1965-1975.
Price: $15,000.00
A collection of original scripts, correspondence, and production material from the archive of record producer Herb Galewitz. The material includes more than 30 scripts used by voice actors during the recording sessions for various children’s albums, featuring characters like Batman, Superman, Flash Gordon, The Shadow, Green Hornet, Smokey the Bear, as well as stories from the Brothers Grimm, Aesop, and Rudyard Kipling. The largest group of material relates to the recording of the album *You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown*, whose success inspired the award-winning, Off-Broadway production which ran for five years and won two Drama Desk awards.
Herb Galewitz (1928-2017) was a record producer for MGM Records during the early to mid-1960s, specifically its Leo the Lion and Golden Record labels. He oversaw production, voice talent, and scripts, which he edited and on occasion wrote himself. Included are an Autograph Letter Signed from Buster Crabbe, the Olympic medalist who voiced Flash Gordon on the album and was the star of the original movie serial; a script for the second Batman album Signed by veteran voice actor Jackson Beck, who played the Caped Crusader and which has his annotations throughout; a script for *The Magic Fishbone* voiced by five-time Tony Award-winner Julie Harris (along with an Autograph Letter Signed by Angela Lansbury who was considered for the part); and material connected to an unproduced *Dark Shadows* album.
Around 1968 Galewitz struck out on his own as an independent producer, largely due to the success of *You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown* (see below), working with companies such as Liberty Records and Caedmon. While still predominantly focused on children’s albums, he appears to have branched out with an adaptation of *Don Quixote* and as an agent for entertainers, such as the radio comedians Buddy & Ray and early *Sesame Street* regulars Buddy & Jim.
Most notable in his archives is the material related to the musical *You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,* produced as a one-off “original MGM album musical” based on the *Peanuts* comic strip by Charles Schulz. Written by young songwriter Clark Gesner, the album proved an immediate success receiving a Grammy nomination and inspiring an Off-Broadway production which Galewitz owned a share of as the album’s producer. The musical, which ran for more than 1500 performance between 1967-1971, inspired a second “cast” album, won two Drama Desk awards, and later three more for its 1999 revival, which won a Tony Award for actress Kristen Chenoweth.
The Charlie Brown-related files include the letter that first brought Gesner’s “concept” album to Galewitz’s attention: “Tell Mort [MGM President] your views on the matter”; eight photographs of the actors during the recording session, including star Orson Bean; five letters from Gesner discussing plans for the album and his future career; an Autograph Note Signed from Charles Schulz concerning artwork for the album; letters from several of the original cast members; contracts and legal agreements relating to the musical; copies of various playbills, including one proof; 30 financial reports for the show dating from April 1967 to December 1973; and copies of both the original album and the cast recording.
An engrossing and detailed collection of material relating to an overlooked area of recording, the production of children’s albums of the 1960s and 1970s.
Item #423958
