, by Don Nigro. The Hypothetical Theatre Company, New York, [200?].
42. [Thaw, Harry Kendall and Evelyn Nesbit Thaw]. Ragtime: A Musical. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, 1998. [playbill and souvenir program].
43. Waterloo by Arthur Conan Doyle. Shaw Festival, Lunchtime Theatre, 1998. Also included in booklet is playbill for Passion, Poison and Petrifaction or, The Fatal Gazogene by George Bernard Shaw.