Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1979 - 31

Working Drawings from Three

Hundred Broadway Shows:

A Gift from Jo Mielziner
by Jay O. Glerum
Jo Mielziner was one of the foremost scenic and lighting
designers of the twentieth century. His career as a designer
extended from 1924 to 1974 during which time he designed
some three hundred professional theatrical productions, most
of them for the Broadway stage. He also designed many nontheatrical projects including the San Francisco conference
room for the Charter Members of the United Nations' first
meeting in 1945; and for the 1964 World's Fair in New York,
the American Telephone and Telegraph Exhibit, as well as the
lighting for the Vatican Pavilion display of Michelangelo's
Pieta.
Nine years before his death in 1976, Mielziner arranged to
give two-hundred-thirteen portfolios containing his working
drawings, painting elevations, light plots, preliminary and
rough sketches, costume sketches and notes to the Library
and Museum of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York
City. The material has now been cataloged and all drawings
for a production are grouped together. They are listed under
the production title. All correspondence and notes are cataloged separately. Very early in his career Mielziner developed
the practice of numbering the productions that he designed.
This numbering system helped in sorting the drawings since
drawings for a single production were usually scattered in
several different portfolios.
Mielziner's designs required great care in their execution,
and because of the way Broadway theatre works, great care
was also required in the communicative process from the designer through the draftsmen to the technicians. Many assistants and associates over the years drafted the shows, always
under Mielziner's meticulous supervision. These drawings are
included in the material at Lincoln Center.
A word should be said about two of Mielziner's assistants
who later became associate designers with him. The first is
John Harvey, a draftsman beyond compare, who for many
years was responsible for the careful drafting of Mielziner's
designs and served as a liaison to the studios which built and
painted the sets. And later, Paul Troutvetter, an excellent
draftsman in his own right, was with Mielziner until 1968. Because of their ability to translate the sketches into clear working drawings, Mielziner's sets had the beauty and feeling of
his sketches. It is also because of his able assistants that he
was so productive during his lifetime.
Contained in the collections are hundreds of preliminary
and rough sketches as well as the working drawings. Any
available material was used-some preliminaries are on the
backs of invitations and envelopes. They are often in water
color in 1/8" scale and are quite exquisite. His favorite medium for roughs was colored pencil, usually on sheets of yellow paper such as the three pencil sketches for Gypsy shown
here.
It is possible to trace the development of a design idea from
resource material to the final drawing for many of his shows as
indicated by the accompanying sketches for A Streetcar
Named Desire. Only a few of the many drawings for "Street-

car" are shown here, but, the progression of ideas shown is
typical of the kind of information available for many of the
shows. There are also details about productions, as well as
personal bits of information that give insight and life to the
drawings. Mielziner began numbering his productions with
The Guardsman starring Lunt and Fontanne, done for the
Theatre Guild in 1924. In the papers at Lincoln Center there is
a letter from Philip Moeller, director for the Theatre Guild, to
Lee Simonson, designer for the Theatre Guild, outlining what
Moeller thought he would need for The Guardsman production in the way of sets and props. There are also two rough
sketches of ground plans by Moeller. At that time Mielziner
was working for Simonson who obviously turned the production over to him. There is also a budget note stating:
12 costumes
$1,050.00
sets
2,500.00
props
1,000.00
margin
450.00
Total

$5,000.00

A telegram sent in 1939 to Mielziner in Boston where he
was involved in an out-of-town tryout reads:
Your set has 36 foot opening. Cannot find theatre that size.
Proscenium opening Vanderbilt Theatre thirty feet, Lyceum
Theatre 33, even Biltmore only 35. What the devil are we going to do? Have stopped painters until this is settled.
Carl Fisher

The message refers to the production of Mrs. O'Brien Entertains. The ground plan indicates where a section of the up left
center wall has been erased, and the stage left wall moved in
three feet, so that the play could open at the Lyceum.

Jay Glerum is technical director and designer at Marquette University. Mr. Glerum cataloged the Mielziner papers for the Library and Museum of
Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York, during the Summer of 1978. The project was funded by a grant from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1979