Notizen zu dieser Person
{geni:about_me} Robert A. Wachsman was a producer and casting director for radio and theatre as well as a publicist and columnist. He left Hollywood for Ventura County when his name was linked to Communism during the Army-McCarthy hearings in the early 1950s. He passed away in 1993.
A native of Chicago, Wachsman earned a degree in economics at the Wharton School of Economics and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, and began his career in advertising in New York. After producing radio advertisements with Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin, Wachsman became casting director for George and Ira Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and moved west as the show's production manager. Wachsman became the "Ramblin' Reporter" for the Hollywood Reporter in the 1940s, and opened his own public relations firm, R.A. Wachsman & Co. His clients included Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Bob Cummings, Doris Day, Claudette Colbert, John Garfield and Maureen O'Hara. But he left Hollywood after witnesses before the House Un-American Activities Committee charged that he dined and associated with known Communists--a charge he denied. In Ventura County, Wachsman publicized commercial clients and the Ventura County Forum for the Arts, and established his own newspaper, the Peninsula Harbor News, which later became the Ventura County & Coast Reporter. He wrote a column under his somewhat provocative initials, R.A.W.
Photographs, programs, reviews, clippings and miscellaneous materials, chiefly of the original production of Porgy and Bess which opened in Boston in 1935 and toured for several years in the U.S. Also contains various materials related to John Henry, Boy Meets Girl, Home Town Boy and other productions in which Wachsman was involved. Includes programs and clippings on composer George Gershwin; holograph manuscript of a musical composition by Harold Arlen (Last Night When We Were Young) with signed notation; copies of scores by Harold Arlen (Stormy Weather, Let's Fall in Love excerpt); souvenir program signed by producer Merle Armitage; autographed copy of John Henry blues by composer W.C. Handy; menu signed by Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and others; portrait print of Jerome Kern with signed inscription notes. The photographs (some signed) include portraits, publicity shots, informal group pictures, rehearsal and production scenes. Photo subjects include: composers Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein, W.C. Handy, Jerome Kern and Alexaqnder Steinert; conductor Alexander Smallens; writer DuBose Heyward; director Rouben Mamoulian; performers Anne Brown, Warren Colman, Todd Duncan, Juano Hernandez and Paul Robeson.
Collection number: SPEC.TRI.RAW.
Note: For research use in the library only
Gift of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.
Click to see Guide to the [http://library.osu.edu/find/collections/theatre-research-institute/personal-papers-and-special-collections/robert-a-wachsman-papers/ '''Robert A. Wachsman papers'''].
Jens Aaron
Guttstein
