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- search term:mary lou williams
Your search found 4 result(s).
-
Mary Lou Williams, 1977
- Photograph by
- Spitzer, David D., American
- Subject of
- Williams, Mary Lou, American, 1910 - 1981
- Date
- 1977
- Medium
- silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
- Dimensions
- H x W (Image): 13 3/4 x 9 3/16 in. (34.9 x 23.4 cm)
- H x W (Sheet): 13 7/8 x 10 11/16 in. (35.3 x 27.2 cm)
- H x W (Matted): 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
- Description
- A black-and-white photograph of jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams performing in New York City. Williams is photographed from the right as she sits at her piano. An out of focus mic stand is in the foreground. Williams wears a light colored sleeveless dress with a brooch pinned on it. Her eyes are closed as she plays.
- Place captured
- New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Media Arts-Photography
- Type
- gelatin silver prints
- portraits
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of David D. Spitzer
- Object number
- 2012.164.179
- Restrictions & Rights
- © David D. Spitzer
-
CC0
Photograph of Mary Lou Williams playing piano with Andy Kirk and his orchestra
- Photograph by
- Gordon Conner Studio, American
- Subject of
- Williams, Mary Lou, American, 1910 - 1981
- Kirk, Andy, American, 1898 - 1992
- Kirk, Andy's Twelve Clouds of Joy, American, 1929 - 1948
- Glaser, Joe, American, 1896 - 1969
- Date
- 1930s; autographed 1980
- Medium
- silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
- Dimensions
- H x W: 8 1/8 × 10 in. (20.6 × 25.4 cm)
- Description
- A black-and-white photograph, landscape orientation, of Mary Lou Williams playing the piano with Andy Kirk and his Orchestra. Mary Lou is at the piano on the left side of the image, with the conductor behind her to the left, with the remaining orchestra are on levels going up towards the right, with the drums on the far right. Printed in white in bottom left corner of image, appears like handwritting, reads [Gordon/Conner/CLEVELAND]. Handwritten note in blue ink in bottom right corner of image, reads [To Serbert/Really fantastic/Yours Love/Mary Lou Williams/1980]. Captioned below the image, on white border with black type, reads [ANDY KIRT/And His Orchestra] on the left, and [Direction/JOE GLASER/R.C.A. Building 30 Rockefeller Plaza/New York, N.Y.] on the right. Nothing on reverse.
- Place captured
- Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Media Arts-Photography
- Type
- gelatin silver prints
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Paxton and Rachel Baker
- Object number
- 2014.3.10
- Restrictions & Rights
- Public domain
-
Boy! What A Girl
- Directed by
- Leonard, Arthur H., 1904 - 1956
- Composed by
- Bishop McCollough, Walter, American, 1915 - 1991
- Williams, Mary Lou, American, 1910 - 1981
- Date
- 1947
- Medium
- acetate film
- Dimensions
- Duration: 73 Minutes
- Length (Film Reel 1): 1200 Feet
- Length (Film Reel 2): 1200 Feet
- Title
- 16mm motion picture film of Boy! What A Girl
- Caption
- Two musical producers struggle to get enough investors to finance their latest show. One potential backer agrees to invest on one condition: the two producers must find an additional investor to co-finance their show. The producers convince an associate to impersonate a 'Madame' to pose as the other female investor. Everything goes as planned, until the real Madame shows up.
- Description
- 2015.167.1.1ab: 16mm black and white films.
- Jim Walton (Elwood Smith) and his partner, Harry Diggs (Duke Williams), as two aspiring producers who try to convince a Chicago businessman to back their musical show.
- In a Harlem apartment building, Jim Walton listens to Slam Stewart and his band, which he plans to feature in his new show along with female impersonator Bumpsie. Jim is in love with Cristola Cummings, whose wealthy father, believing that Jim is a successful producer, has promised to put up half the money for the new show if Parisian Madame Deborah will supply the rest of the funds. Cummings arrives unexpectedly from Chicago with Cristola and her sister Francine, hoping to meet Madame Deborah. Attempting to maintain a pretense of wealth, Jim and his partner, Harry Diggs, ask one of their actors to impersonate a butler. Their ruse is almost exposed when their landlord, Mr. Donaldson, demands that they pay their back rent, but Jim manages to convince Cummings that Donaldson is an actor in a play called "I Want My Room Rent." Learning that Madame Deborah will not arrive for a few days, Harry persuades Bumpsie to impersonate her by promising to star him in the new show. Later, when she is alone with Jim, Cristola scolds him for not writing, but embraces him when he honestly admits he does not have the Long Island mansion he claimed. While Francine gets to know Harry, Cummings converses with Bumpsie. Cummings, who is attracted to Bumpsie, hints that he would like to marry again for the sake of his daughters. Meanwhile, the real Madame Deborah arrives and introduces herself as "Mrs. Martin." Seeing that she is wealthy, Donaldson is pleased to rent a room to her. From Gaston, who has followed her from Paris, Donaldson learns that Madame Deborah has "oodles of money" and suddenly takes an interest in Bumpsie, who he thinks is Madame Deborah. Donaldson then plans a garden party in Madame Deborah's honor and offers his actor residents free rent for a week, plus ten dollars, for providing the entertainment. When Cummings learns that his daughters want to marry Jim and Harry, he objects at first, but later agrees to give his consent if Madame Deborah approves, as he will announce his engagement to her that night. Coincidentally, both Gaston and Donaldson also intend to announce their engagements to Madame Deborah that night. During the garden party, Bumpsie invites his two suitors to a rent party for Jim and Harry, explaining it is a rehearsal of a show titled "The Rent Party." When Bumpsie dances in a scanty ballet costume, Cummings, thinking that "Madame Deborah" is exposing herself to other men, jealously stalks out. Escaping from pranksters, Bumpsie encounters the real Madame Deborah, who hides him in her room, where he falls asleep. Outraged because he thinks that the whole building is being lured by Bumpsie's charms, Cummings decides to return to Chicago with his daughters. When Cristola confesses that she knows Jim is broke, but admires the way he has kept up his courage, the real Madame Deborah vows to intercede with Cummings. Although he has sworn to avoid women, Cummings is immediately attracted by Madame Deborah's flirtations. Meanwhile, two French thugs kidnap Bumpsie after they, too, mistake him for Madame Deborah. When Gaston removes the cover over Bumpsie's head, in preparation for a kiss, he recoils in horror. Bumpsie challenges him to a fight and then, still dressed in a ballet costume, runs away. When a dropped handkerchief is found in Madame Deborah's room, Cummings and Donaldson think she has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, the rent party erupts in a fight. Gaston threatens Madame Deborah and Cummings, and Jim punches him. Later Bumpsie reappears without his disguise, and Madame Deborah reveals her true identity. Cummings and Madame Deborah decide to marry, and all ends happily when they agree to back Jim's show.
- Source: AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Accessed on August 9, 2016 (http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=25096)
- Place depicted
- New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
- Place filmed
- New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
- Collection title
- Nieman Film Collection
- Classification
- Media Arts-Film and Video
- Type
- motion pictures (information artifacts)
- Topic
- Comedy
- Jazz (Music)
- Race films
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Randall and Sam Nieman
- Object number
- 2015.167.1.1ab
- Restrictions & Rights
- Unknown - Restrictions Possible
-
Jack Mitchell Photography of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Collection
- smithsonian online virtual archive
- Record
- Creator
- Ailey, Alvin
- Mitchell, Jack, 1925-
- name
- Wood, Donna, 1954-
- DeLoatch, Gary, 1953-1993
- Jamison, Judith
- Allen, Sarita
- Chaya, Masazumi
- Truitte, James
- DeLavallade, Carmen , 1931-
- Williams, Dudley
- Tyson, Andre
- Roxas, Elizabeth
- inclusive dates
- 1961-2004
- Physical description
- 16 Linear feet
- Abstract
- Jack Mitchell (1925- 2013) was an acclaimed photographer who began chronicling the work of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1961. Alvin Ailey (1931- 1989), one of the most influential African American choreographers of modern dance, dedicated himself and his dance company to creating ballets that not only accelerated the careers of young African American dancers, but also stole the attention of national and international audiences in displaying the racial perspective of dance in the African American experience. This collection serves as Mitchell's documentation of the dance company's evolution while capturing the true idiosyncrasies and physicality of movement through still images. Through Alvin Ailey and Jack Mitchell's partnership, they were able to collaborate and produce a unique production of art, fusing the meaning and movements of dance and the techniques of photography.
- Preferred Citation
- Photography by Jack Mitchell © Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution, All rights reserved.
- Conditions Governing Access
- Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
- Scope and Contents
- The Jack Mitchell Photography of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Collection is comprised of approximately 10,000 black and white prints of solo and ensemble acts, portraits of principle dancers and various associates of the company, color slides and transparencies for private photo sessions and performances, black and white film strips and their corresponding contact sheets, and reference materials.
- Biographical / Historical
- Jack Mitchell was born on September 13, 1925 in Key West, Florida. Although he was not in the field of photography, Mitchell's father bought him his first camera when Jack was a teenager. His first published photograph was of actress, Veronica Lake, for a War Bond Tour, a tour issued by the government that promoted debt securities to soldiers to finance military operations and expenditures He enlisted in the United States army and became a photographer in Italy at the end of World War II. In 1949, Ted Shawn, a dancer and choreographer who is respected among the dance community as a pioneer of American modern dance, invited Mitchell to Massachusetts photograph his dancers at his dance center, Jacobs's Pillow. It was during this time where Mitchell's interest and appreciation for moving bodies was realized. In the lifespan of his career, Mitchell created over 150 covers for Dance Magazine1, the New York Times, Time, Life, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Vogue.2
- As Jack Mitchell started to photograph the poses and ballets of the American Ballet Theater throughout the late 1950s, Alvin Ailey saw some of Mitchell's photographs. By 1961, Mitchell had established himself as a distinguished photographer of dance, coining the term, "moving stills". His photographs became the benchmark and standard that other dance photographers measured their work. In November 1961, Ailey invited Mitchell to a performance space in Clark Center, NY, and with his dancers, they performed for Mitchell's camera; some of the photographs from that first photo session can be found in this collection.
- Alvin Ailey was born on January 5, 1931 in in Rodgers, Texas, during the Great Depression. As his repertory reflected, the beginning of his life was defined by a tight-knit, predominantly African American folk culture. At age 12, Ailey and his mother, Lula Cooper, moved Los Angeles, California. It is here that he was exposed to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which led him to study under the Lester Horton Dance Theater, where he danced with Carmen DeLavallade, James Truitte, and Joyce Trisler. After 3 years of performing and training, he was positioned as a choreographer and later became the director of the company when Lester Horton suddenly died in 1953. His influence from Lester Horton, Martha Graham, and Katherine Dunham help to establish his philosophy that "Everything in dancing is style, allusion, the essence of many thoughts and feelings, the abstraction of many moments. Each movement is the sum total of moments and experiences".3 After Horton's death, Ailey went to perform at Ted Shawn's Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and then on to New York with his longtime schoolmate and fellow dancer, Carmen DeLavallade, to perform in the 1954 Broadway production of "House of Flowers". The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Company was established in 1958.
- From the beginning of his journey as a dancer and choreographer, Ailey wanted to show African American experience in his performances. He embedded folk culture in his early works "Revelations" and "Blue Suites". In reflection, before his first South Asian Tour, Alvin expressed, "The cultural heritage of the American Negro is one of America's richest treasures. From his roots as a slave, the American Negro- sometimes sorrowing, sometimes jubilant but always hopeful -has touched, illuminated, and influenced the most preserved of world civilization. I and my dance theater celebrate this trembling beauty."4 "Revelations" was well- received by national and international audiences, Ailey recognized by the dance community as a choreographer with promise and his company and ballets he created were highly anticipated. By 1965, Ailey went from being a dancer to being the company's choreographer. From the onset, Ailey embraced diversity and invited interracial and interdisciplinary perspectives at of the company. He also created ballets for other notable companies including the American Ballet Theatre, Royal Danish Ballet, London Festival Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and LaScala Opera Ballet.5 He was invited to choreograph Samuel Barber's Anthony and Cleopatra for the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center in 19666, and Leonard Bernstein's Mass for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971.7
- As the company embraced racial diversity, Ailey never lost his sense of obligation to the African American community. In 1969, he established the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, which became the Ailey School, formed the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, and pioneered programs promoting arts in education, particularly those that benefitted deprived communities. Among his numerous distinctions were the Dance Magazine Award (1975), the NAACP Spingarn Medal (1976), given for "the highest and noblest achievement by an American Negro during the previous year or years"8 , the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award (1987), the most prestigious award for modern dance for a lifetime contribution to the field, the Kennedy Center Award (1988) and Honorary Doctorates from Princeton University (1972)9 , Bard College (1977)10 , and Adelphi University (1977). President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Ailey the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, the country's highest civilian honor, in recognition of his contributions and commitments to civil rights and dance in America.11
- Through Jack Mitchell and Alvin Ailey's work, they were able to collaborate and create something "rich in historical connotations, the liveliest kind of permanent record of the works of important creators and creations that formed the nucleus of Ailey's remarkable vision of American dance and what it could be"12. Alvin Ailey's reputation for creating eclectic dance methods produced movements and poses that are still studied and idolized today. Mitchell was able to pay homage to many of the world's best dance artists from James Truitte, Carmen DeLavallade, Dudley Williams, Donna Wood, Renee Robinson, Gary DeLoatch, as well as Ailey, through his photography. With Ailey's longstanding and established stature within the dance community, and Mitchell's pronouncement of the detailed through his use of lighting in his photographs, this collection highlights the incredible collaboration between Ailey and Mitchell, and serves as a unique document of one of the world's most renowned American dance company's.
- Alvin Ailey's vision for a dance company was dedicated to enriching the American modern dance heritage and preserving African American culture. In a 1989 interview with Dance Magazine, shortly before his death, Ailey discussed how he took pride in knowing that "No other company around [today] does what we do, requires the same range, and challenges both the dancers and the audience to the same degree." Ailey searched for a collaborator that would help him display the value of communicative movement; he found his match in Mitchell. Ailey's influence went beyond the stage and Jack Mitchell's images in this collection document that evolution. With Alvin Ailey's passing in 1989 at age 58 and Jack Mitchell's death in 2013 at age 88, these photographs of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Collection serves as one of the few sources of this dynamic dance company, from its early days to an internationally recognized troupe.
- Footnotes: Footnotes, Jack Mitchell. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Jack Mitchell Photographs. (Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1993), viii, Bruce Weber, "Jack Mitchell, Photographer of the Arts, Dies at 88", The New York Times Obituaries (November 9, 2013):http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/arts/jack-mitchell-photographer-of-the-arts-dies-at-88.html, Jennifer Dunning, Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance. (New York; Addison- Wesley, 1996), 123, Ibid, 146., Alvin Ailey, Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey. (New York: Birch Lane, 1995), 6-7., Alvin Ailey, Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey. (New York; Birch Lane, 1995), 7., Ibid., Ibid., Dunning, Jennifer. Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance. (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1996), 286., "Bard College Catalogue 2016-17: Honorary Degrees": https://www.bard.edu/catalogue/index.php?aid=1205177%26sid=670501, Office of the Press Secretary, "President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom" (November 10, 2014): https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/10/president-obama-names-recipients-presidential-medal-freedom, Jack Mitchell. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Jack Mitchell Photographs. (Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1993), ix.
- object type
- Archival materials
- topic
- Dancers -- Photographs
- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
- Choreography -- United States
- Dance
- Dance schools -- United States
- Dance -- Production and direction
- Dance companies
- Dance -- North America