The collection is open and available for use.
Most of the materials for the plays are undated, and are lacking enough information to determine author or source. There may be copyright issues involved in any reproduction of these other than small amounts of photocopying for research purposes.
David Marlowe Collection, PA54, Performing Arts Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.
Gift of Dorothy Klocksien, stepdaughter of Louis Rader, March, 1996
The collection was processed and the finding aid written by Barbara Bezat, May, 2004.
The collection is organized into the following series:
Louis Jenkins Rader was born August 30, 1882 in Jamestown, OH and moved to Minneapolis, MN in his youth. He attended Harvard Drama School and became stage manager and actor in various theater companies, primarily in the Midwest. Rader returned to Minneapolis in about 1925 to care for his ailing father and to take over the family business, Colonial Coffee. Mr. Rader died in Minneapolis in 1971.
He adopted the stage name David Marlowe sometime during or just after he attended the Harvard Drama School. The touring companies in which he acted and for which he was stage manager traveled primarily in the Midwest, visiting such cities as Minneapolis and St. Paul; Sioux City, Iowa; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Winona, Minnesota; Oak Park, Illinois; and Grinnell, Iowa, among others. There are some examples of programs from a well-known local company, the Bainbridge Players, and some programs from productions mounted in such local theatres as the Academy and the Schubert, and the Metropolitan Theatres of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The type and amount of production material varies widely for each play. Some plays have considerable representation by such items as playbills, programs, light plots, costume plots, property plots, music cues and/or music, and scripts. Not all plays have all types of materials associated with them. The bulk of the productions date from 1910 to 1915. They appear to be typically “vaudevillian” in style, with villains and young women and dashing young men in abundance. Some of the titles included in this collection are: “The Convict’s Daughter,” “The Cowboy and the Thief,” “Get- Rich-Quick Wallingford,” “The Maid of America,” “Salomy Jane,” among others. Few of the photographs are identified, making it difficult to know if they are directly connected to the production material. The clippings are rarely identified by source, and consist mainly of reviews or announcements of the productions. There are hundreds of programs that have been clipped apart, presumably by Mr. Marlowe. The materials are in generally fair condition; the plots are fragile and usually typed or handwritten on tissue-thin legal size paper. The programs vary in quality, but many are in good condition.
Items not counted individually (thousands). Materials in the personal papers date from 1865,1889,1923. Performing Arts-related materials date from 1906-1917.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed list of the materials in the collection.
Wall poster/ad for the Marlowe Vaudeville Call Book (framed)
Business cards, brochures, tags, blank call books, etc.,
Plays
Sedley Brown (includes photo); "Frank"
Family documents; includes report card, bank book, insurance policies, misc.
David Marlowe; family
Performers; performances - mostly unidentified
From Warrington Theatre, Oak Park, [IL?]
Includes property plots, light plots and cast lists
From a wide variety of venues, including Academy Stock Company, Shubert Theatre, Bainbridge players, Warrington Theatre, Perry Amusement Company
Miscellaneous theater publications
Programs, memorial books
Includes clippings, programs
Published material